Partying at the Crib with 30 People Every Night, Until A Truck Accident Sends Him Into a Coma - Matthew Anderson's Story Part 1

Matthew bounced around a lot as a kid with his dad being in the Navy, but after settling in Columbus things started getting crazy his senior year of high school when he began running a teenage night club full time and selling drugs part time.

Transcript

Phil Shuler: 0:00

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

1:12

Hello and welcome to the podcast for Safe House Ministries Today I have someone that I just met, uh, about a week ago, Matthew Anderson. he is, uh, here at Safe House Ministries. He's come through the program and he has an incredible story to tell. And Matthew, thanks for being here this morning. Well, thank you again for the invite. So Matthew, let's kick it off with our usual question. Okay. If there was one word that might best describe you, what do you think that word would be? Probably hopeful. Hopeful? Absolutely. That's a good word. And what makes you say that? Um, you know, I've, uh, I've had a lot of adversity in my life where, uh, I was told I wasn't gonna be able to do things, couldn't do things. Um, and, uh, I've always got through'em. By the grace of God, of course. Awesome. That's good. That's a good word. Hopeful. That makes me think of the Lord and just our hope in him. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, I tell you what, Matthew kick us off from the beginning. Where were you born? Newport, Rhode Island. Newport, Rhode Island. That's a great place to be born. Did you grow up there or no? Uh, both my parents were Navy. Um, so we went from Newport to Charlesville, South Carolina, Decatur, Decatur, Illinois, Madison, Wisconsin, uh, back to North Jersey, south Jersey. End up in Columbus, Georgia. Okay. So your childhood was kind of all over the place. All over the place in different places. All, all right. So what was that like? What was growing up with two parents in the Navy, like hard to make friends? I'd say. You know, you were always moving around and as soon as you make friends, you gotta get, get up and move again. Yeah. So, uh, that, that was probably the hardest thing. Yeah. Were your parents, uh, was one of them gone almost all the time? Like did taking turns like out on tours or sometimes were there times when both of them were gone? No, but I, I think by the time I was born, um, my mother had been out of the Navy. Um, and my dad was still until I was probably 12, 13. And he was gone all the time. Just about, yeah. Out on deployments. That's right. Wow. Okay. So, so you were mostly raised until you were about 12, just by your mom.'cause your dad was just gone All the, for the most part. Okay. So what was, what was growing up? Like? I got six sisters, um, six sisters, two brothers. Absolutely. Wow. So a huge family. Wait, so that's nine. That's right. Oh, you got that was more than, I've only got seven kids. So your parents. did better than me. We only, we, we really only grew up with eight, but about, what is it, 12 years ago, maybe 13 years ago, my parents adopted one of my friends at 40 years old. Wow. Um, just to be grandparents to her kids. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Awesome. So now I got six sisters. That's awesome. So where do you fall in the mix? Older, younger? I'm, I am right in the middle. Right in the middle. Right in the middle. How'd you like being in the middle? I don't think it really made too much of a difference on me. Uh, I was always starred for attention. Yeah. Okay. So tell me about home life. What was that like? I mean, it was, uh, we grew up Catholic. Okay. Um, so it was church every Sunday. Just if my parents were pretty strict growing up, um, as to where we could be, what we could do, it was, we had normal life. Yeah. Um, I don't think we, we ever, ever really wanted for nothing. I played sports all the time. It was always taken care of. it was life. So growing up Catholic. Yes sir. were you, as you were growing up, pretty serious about that faith? Or were you just like, ah, you just kind of got drug to church and you didn't really like it? What a great question. So probably around 90 years old is when you get to become an altar boy at church and serve with the priest. I followed one priest in particular, father Carmel, and thought I had my calling to become a priest. And really, I used to go to every mass and serve at every mass, not'cause I had to, because I wanted to. Wow. Um, so I really, uh, I've, I, I, that's what I wanted to do until I discovered women. Wow. Okay. So you were on a pretty good path until about how old were you when you started to kind of take a wrong turn? Probably when my moved here. Probably 11 or 12 years old. All right. So what started happening? Rebelling, um, wanted,'em, wanted to break away. Um, yeah, I just, I, I did people, you know, people change you trying, trying to make friends, like I said, as, as a kid moving around so much and, um, not having enough friends all the time that stuck around. It was hard when I moved here. By the time I moved, moved here, people already had the cliques for you. In sixth grade, people already knew who their friends were. So for me to fit in me a, a boy from really, from Jersey at this point, with a, with a Yankee accent, trying to fit in with his, these southerners it wasn't, it wasn't easy. So I had to, I kind of forced my way in it and probably be someone who I wasn't really, wasn't, um, just to get friends. Wow. Okay. And did you start making friends with people that maybe were already on a bad path themselves? Well, I'm not, I don't think I did necessarily, uh, right, right away. Um, in fact, I gotta be friends with some pretty good people. Um, my best friend's dad is the one who ma growing up, my parents, even being the military didn't force us to say, yes ma'am. No, no ma'am. Yes sir. No sir. In fact my friends, was friends with before I moved here, their parents would call my, my fa my folks and say, they're not saying yes sir. No sir. And they'd say, well, we're they're not our privates. We're not gonna make'em do that. Um, they're not in the military. Um, so they never did that. That's the southern thing that that wasn't a northern thing. 100%. Um, but, but even, even still in the north on the, on the, on the military basis, they, they wanted you to do that. Yeah, but my parents just weren't down with that. But my best friend's dad, he really hammered that into us. Uh, you know, then, um, that's one thing that's really got got me by in the South is knowing that that's what I'm supposed to do. That's huge. Just kind of fitting into the culture of the south. Absolutely. Yeah. So I think, uh, probably when things started going wrong, um, it was probably more, I moved outta my parents' house my senior year in high school. Um, okay, so you did pretty good. You didn't get into much trouble in your high school years? No. I mean, my mother, my mother, uh. Had her issues with me. She took me for a tour of YDC one time, and, uh, I guess she thought I was gonna end up on the wrong path. Wow. Um, so now what, what were you doing that made her feel that way? I can't really, I can't really tell you'cause I thought I was a pretty good kid for the most part. Um, I was mischievous, but it is, uh, I didn't get in too much of a trouble. Yeah. Maybe just, maybe just talking back to them and just, uh, yeah. Not respecting my parents as a whole. Did you get a lot of suspensions in school or never? Never. I got in some suspension once. Um, I remember that was it. Okay. All right. So your senior year things. Really started to go the way. Um, I was, I ran the Backdoor Club right here in Columbus, Georgia at, at the Hollywood Connections. As a senior. Yes, I was. What is the Backdoor Club? It was, it was a teen club at the Hollywood Connections. It was actually my idea. The president of Carmac Cinemas, Mike Patrick came to me, saw I was a hard worker, said we're taking the, uh, the laser tag out and send out Salt Lake City at the other Hollywood connections and said, we need a venue to go in here, so give me an idea. So I came up with an idea for a teen club, and it was actually pretty successful. And he said, well, we're gonna put you in charge of it. So I moved outta my folks' house struggling just to pay bills. I'm new at this. And so I started using drugs, selling drugs, just to, as a So you, did you drop outta school or did you? No, absolutely not. So you were a senior in high school? Yes. And you moved out? Yes. You started running the backdoor club? Yes, sir. And you started doing selling drugs to make extra money. That's it. Were you using them before you sold'em or you started selling'em first? Of course, of course. I started using them to, and that's how I became knowledgeable about'em. Um, and yeah, I smoked pot I think once, maybe twice in high school, but it's, uh, I was always scared my parents will find out, so, uh, I really didn't try to go down that avenue too much. So now I'm not in my parents' house no more. Now I experiment. Wow. Okay. So you, did you already know a lot of people in high school that were doing drugs or did you, once you moved out, is that when you got connected with a lot of those folks? I mean, I knew people. They, not really at my school, you know, at the local, uh, pool halls and stuff, they, they were used. But like I said, I was, I was just too scared. Uh, being, being in my parents' house, I didn't know what they would do. So I guess I more started associating with these people that were not as savory as I don't have my parents thumb on me. Watch me all the time. Okay. Yeah. So what did things look, uh, look like as you were getting into that world and, and selling drugs? And did it, did things just get bad really fast or was it kind of a gradual progression? Yeah, I, I, I jumped into the full force and I, I was, I was, uh, I was giving drugs to all my friends. I'd have the same 30 people at my house every night partying, uh, and, uh, wow. 30 people every night, every night, same people. And, uh, to come to find out now, they, they weren't really my friends, they were just around me because of what I had. Yeah. But, uh, essentially I bought my friends, you know, at this point. Which is what, I guess I've, what, what? I just wanted people around, um, just living the party life. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So keep explaining a little bit about what that, that looks like. It's, uh, it was dark. I, I got tired of doing it. Um, I got really tired of doing that after so many months. It didn't last, even last that long. So many months went by and I was tired of doing it. I was just tired of spending the money, tired of having to work for the money, selling drugs for the money. It got exhausted. And I remember I'd pray to God every night, get me outta the situation, get me outta the situation. And, um, he did. How many years of a time period were you in that it it was months. It was, it wasn't years. It was maybe six months. So, okay, so after six months you were just, you didn't want that anymore? No, absolutely not. Were you fearful for your life at any point of other people? No. Um, of, uh. I don't think I was fearful of my life at all. I just like, what about getting caught by the cops or, I, I think my, my biggest factor was, uh, losing my job probably.'cause without my, my, without my regular job, I would've lost a lot of respect by my boss, number one, who I really looked up to, um, the people that I worked with also. Um, you know, just losing that respect and not having that income itself. That's what, that was my main income, whether I was selling drugs or not. That's what, that was legal and I knew it was okay. Yeah. So, um, yeah. So was it the drug use that led you to lose that job? It was this car accident that caused me to cause me to lose that actually in then. Okay. So after six months or so, or several months, what happened when you, you're wanting to get out? What happened? Like I said, I was praying to God, I was praying. Um, I actually borrowed the petty cash money at, at the club, um, in order to. In order to start my drug sales. So I was praying to God borrowed or stole, like, well, well it was, it was always intended to be paid back. Um, and it, one night it did get paid back. This night I paid it back. I got in a car accident. Um Wow. Put me in a coma for three months. Wow. Um, yeah, just out. Were you out with, were you high at the time or It was, uh, it was a Saturday night. We, we left the club. I closed the club down. Um, went to a Mardi Gras party downtown at the Bradley Theater. Um, after, after afterwards I wasn't even old enough to get in. But so we went out there. I'm not a drinker, so we were, we were using the ecstasy. But we, we left the Mardi Car party after that. Went to another friend's house's party till about five o'clock in the morning. At five o'clock in the morning, I went home, I went to bed. I knew I had things to do the next day. And I get a call from my brother-in-law about seven and he asked me if I could come back and pick him and his friend up to take them home.'cause he knew I wasn't drunk. So I said, yeah. I went back to pick him up and took them home, dropped my brother-in-law. I didn't even know his friend at all. Then just met him that night and he said, can you take him home? I said, okay. Didn't know where he lived, but so when I dropped my brother-in-law off, he asked, borrow my phone, he said, can I borrow your phone to call my wife to get in the house? Absolutely. So he use my phone, gets in the house, I take his friend out to Au County, which is about 30 minutes away. I just bought this truck and I was driving about 12, 13 hours earlier. You bought the truck like the day before? Yeah, hours earlier. Oh wow. Like half a day before. Wow. Um, and. Take him home. On the way home. I put the car on cruise control, come back from about elder area, go off the cliff, right back, right past Salor Road Bridge. Um, they got guardrails up there now because of me. So I, wow. I'm asleep, I'm asleep. My buddy, my buddy's with me, um, he's asleep and we go off the cliff. I woke up when I heard the, heard the road where, where it was vibrating on the road, hitting the side of the road. And uh, I screamed to my buddy wake up and we crashed into a tree. So when we crashed, I look over at my buddy and he's got blood coming outta his nose and his mouth. Um, just like seeing the movies, I kind of knew he was dead, but at the same time, um, I knew I had to get help. I'm an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts America too. Um, so I'm kind of trained for most emergency situations. Yeah. This one's a little above and beyond what you're trained for. But I looked over my shoulder and my hips were moved. I tried to move my hips and they wouldn't move. They're, they're just shattered. Oh. Um, so I see I went off a cliff and I gotta get up to this hill if I'm gonna get my buddy help and get my, myself help. If my cell phone up calling nine one one. I didn't have my cell phone. My brother took it. My brother-in-law took it in the house with him and he Oh, so and you left without getting it back? That's right. Oh. Now good news is I had extra cell phone in my console. I always hard heard that you call nine one one from a cell phone that doesn't have service. Yeah. At this point I don't know it to be true. Um, so I take the cell phone out and I look at it. And I, I said, okay, I gotta get it cut on. I cut the phone on back. Then these cell phones took a couple minutes to cut on. Um, so I cut it on, get it loaded, and I'm starting to try to make plans. So I grabbed the door handle to open the door and the door wouldn't open. It was jam shut. It was just jam shut. So I'm like, man, well, were you pretty calm or were you, were you freaking out a little bit? I was, I was. I, I mean, of course I'm freaking out. Um, because I don't know if the cell phone gonna call. I don't know if I'm be able to get out a truck. But at the same time, I was still very calm. Um, I think still level levelheaded enough to be able to keep making good decisions. I knew I had to, I knew, I knew I didn't have the choice. Like I said, you, you, you don't, you can't prepare for situations like this. But I knew that something had to get done. Yeah. So I did. I was, I was calm, probably more calm than most people would've been.'Cause I knew I had to move slowly and methodically, you know, order to get out of it. Yeah. Um, so I go up and grab the door handle again. It done open, so I tried to throw my shoulder in the door to bust it open. Well, when I did that, my hips just shot through with pain. I could feel it just so painful. And again, it didn't open. So I look at the cell phone, it's still loading up. I grabbed the door handle again this time I grabbed it and I, it, I barely even pulled on it and it falls over. Yeah. Wow. Just falls over. Um, so I look at my cell phone and I know it's a cell phone done. Call nine one one. I don't know what it's gonna do. Um, I gotta cross at the top of this hill with my legs not working. So I throw the cell phone out the car as far as I can. Sounds stupid. I know, but now I know I gotta get the cell phone. This, this, this encouraged me because I'm gonna have to monkey crawl up to the top of this hill if need be. So I rock back and forth a couple times. I throw myself under the ground, um, and I crawl over the phone as, by the time I'm getting this phone, it's just now B boo boo cutting on. And so I called 9 1 1. 9 1 1 answers. It works. Thank God. Um, the lady says, what can I do for you? I got, I said I got a medical emergency. I need, uh, medical on the scene. One person, one, one car, car wreck off of Manchester Espresso way somewhere. I don't know where I'm at. Coming back from elderly area. And she said, okay, we got emergency on the way out there. So I waited and this felt like no time. It had to be more time passed and it felt like 30 seconds and they were there. Wow. Um, but they weren't actually there'cause we're off a cliff. They can't see us. So I, I hear'em scream by man, y'all just passed me. Y'all like, like what's going well? What's going on? Like, I need y'all to turn around. She said, okay, we're gonna turn around in the median and we'll come back, get you. So they turned around and get back on the side of the road that I'm on and they screamed past me again. Oh man. Um, so I said, look, next time y'all get caught. So there must have been a bunch of foliage or something of, of course we, we were 150, 50 feet back down back in the woods. Wow. Um, it's just, it, it would've been impossible if, uh, God wasn't there and if circumstances didn't help. So they come back again and I said, this time when y'all come back, I'm tell you y'all wanna hear the siren getting closer. I'm tell y'all wanna stop. Um, she said, okay. I said, now when you get here, you get down to my truck first and get my buddy out.'cause he's in, he needs to help. I'll be fine getting me when, whenever. Um, so very shortly afterwards. You know, I tell her when, when they get close, you're close. And she said, okay, we see you, we, we getting something down to you. Wow. Um, I hear these footsteps coming down the hill. Boom, boom, boom. I said, damnit, I told y'all to get to the truck first. Um, they said, well, we got somewhere with, with your buddy. We're gonna get you outta here. So some people went with him and some people came check on you. That's right. That's right. We got you Mr. Anderson. We're get you outta here. Let's get you load on Gurney and get you outta here. I don't remember much after that. I kind of passed out and they didn't give me the ambulance. Get him in the ambulance. Oh. I do remember making a joke about the airbags on the ambulance. Um, air airbags in the ambulance. I made a joke about it. Oh, okay. I, I said something about how it's gonna hurt when we're going down the road'cause of,'cause of my hips. And they said, they, they said No, we got an air ride suspension. I made some joke about it, um, because I had, I had air ride suspension on a truck that I had just purchased. Yeah. Um, and then I passed out. Now when I passed out, so you don't know anything about what's going on with your friend at this point? No. Okay. But I wake up in this place that's not worldly. Um, not, not worldly. Not worldly. It's not heaven, it's not hell. It's about 50 yards by 50 yards. I got a wall on the right side that goes all the way down this thing. Um, and then I got a little room up on the left, left side, halfway up and I got these entities behind my back. I've never seen them, never looked at'em, wasn't paying attention, but I know now they were probably my guardian angels. But when we think of angels, we think of them having these two big wings, making these long strokes, whatever these were, were moving fast. I could sense it like dragonflies just back and forth and forth, like moving fast. Like I said, I never seen'em, never saw'em, never paid attention. And I'm just looking ahead at what's going on and one of'em steps over my right shoulder and she's telling me, go up in this room and wash up. And for some reason I asked for a toothbrush. I said, well, I need a toothbrush. Why? I don't know if I can't tell you, but she says, no, go up in this room. I need to go up here and wash up. I said, again, well, well, okay, but I need a toothbrush. She doesn't understand it. Apparently, she'd never been asked this question. And, uh, because I, I could just sense that she's like, no, just, I, like, I just need to go up here and wash it out. So the third time I go up there and I go in the room, and first of all, everything's made outta clouds. The wall, the floor, the bathroom, it's not even bathroom, it's just room. It's got a sink in it with a faucet, all made outta clouds. And it's got this real crystalline water coming out. Um, so I go in there and I take the water and my, I cut my hands. I wash basically just my shoulders of my hands, basically just on both sides. Wash my shoulders of my hands and my arms. Um, at this time she's handed a toothbrush into me. So I take the toothbrush, I run under the water. I brush my teeth real quick. No tooth base, just the water. I get done and she says, now you need to go to the walk down this hall hallway at the end of this wall. Over here on the right it doesn't quite go to the end. You got about a, maybe a foot of space where I could walk down. The funny thing is if you look out past all the cloud, like whatever it was, it's just black. It's just an abyss. And I'm terrified of heights. I'm not really tall, I'm not terrified of heights, but you can't see nothing, you know, where, don't know where you're gonna fall to. I'm, I'm scared enough of heights that typically I'd be scared, but I just listened to her. I walked in this hallway and I'm not fearful at all falling off, but it's just blackness that I'm walking this to. I get about a hundred yards away. Um, and I see my buddy way up on way up down there, about a hundred yards away. And he's just stammering looking at the ground, like he's deep in thought, just stammering around. And I yell to him, I say, Hey Ken, what's going on? And he doesn't answer. He's just looking at the ground deep in thought, just stammering. So I get about 50 yards away. And again, Hey Kim. Ken, what's going on still? He's just not paying me no attention. So I get closer, I get about 20 yards away and I stop. Hey, Ken. Ken. What? What's going on? What are you doing? Ken? Is the friend that you were riding with it is it, is he? That was, that was my buddy, not my brother-in-law's buddy. This is my buddy that rode back with me the one that was in the accident with you? That's right. Um, so he's, he's just looking at the ground and not paying me no attention. All of a sudden a voice comes out from the abyss, from the blackness, the voice, just a voice that says, Kenneth, I need to answer. So I just kind of wondered myself, what an answer. Answer what, what's going on? You know, I was confused at this point, and, uh, Ken's just looking at the ground, standing in a place, deep in thought, minute or so goes by. And again, the question coming from, from the voice, Kenneth, I need to answer at this time. I knew what the question was in my heart. I knew what was. His choice is send me back or him for him to live. Um, it, it was his decision at this moment. So I tried to speak up, but nothing would come outta my mouth. I couldn't speak, I couldn't say nothing. Um, but I wanted to say, you know, this was my fault. I caused accident. I should die. But I, I just couldn't, I couldn't get the words out. The words wouldn't come outta my mouth. I was silenced. So minute or so goes by, and again, third time the voice says, Kenneth, I need to answer now at this time, my buddy looks up and he says, send him back. So I'm now sent over my body to a outer body experience over at Piedmont Hospital, which was medical Center back then. And I see these, I see this big biker looking nurse putting tubes of my nose, and he's telling me I gotta swallow'em into my stomach. I need to get'em into my stomach. And, telling my mother the story later, she was, she was in the room at this time when this happening. And I asked her about it when I come outta the coma and she said she's in awe. She's wondering, like you, there's no way you could have known this. Like there's, how do you know that? Like,'cause I described the nurse t had this big beard, looked like a nurse, uh, looked like a biker. And, uh, typical nurses don't look like this guy. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. So she's like, there's no, there's no way you can know about this. That's definitely an atypical nurse. Absolutely. So they are end up airlifting me to UAB and end up contracting bacterial pneumonia, um, which is really what almost killed me. And then chemical pneumonia shortly after that. The nurses were not supposed to touch me, just weren't supposed to touch me at all. Um, if they, if they moved me, they could disrupt the fluid in my lungs and it could make things worse. Wow. This whole time they're telling my parents, pull the plug on him. Pull the plug on him. He's gonna, he's not gonna ever be able to think again. He's never gonna be a walk again. He's gonna be a vegetable. A burden on you, a burden on society. Pull the plug on'em. It's not worth it. Meanwhile, time's gone by. I'm So you heard all this? No, no. This is what my mother's telling me later. Okay. Um, nurses and everybody just caring about their day. They come and get me my medicines in my, in my IVs, you know, food in my feeding tube, you know, liquid diet. Um, as I'm in my coma and they're not supposed to touch me. One day this nurse walks by and, uh, she rolls me on onto my side. She still does not, she, she doesn't know why she did it,'cause she wasn't supposed to. But she rolls me on my side this three months later and slaps me on the back. All the fluid comes outta my lungs. Every last bit of flu. This when I turned this, this when I took a turn for the better. And the doctors were hopeful. Hopeful again. Yeah. Um, but the, the, the really strange thing is this, this nurse's name is Angel. Wow. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, so, um, the doctors, uh, when I come outta my coma finally, and I'm a coherent, I give my mother a bunch of names and numbers off the top of my head that are, that were correct. Telling her to go tell, call these friends, you my friends, go tell them that I'm okay. All these numbers come back, be correct. So the neurologist, Dr. Novak up there comes into my room and he's like, Mr. Anderson, you know, we're glad that, uh, we, you're gonna, you're gonna make it, you're gonna be better than we thought. Wow. Um, so, um, you know, as far as my brain goes, they were totally wrong as, but they, he's, they're still not thinking I'm ever gonna walk again. So you, you must have had like a serious head trauma supposedly. Your hip was broken? Yes. Probably all kinds of things, I guess. Yes, yes. I, I had, I had shattered both, both pelvises. There's just no way. Wow. So, and how long were you in, in a coma or out? Three months. Three months. Three months. Wow. And so it was after the three months when you woke up with the biker nurse and putting the tubes, it was that, well, that, that was originally, that was the, that was at the moment in the er. Okay. That was, that was the, my first step. Oh, okay. And then from there you were out for three months. That's it. That's it. So then, uh, so I was in rehabilitation for just a short period of time before the, before they sent me home, um, not expecting me to walk again. You know, I'd go home in a wheelchair. I'm in a wheelchair for a long time. And, um, now at this point, when did you find out about your friend or what had happened to you immediately? That was, that was the first question I asked, um, when you woke up. When I woke. Absolutely. How's Ken? Um, and my mother had told me that he passed, you know, um, so yeah, that was, that was pretty hard to take, but I, I kind of had already known it. Like I said, when we crashed, he, he had the blood coming out his nose and his mouth. I, I already kind of knew it and obviously I had this experience wherever it was that he gave his life for my life as far as I'm concerned.'cause he made a choice. So, um, yeah, I, I had already known it, it had already settled at the end. Um, it's still, it still weighs on me. I, I got a syndrome call does survivor's remorse, um, is what they call it. So it's definitely hard to deal with. Yeah. But, um, it is what it is. So, yeah, still I'm not supposed to walk at this point. Wow. And Dr. Jorge Alonzo comes along to UAB and he looks at my x-ray x-rays and he says, you know, I think I could do something with this. And that is the end of part one of Matthew's story. What an amazing miracle of God to save his life in the midst of all that happened from that tragic truck accident And what a continued miracle that God brought him out of that coma and God just restored his mind. Greater than the doctors could have ever imagined. You'll hear more of the miracles of God as Matt's story continues next week, and you'll also hear more tragedy though as he begins to deal with. The aftermath of trying to live in a wheelchair and going back to live with his parents, and just a darkness that envelops him, which leads to many, many years of meth addiction. So come back next week. We look forward to being with you again, and God bless you today.

Phil Shuler: 27:46

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2: 28:24

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.