Bruce Van Natta - Saved by Angels

T his book is dedicated to the Living Triune God. May His name be glorified in these pages, and may the people who read this book come to know Him better.

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone at Destiny Image Publishers for doing the work of the Lord. May He bless you as you bless others. I thank all of the people who encouraged and helped me throughout this project and continue to do so. From the group who proofread the manuscript, to the prayer warriors, to the people who gave me advice, information, and insight, you all are God-given treasures. I owe a special thanks to my family for their constant support and love. May the sacrifices you have made, due to this project and ministry, be a testimony to Gods love.

A few months before my accident, when a truck fell on me nearly killing me, I had just finished writing this book. The project had taken over three years, and after I was done, I began exploring publishing options. Several times in this book, I use the cartoon illustration of the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. This analogy turned out to be very descriptive of my experience throughout my accident and recovery. In fact, the parallels between the events of the accident and what I had already written in the book are shocking. My accident and the miracles that surrounded it are a perfect example of what this whole book is about. God performed these great miracles so that people would take note of this message!

Before my escape from death, the Lord had done many other miraculous things in my life, starting when I was very young. But it took over 30 years before I started to feel comfortable sharing them. Due to all the mistakes that I have made and the way that I lived much of my life, I never felt worthy to tell anyone about God. But God kept after me. I documented these God occurrences over the years and then put them into book form only after the Lord repeatedly prompted me to do so. For several years, God also kept telling me that He wanted me to go into full-time ministry, but I enjoyed doing things my own way and had made up my mind that I would not.

Then the truck fell on me, and God sent His angels to miraculously save my life. I know that He allowed all of these things to happen so that I could and would share a message from Him to you. God loves each and every one of us, regardless of who we are or what weve done. He communicates specifically with everyone and desires to have an intimate relationship with each of us. If we choose not to listen to Him, He continues to reach out to us, but eventually we will reap the consequences of disobedience in our lives. I pray that our Lord blesses and nurtures everyone who has the opportunity to read this book and to ponder its relevance to their lives. I pray that my words may be like the apostle Pauls:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirits power, so that your faith might not rest on mens wisdom, but on Gods power (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

T he events of November 16, 2006, changed my life forever. I will never forget what happened on that day; it will be with me as long as I live. Many of us can think of defining moments in our lives. Sometimes they are marked by tragedy, sometimes by triumph; rarely are they marked by both. But this was one of those uncommon days.

I was a self-employed diesel mechanic who performed on-site repairs. On this particular day, I was at a customers shop about 45 minutes from my home. The vehicle that I was working on was a Peterbilt logging truck. I had worked nearly 12 hours that day in order to complete my portion of the engine repairs, and I was just finishing up. I had been working with the driver of the truck, and after we put the engine back together, we began checking it over and testing the repairs. The rest of the truck had not been completely reassembled, but the driver planned on finishing the remaining work the next day. I began to put my tools back into the tool boxes on my service truck as the semi engine ran up to operating temperature. The driver asked me, since I was there, if I could also diagnose a non-related oil leak before I left. I was in a hurry to get home, but I thought this task would only take a few extra minutes.

I rolled underneath the front of the truck feet first on a creeper and started wiping off the area that appeared to be leaking. All of a sudden, the truck fell off the jack and crushed me against the concrete floor. The front axle had come down across my midsection like a blunt guillotine, nearly cutting me in two. From my viewpoint, it looked and felt like I was cut in half. In a moment of panic, I tried to bench press the ten thousand plus pound mass off of me. When reality set in, I realized the gravity of the situation and called out God help me! twice. I listened as the truck driver called 911. When he got off the phone, I begged him to shut the engine off because the vibration of the engine directly above me was transmitted through the axle and right into my body. Small amounts of blood started to come out of my mouth when I tried to talk. I watched as the driver repositioned the jack and raised the truck up off of my body. I was scared of it falling again, and I wanted to get out from underneath that truck in the worst way. The large chrome front bumper was just behind my head, and I reached both hands back and grabbed the bottom of it. It took all the strength that I had for me to pull myself far enough that my head was out from underneath the truck. I stayed conscious long enough to see the first person who responded to the 911 call.