September 19, 2019 – Chris Shinn was on his way home around midnight after finishing his shift as a ride share driver. “It was just like in a blink of an eye, I turned to my left and all I saw was flashing lights coming toward me. And then, I was just out.”
A drunk driver T-boned his car at 60 miles per hour. Trapped in his car, Chris was in and out of consciousness. “I noticed that there’s paramedics in there and they’re trying to get me to respond and trying to pull me out of the vehicle. Then next thing you know, I woke up in the ICU.”
Chris was taken to Honor Health Hospital in Phoenix. He had sustained several life-threatening injuries: collapsed lungs, a ruptured spleen, and internal bleeding. He also suffered several fractures including his hips and knees. With so many serious injuries, he was not expected to make it through the night. His pastor, Zeke Rodriguez, rushed to the hospital as soon as he heard. “They told me it was real bad,” his pastor recalled. “So we prayed, my wife and I, on our way to the hospital. We were praying and seeking God’s face and seeking God’s favor, His anointing, His strength.”
Chris was quickly taken in for emergency surgery. A new Christian at the time, he says he saw a vision. “It was so vivid. I was standing there looking at an operating table, looking at a bunch of doctors and they were just handing instruments and just like going through this surgery and I’m sitting there looking at my body and I’m looking at them go through this. And I see a man there wearing a white cloth robe, and it was Jesus standing right beside me.”
After several back-to-back surgeries Chris was taken to ICU in critical condition. His family and church members continued to pray as he clung to life. If he did survive, he was not expected to ever be able to function normally. Pastor Zeke recalled, “I refused to see the circumstance as it was, and I refused to listen to the, the news that I heard. And I began to speak life into him. I notified the church right away. We had prayer teams…we always have prayer teams, people…intercessors that would intercede.”
“I felt people’s prayers,” Chris reflected. “And then with Pastor Zeke being there, just praying for me, it was just–it was such a faith builder and an encouragement.”
Miraculously, after a week in ICU, Chris began to stabilize. He was later transferred to Lincoln Medical Center to start his long, hard road to recovery. He also began to learn about depending on God for strength and healing.
“When I first started going, it was just, it was hard for me to even do therapy in a wheelchair. I just kept praying and I had that scripture and I really held Philippians 4:13 in my heart. And I know it’s such a common scripture, but for me it had so much meaning because I was like, ‘man, I need to lean on, lean on Christ through everything I’m going through. I need to lean on Him. I need Your strength.'”
There was something else driving him to push through the pain. “In my vision, I was like, ‘I can’t be like this because my kids need me,’” Chris added. “I wasn’t even thinking about myself and being, you know, selfish. I was more like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to do this for my kids. And I was pushing to walk again.’”
A little over a month after entering the facility, Chris was walking without assistance. Two weeks after that he had completed rehab and went home. Chris said the staff was shocked. “It was blowing their minds. And I’d always tell them: ‘It’s God’s strength; it’s God’s strength. You know, the love of Christ and just how He was helping me through this.’”
Within six months, Chris was back at work and enjoying life as a husband, father, and street evangelist. He said he sees his accident as a blessing in disguise. “I don’t take things for granted, you know,” Chris said. “I really believe that what I went through was dramatic. It was a big storm that I was going through, a big trial. But, you know, I, I just believe that God had me through it.”
“We have an awesome God, a powerful God that calls the things that are not as if they were,” said his pastor. “And calls that what is dead back to life. I always tell people miracles don’t happen where they’re needed; miracles happen where they’re wanted. And this man wanted a miracle.”
“I know God still heals today because I’m a walking, talking testimony of it,” said Chris. “That’s the whole purpose, I believe of my accident and my recovery. That’s the reason I share my testimony with a lot of people is because I want to build up someone’s faith and let people know you might be going through a storm, a trial, or a situation, but to lean on God and have faith that you’ll get through it.”