Journal free-write: What is a story about a significant moment in your life from your early childhood? For example, this could be the story of your birth, an older cousin's wedding, your
first day of school, the adoption of an old family pet, etc.

BBQ to Airlift  

The day that I thought would be a normal day, turned out to be not so normal. It was one of those days where you could redo until you look at the positive outcome of it. This day all started when my dad came darting out of the back door. “Hurry and help me clean up the kitchen because we have people coming over, for a BBQ.”  

“Yes sir,” my brother and I exclaimed with a little disappointment in our voices. Normally my mom would clean the kitchen, but she couldn’t because she was on bed rest due to the recent c-section that she had about a week earlier. After we finished cleaning, my dad went back outside to light the grill. The only dilemma was that we didn’t have any charcoal left.  

“Elizabeth, I’m going to the store to get some more charcoal. I’m leaving the kids here.”  

“Ok, bye I love you.”  

“Bye love you to.” To get to the store faster he took a short cut down a road near our house. This would be the worst mistake of his entire life. As he was going down the road on his motorcycle, he hit a large rock. The rock caused my dad to lose control and roll into a nearby ditch. If it wasn't for Traven Barne’s mom my dad would have died that day. When she heard the loud noise, she ran outside. When she got outside, she found him lying there unconscious with his eyes rolled backwards into his head. There were major wounds but surprisingly only on his face. She called the police immediately. When the paramedics arrived, they had to make the decision on whether to bring him to the hospital in an ambulance or in an airlift, because he could have died in a matter of seconds. They decided to take him in an airlift because of how bad his condition was.  

When they got him to the hospital, they had to preform immediate surgery. All together there was about 70 to 80 stiches in his face alone. They also had to put two metal plates under his eyes because his cheek bones shattered.  After all of this happened, the doctors informed us that we were very lucky to still have him here with us, because he had died once on the way to the hospital.  

About three weeks later, he was back to himself personality wise. When he got up enough strength, he started coming to church with us again.  Currently our pastor at our church was pastor Jeff. After coming to church with us for a little while, my dad started changing. When he would lay down before bed, he would read his Bible. When he would get into his truck, he was not listening to rap  music anymore it was Christian music. The following Sunday, my dad gave his life to Christ at the age of 31.  A few weeks later he got baptized by our pastor at church. Ever since his horrific accident, he will tell you that if God would not have let him die in the airlift on the way to the hospital that he would have went to hell. He will also tell you that you need to cherish and enjoy every moment and not spend it complaining about little things, because at any moment your life could be taken, and God might not give you a second chance.