The Angel’s Catcher Mitt (1983)

My Family and I Were Saved from Certain Death by Angels While on a Motorcycle! (1983)

My wife and I were pastoring two churches. One church was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and the other one in Chambers-burg, Pennsylvania. My wife was about seven months pregnant with our second son, Daniel, when this event I’m telling you about took place. (I have three sons. From the first day that we were married, I always said to my wife, “Mike and his three sons.”)

We were out one-day doing house visitation to some of our parishioners. This really sounds stupid, but it’s true. My wife, my son Michael, and I were all on a Honda 450. Of course, I was in the front of the motorcycle driving. Michael, who was two years old, was in the middle. Close behind him was Daniel and Kathee. (Danny was still in a protective bubble called a womb). Thank God there was a sissy bar behind Kathee. We had been visiting a family from the church near Roxbury, Pennsylvania. After we had spent some wonderful time with this family, we got on the motorcycle and headed home.

We were now headed home on 997, or Black Gap Road headed for Highway 30. The sun was just beginning to set, and it was glaring in my eyes. I was looking for a shortcut that I knew about. This shortcut was a dirt road. (I’m notorious for my shortcuts). As I was going along, I finally saw it to my right, and so I thought. It was getting dark, in the last fading light of the sun was shining in my eyes so I could not see the road very clearly. I slowed up a little bit, and then turned off onto this dirt road was a shortcut, and would save me a little bit of time. I was probably doing about forty-five miles an hour. The speed limit through this area on 997 was fifty-five, and I usually always try to stay at the upper end, endeavoring to keep the law.

However, when I turned off on this shortcut, I discovered to my absolute horror and dismay that this was not the shortcut road that I was looking for. It was a very shallow area that was long and narrow created for semi-trucks to pull over in case of emergencies. Now right in front of us were three major obstacles: #1 a heavy-duty steel guard rail, #2 a large pile of big rocks, #3 and a large wooden light pole.

These obstacles were only about twenty feet in front of us. I knew instantly there was no way I could ever stop. Slamming on your brakes in the gravel in the dirt at 45 miles an hour, trying to stop within 20 feet, with four people on the bike is not at all a good idea. Even if I would have laid the motorcycle over on its side, we would still slam into these items at forty-five to fifty miles an hour.

It was clear with an overwhelming clarity that we were going to hit the rocks, guard rail, and telephone pole. I knew in my heart that in the natural my precious wife with our unborn child, and my two-year-old son Michael was possibly going to be not just extremely hurt but killed. I was not at all concerned about myself now.

Now, I did not even have time to put on my brakes because this happens so fast. I just simply cried out JESUS! (I know that what I’m about to tell you will sound insane, but this is what truly happened.) At the very moment I cried out JESUS, it felt like two large hands pressed against us on both sides, left and right. I mean literally I could feel tremendous pressure, (and yet it was soft and gentle) to the left and the right of my body. Now, we were still heading for the rocks, but then we instantly stopped, I mean INSTANTLY. It literally felt like we had either run into a big, invisible, enormous heavenly fluffy pillow, or a very large and soft baseball catcher’s glove. There was nothing visible in front of us to stop us. We simply ran into some invisible supernatural force.

We were completely stopped, and for a moment we were standing upright. We simply fell over on our right side. We fell over onto the gravel and rocks, but we really did not fall unto them. I know this sounds far-fetched, weird and strange. But it was like we fell onto another enormous heavenly and fluffy pillow! We fell into something extremely soft between us and the ground.

Now here we are laying in the dirt and gravel with an overwhelming peace, and even joy was upon us. What a miracle! Little Michael wasn’t even crying; I think he was laying in between us sucking his thumb, as he liked to do. As we look back to the road, we notice there were no skid marks in the dirt whatsoever. It simply showed our tire tracks coming up to the place where we were, and then right there our bike stopped instantly. I looked at my wife, and she looked at me. We were both in shock, and yet great joy and peace came upon us. Then my wife informed me that just before we had arrived at this area on 997, she had seen two large pillars of light fire, one to the left of us, and one to the right.

Kathee’s Interjection:

Right before the accident I remember going through a little town which had no lights, but I saw two pillars of white fire, one right to our left, and one right to our right. The pillars were like brilliant, white laser lights shooting towards the heavens. I realized at that moment that they were two angels of God! I began crying and praising God while on the back of that motorcycle even before the accident.

 I was thanking God for His protection and goodness as we were headed down 997, with little Mikey sitting between my wonderful husband. I was still praising God when I noticed that we had turned off onto a dead-end path. I knew in my heart that we were going to crash. HOWEVER, I had and an overwhelming peace.

Everything happened so quickly that I knew God was indeed with us! The next thing I knew we were laying on the sand, gravel, and rocks. As we laid on the ground, the presence of God was so real and so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Michael and I just laid on the ground crying, talking, and thanking God for his wonderful mercy and protection. It was like we did not want to get up because it was such a holy moment. I do not remember for how long we laid there, but it was for some time. It was like we were just laying before the throne of our heavenly Father enjoying a precious moment with him.