The hot August afternoon did not discourage the football teams. Sweating, running, tackling was all part of the game. It was almost over and the Loretta High School Mustangs were winning. Then disaster struck. The star player, Van Johnson, was down! He was young, but he weighed 215 pounds and it was all muscle and daring. Mustang fans moaned, "Why won't Van get up? We can't win the game without him."
 
But Van was in pain and struggled to breathe. He remembers the day so well and writes about that moment in his book, Tackle the Impossible! "On a routine play, the other team's quarterback took the ball and began to run. 'I'll get him,' I thought as I shot from my inside linebacker position. I tackled him, and the thud echoed into the stands. But as I fell - I felt my neck snap. Instantly, my strength and prowess vanished, I was just a frightened 15 year-old. I'm going to die, I thought."
 
Winning was now insignificant. Survival was imperative. With no feeling from his neck down, Van was carefully placed on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital. The next days were even more difficult with the knowledge that he was paralyzed. What would the future hold for a
young man whose dreams were shattered?

Years later during another hot summer afternoon, high school graduate Joni Eareckson Tada was enjoying a visit to a beach before college began in the Fall. Her friends swam to a raft further out into the water for some extra fun. Joni followed them as they played in the water. However, the dive she made from the raft ended in tragedy.
 
She writes about it this way in her book The God I Love: "I recalled diving and striking something hard, like a log. Immediately, I heard an electric buzz that I felt shooting through my body. I sensed that my arms and legs had curled up in a fetal position. They seemed locked. I tried to move but couldn't." 
 
Were future plans changed? Yes. Did despair and loneliness settled into the minds of these two young people? Yes. Was God at work in their healing as they pressed on toward the future? Yes. But it took weeks and years for their tragic accidents to unfold into blessings.
 
Van and Joni both have ministries that looked impossible years ago when they were in the beginning stages of survival. But first they had to surrender their lives, just as they were. In whatever circumstances, we must first ask God's guidance and surrender to His plans.
 
The powerful promise of God in Jeremiah 29:11 gives assurance to all who trust His word:

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

We need go no further than our computer to discover the ministries that both Van Johnson and Joni Eareckson Tada have today. The web site for Van, www.recreationagain.com, features his inventions of recreational adventures for those in a wheelchair.