Walk in Love and Prayer for Alex Church and Family

⬇️ Livestream link for Alex's Benefit Concert ⬇️

https://youtube.com/live/_7yezU1RAIE?feature=share

"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - 1 Cor 13:13

A pair of skis, a body of youthful strength, a mind and spirit quickly fueled by challenge and adventure, an escalating runway of packed ice and snow, a moment of suspension, a powerful thrust of over-rotation colliding with an unforgiving layer of packed snow atop pavement, a conscious realization, a completely shattered C7 vertebrae and fractured C6, a crucial, highly technical spinal surgery spanning six hours and bringing to close not just a year, but an era in the life of Alex and the Church Family...

On December 31, 2023, our family woke up early to care for our animals and join our body of believers at Faith Community Bible Church. God’s Word was opened to passage after passage describing God’s love and how it circulates as the predominant and overarching characteristic of Christ’s church. Little did we know that before the day was over, we would cry out for this love and experience it being showered upon us to a greater degree and fervency than ever before...

After church service and fellowship, Alex headed to the Idaho State Capitol to practice on a massive ski jump on which he was signed up to compete. The winner would jump during the Idaho Potato Drop at midnight. But Alex wasn’t there to win any prize other than the thrill of being on the snow and in the air with the other competitors. After taking three jumps to get used to the very unique conditions, Alex felt ready to try a backflip. Still unexperienced with the size of the jump and winch used to pull him at 40mph, he thrust himself faster and harder than necessary, spinning around not just once, but making an extra half rotation until his lower neck made contact with the cold, hard ground.

Alex felt no pain when his C7 vertebrae was immediately crushed. He remained fully conscious and asked someone to call his mom while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. When mom received a call from a woman informing her of the accident, I was sitting nearby at the piano. The woman said he was safe, but could not feel his legs...

We immediately prayed together and readied ourselves drive to St. Alphonsus where Alex was being taken. Tori, Calli, Caleb, and Kaeden were at a nearby mall using their Christmas gift cards. They arrived at St. Alphonsus just in time to see the ambulance arrive with Alex. When mom, grandma, and I arrived about an hour later, the doctors were still preparing for surgery, which began around 10pm.

It was a long and uncertain wait for our family from the time we all arrived at the hospital until Dr. Joyce, the surgeon, stepped into our private waiting room. Without hesitation, he told our family what we were all afraid of, but inwardly suppressed for fear of being true: Alex's spinal chord injury would almost certainly prevent him from ever using his legs again. Fiercely distressed, our tears flowed freely...

Just before the operation, mom, grandma, and I were permitted to see our dear Alex. Though he was heavily medicated and surrounded by equipment, he was conscious and told us we were “taking it a lot harder than he was.” The way he continued to joke, we secretly wondered if Alex had been kept from knowing the seriousness of his injury so as not to worry him before the surgery. As the anesthesiologist began talking with us, it was evident Alex was indeed aware of his condition, but even more than that, he was aware of his position and purpose as a child of God. So we encouraged Him in the Lord with the words of Joshua 1:9 and prayed for God’s miraculous favor in the surgery, if He should so will it for the glory of Christ. Later, an assistant nurse told mom what Alex said after we left: “I can still serve the Lord, even with a broken body.”

The surgery was expected to last at least a couple of hours. After three long hours, the anesthesiologist came and told us the surgery would take yet another two or three hours as Dr. Joyce painstakingly worked to remove all of the shattered bone fragments and replace C7 with a prosthetic vertebrae supported by a titanium plate. The plate was also fitted to support C6, which had been fractured.

Request for prayer was quickly sent out as the surgeon labored on into the night. Late as it was, surely the message was received by many who were awake later than usual that night for the New Years Eve holiday. Our family continued to pray, hope, and wait fervently as the old year passed away and a new year dawned...

It was nearly 4am on New Year’s Day when the surgery was finally completed. Surprisingly, Alex was awake and able to talk with each of us later in the day, continuing to be full of the peace and hope of Christ. He could still remember with amazing clarity everything that had happened before and after the surgery, such as where he parked his car for the ski competition and the conversation he had with mom, grandma, and I just before the operation. The following day, he was already able to sit up in a padded chair for over an hour. The therapist said 99% of patients with complete spinal injury would not be able to do so this soon after surgery!

Better yet, we continued to receive an overflowing abundance of prayer from Alex's church in CA (Oak Hill Bible Church), Faith Community Bible Church here in Boise, and many other friends and family, including The Master's University professors and staff. And many were already putting feet to those prayers by offering us their homes as a closer place to sleep than our own, bringing us food and good cheer at the hospital, and in the case of TMU, offering to make special accommodations for Alex to continue working towards his electrical engineering degree.

All of this would be a special source of love and encouragement in the coming days. From Wednesday until now, nearly a week after the accident, Alex has been very tired, struggling to keep food down, and enduring a continual headache from the many medicines in his body. We suspect the high blood pressure medicine to be the main contributor to his present challenges, but it was important for the damaged area to be getting an abundant supply of blood to have the best chance of healing. We hope his head will begin to feel much better today since the doctors took him off of the high blood pressure medicine yesterday evening. He is looking forward to watching Sunday service online with mom in a few hours:)

Looking at the road ahead, Alex will most likely be transferred to the University of Utah's Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital in a week or so where he will learn how to be independently functioning without his lower body. He will spend 2-4 months at their state-of-the-art training center, which specializes in spinal chord injury. Fortunately, Alex has student insurance that will help cover the cost of the surgery and some rehabilitation, but we know that besides deductibles, there will be many additional expenses such as ambulance transportation for Alex to Salt Lake City, room, board and gas for mom who will stay with Alex throughout the duration of his rehab and the rotating siblings who will take turns visiting for a week at a time and returning home to take care of our ranch, adaptive equipment for Alex, and the out-patient rehabilitation and services he will need in the months and years ahead. Even though the needs are costly, we are so thankful to know God will "fulfill all [our] needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:9

We continue to pray for a miracle of full or partial restoration to Alex's legs if it will bring the most glory to Christ our Savior and the most good to our dear brother Alex. Within the first 72 hours after the surgery, there was a very slight possibility this could happen naturally, but only if the spinal chord was severely bruised rather than damaged. As this window of time came to a close without Alex regaining any sensations below his chest, it became clear there are now two possibilities: either God can heal him now, after the complete spinal injury has been confirmed, in order to demonstrate His complete restorative power, or God can continue to best show His power and the growth of His Kingdom being made perfect through Alex's present weakness. We are truly blessed in knowing our God will choose the best of these two wonderful possibilities because of His loving character, promises, and relationship towards us in Christ.

For everyone reading this who truly knows the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and truly follows His Son, Christ Jesus, we are so grateful knowing you will cheerfully give yourselves to prayer on our behalf. We pray many of you will also spread the testimony of God's grace in this trial as both an encouragement to the body and a witness to the world. If you do not truly know and follow the sovereign God and coming King, we pray for God to show you the way of salvation in Christ and teach you to WALK in His footsteps, just as Alex does and will forever...

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." -Isaiah 40:28-31

If God leads you to support us financially during this triumphant battle, we are so grateful for your fellowship in our present sufferings, just as we share in the sufferings of Christ together. Email me through GoFundMe if you have any questions. Also email me if you would like to receive regular updates, praises, and ways to pray for Alex and our family throughout this journey!

In the faith, hope, and love of Christ,

The Church Family (Robert and Amy, Abrie, Tori, Alex, Calli, Caleb, Kaeden)