A 7-year-old girl has been paralyzed after a freak accident at a swimming hole in Waverly.
A teenager jumped from a 30-foot rock and landed right on the little girl’s back while she was swimming in Hurricane Creek at Loretta Lynn’s campground.
The child, Sarah Faulkner, is hospitalized at Vanderbilt in Nashville. She’s paralyzed from the lower chest down.
“She said when the girl landed on her back that her whole body froze, and she hit her head on the bottom of the creek and evidently drove her all the way to the bottom, her father Tre Faulkner said. “And she said, ‘Daddy, my whole body froze, and I couldn’t move my arms, then my arm started working again, and I swam to the top and started screaming.’”
Little Sarah had to have 19 staples in her skull. But that’s not the catastrophic injury. The paralysis lead the family to have a frank conversation with their doctor.
“I said, ‘Sir, man to man, just tell me the truth. Will she ever walk again?’ He said, ‘No, I do not believe so, but there is something out there more powerful than me.’”
That is what the Faulkners believe–who the Faulkners believe.
“I believe God can and will heal my daughter, I need a miracle. My wife needs a miracle. My children need a miracle. You need a miracle. Our country needs a miracle to show that God is real and God is alive,” said Faulkner.
The Faulkner’s are a very close, Christ-centered family. They live in Christiana, Rutherford County. They do everything together all the time. Mom, dad, and the four kids–you can see that instantly in the dozens of home videos. Joyful kids just being kids.
This awful accident has brought out so much love for this family they can barely put it into words. Even atheists have written and promised to pray for Sarah.
“And I personally have never in my life ever seen so much prayer over one incident flowing and flowing. Not just prayer, but people saying, ‘Lord make her walk again’ and saying ‘She will walk again.’ And I want to read to you a message that came from Germany from a lady who lost her daughter. She said, ‘I don't believe in God and I'm not really good in these prayer things–especially not since my firstborn daughter died without any reason. But today, I was praying to whoever and whatever there may be for a full recovery. And I'm telling you that God is using this evil, horrible accident, to bring glory to Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of the world, and the solution for all of our problems,” said Faulkner.
And what about that teenager who jumped on Sarah and ran away in the confusion? The Faulkner’s remain true to their faith in her pain as well. Beginning with Sarah.
“And I asked her what she thought we should do with this girl, And she said we should forgive. And so we literally prayed for the girl. We can’t imagine the kind of pain she is going through right now.
And what we want to do as a family is we want to be used by God to express the same type of love that Jesus did when he hung on the cross for the world,” said Faulkner.
The Faulkners know this is a big request. This falls under the word “Miracle.” But that’s what they are counting on.
“And so we’re asking God for a miracle that can’t even be explained. That God will heal her and he’s healing her now! Because the first day she went into the hospital she had no rectal tone, which means there’s no muscle tone in there. That’s what happens to paraplegics. The very next day, she had rectal tone. Last night, she moved her toes, not her toes but moved her feet like this, just barely moving them. So we’re believing that God is in the process of healing this girl for his glory, his honor,” Faulkner said.
The Faulkner’s encourage you to pray for Sarah, they love getting messages of encouragement, and if you would like to help with the long road to recovery there is a GoFundMe page with a very simple title: #SarahWILLwalkagain.
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