When Amber Harris arrived at Yellowstone National Park for a long-needed vacation, the Phoenix mom met up with her daughter who works at a park hotel during the summer. She told her mother to be cautious about some of the wildlife, particularly the elk, “because they will lock eyes on you and they will charge you.” And indeed, Amber saw “tons” of elk and stayed clear while they headed to the park coffee shop.
After some morning refreshments, she and fiancé, Chris, saw something new. “As we were walking along this grass, just kind of enjoying our morning, it was beautiful, it was cool (unlike super-hot Phoenix)” and as they got near a lake, “We noticed a big cloud of dust out in the distance…and we noticed there is a big bull bison out there and he was rolling in the dirt, which seemed odd and kind of made me uncomfortable.” So they started walking another direction. As a precaution, Chris kept looking back toward the bison, which was now fairly far away. “But the third time he looked over his shoulder – and I looked at his face – and I saw the look of fear.” Chris said, “Don’t run.” Amber turned around and “I see him (the bison) in a full charge! Charging, running, full speed ahead. And he bowed his head down into my belly and flipped me up into the air. At that point I see sky and land, and sky and land, and then I fell to the ground.” Immediately, “I’ve never felt so much pain.”
With her eyes closed, Amber struggled to find a position where she could catch a full breath. That’s when “this one lady, I never saw her…and I was just kind of moaning and screaming, and she put her hand on my back and she said, ‘Honey, I’m a nurse. How can I help you? Just tell me how I can help you’ and I said ‘just pray with me.’” Amber ended her painful prayer with the words, “God I trust you.”
Amber later learned both of her lungs had partially collapsed. But there was more that emergency room doctors discovered after she arrived by medical helicopter at the Eastern Idaho Medical Center. “I was actually amazed when they came back with my imaging results and told me that no ribs were broken, all my organs looked perfect. I have a lot of internal bruising… but I’ve got seven vertebrae that are broken,” and one of them “was pretty much shattered.”
You can hear our full interview here:
The first couple of weeks of recovery were very painful and the strong pain medication caused Amber to have severe digestive issues. She backed off the prescription meds and started using less effective Tylenol and ibuprofen. “I remember sitting on the edge of the couch, trying to get comfortable, and just screaming – crying out to God – to just help me. I was so desperate. I just needed some mercy.”
Amber reached out to a small group at the church she attends, and explained the constant pain she was dealing with. “I was just telling her how it was. Like, I hurt. I’m in so much pain and I feel I’m never going to be able to work again. And I never feel like I’m going to be able to run again, and have my body back. Although I was thankful for so much that didn’t get hurt, I was still really suffering.”
Church friends came to see her and, based on the biblical authority of James 5:13, they “all laid hands on me, anointed me with oil, and prayed for healing. And there was so much faith in that room – the next morning I woke up pain free.” Amber explains, “The muscle aches were still there, but that debilitating pain that was making me cry out in desperation – begging for mercy – the day before, was gone…gone!”
As a result, “My faith shot through the roof.”
Another blessing: Amber happily accepted a marriage proposal in an unplanned place – her hospital room! That's in our complete podcast interview just below. And Amber also shares another work of God involving her badly injured vertebrae and the dreaded prospect of a spinal fusion.
Today, Amber’s recovery continues. She’s walking and exercising. “And I’m not in a wheelchair … and we have dedicated our whole life to him (God), and serving him, and what he wants for our lives – and just surrendered our hopes and dreams. You know, we don’t make very good decisions, we decided, and we asked God to really just take control, wholly and completely.”
And Amber knows God is not done with her yet. And she is expressing extraordinary gratitude and telling others about the goodness of Jesus.
If you want to be inspired – and your own faith deepened – we encourage you to listen to Amber’s full story - in our podcast just below.
