By Fred Childers – bio|email
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) – In October 2009 Michael Williams lie in a hospital bed bruised, and bloodied, after a 16,000 pound church steeple came crashing down on top of his car during a tornado.
"I was just covered in metal, and I was inside this tiny little ball of metal, I had assumed I was in a terrible accident," said Williams.
He's different today, physically, and some might say spiritually.
"I'm grateful right now to get up and walk from one room to the other," said Williams.
He climbs the stairs in his home everyday to go to work at his own graphics design business.
But he does go out in public where people recognize him, and say they're praying for him.
"That's the message I get form everybody ‘I prayed for you'. When asked what it's like to hear that from a stranger, Williams replied "It's unbelievably humbling. It's the kind of thing I will never get used to, and it moves me deeply."
Williams says the painful and traumatic event changed his life for the better, because of what he's learned.
"…that every human being is capable of unconditional love, we received that and still do for people all over the state, country, and world," said Williams.
Firefighters worked for nearly an hour to pry Michael from the ball of twisted metal, he would spend the next several months in a wheelchair.
"I split my scalp all the way down to the bone, split my breast bone in half, broke my back, shattered my wrist, broke fingers on this hand, the steering wheel went down to my bone to my right leg, and I broke seven bones in this foot," said Williams.
Amazingly with all those injuries, as Williams sat trapped in this vehicle right here in the middle of Texas Street, pain is not what he felt, although that would come later, he says he felt gratitude.>
But what I knew instantly is I've been saved, I took a moment and said I'm still alive and there is somebody is watching over me that very second.
He gained national attention when he told the CBS Early Show, days after the accident, about his survival.
He says that was miracle number one.
Now, a year later, he's ready to tell the early show about miracle number two.
"Again, my story is about the second miracle, and that's human kindness, and it's still going on," said Williams.
The accident will always affect him physically, and he hopes in time that will fade, but the kindness he received from so many, he says will affect his view on life forever.
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