A Miracle In San Pedro

By Brenda Lee

Friday, October 1, 1976, THE NEWS DAILY ENGLISH NEWSPAPER:
“Car Crash Victims “See The Light”
Four North Americans in train wreck with pick-up truck!

The impact with the train threw the truck into a house where it crashed through a bedroom of the house and stopped midway through the kitchen. It stopped only 7 feet from where three sisters were standing. The accident occurred at noon, and the women had been preparing lunch. Mariela’s 2 children, one yr. old Juan Carlos and 3 yr. old Andrea were in a crib adjoining the demolished bedroom. None of the 5 persons in the house were injured.

The four occupants in the truck were American missionaries: driver George Hood, Richard Kryder, Paul (P.D.) Lee and Brenda Lee; three of the missionaries were injured.

After our appointment in April 1975 by the International Mission Board to Spain, we were requested to study Spanish at the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. We arrived in Costa Rica on December 30, 1975. We were provided with a comfortable house located out of the city, however, the only transportation we had were the discarded school buses from the USA that were used by the local bus transit system. 

It was about a 30-minute walk to the bus stops and the buses were always crowded, with standing room only. We would take the 30-minute bus ride every morning to the Language Institute and study from 8:00 to noon.

We became friends with other students there, George Hood being one of them. He had a double cab pick-up truck and lived in the same area we did. He would often offer us a ride back home after we had finished our lessons.

On September 30 we were pleased to see George and gladly accepted his offer for a ride home. The weather was hot and we were grateful for the a/c in the truck.  Richard, another student, joined us. There were no seat belts in George’s truck. I sat in the front between George and Richard, while P.D. was seated behind the passenger seat with his back towards the outside of the truck. George took a route out of the city that we were not familiar with, as this was not our usual bus route.

I remember that we passed the Baptist Book Store operated by our friends, resident IMB missionaries. Going down the hill, we approached an intersection with a train track and as I looked to my right, I saw a train coming at full speed. There were no red blinking lights to alert us and the a/c was so loud inside the truck that it kept us from hearing the train whistle. I turned toward P.D. and remarked “I think that train is going to hit us” and so it did! 

The cowcatcher in front of the train caught the truck in the passenger side door right where P.D. was seated! The train carried the truck along the track at 30-40 miles an hour for quite a distance.  Eventually, the door closest to P.D. came off and Richard fell out of the truck. P.D. was restrained between his seat and the one in front, George was between the steering wheel and his seat and I was being bounced around quite forcefully. The truck eventually collided into a house and we finally came to a stop. Later the train’s engineer remarked he never saw the truck and had no idea what was happening.

As it was siesta time with stores being closed, people were milling around town and began to gather around the train and truck to see what had happened. Someone was able to remove P.D., unconscious, out of the truck and into the back seat of a station wagon with the rear back door open. He was carried off in the speeding car, a white flag flying out the window, and taken to the local charity hospital. Richard was also carried to the Charity Hospital with a concussion and a broken arm. George was able to get out of the truck with no injuries.

I remained in the truck briefly in shock and in a daze but I remember deciding that I needed to get out of the truck and find out what had happened. My leg was bleeding and my arm was in pain, but I decided I could walk. There were people everywhere, speaking in Spanish. No one knew me and no one approached me. I looked around the unfamiliar area, and something propelled me to go back up the hill. By this time traffic was moving both directions but this didn’t seem to register as I continued on, walking almost three city blocks until I reached the Baptist Book Store.

The window was covered with a curtain that read “Closed for Siesta” but I went up to the door and knocked, the door opened, and there stood my missionary friends.

I know one of God’s angels was my guide to that book store.

They asked me what was wrong and I said, “I don’t know but I think we were in a wreck.” Immediately they took me and carefully put me in their van and drove me to the Baptist Hospital. I was concerned that I didn’t know where P.D. was and they consoled me not to worry, that they would find him.

The next few hours were very traumatic. The rumor from the scene reached our fellow missionaries that P.D. was dead and some of the other missionaries had gone to the Charity Hospital to look for him. Meanwhile, P.D. had regained consciousness but was too dizzy to talk or move his head. He could hear someone say he needed to be taken to the morgue, so he kept moving his toe hoping they would see he was alive. When our fellow missionaries found him, he was in the area for patients to be taken to the morgue. As they approached him, he moved his head and said “Hello, Jimmy”. What rejoicing took place! He had a concussion and two cracked vertebrae in his back, but he was able to be transported to the Baptist Hospital where I was.

After I arrived at the hospital, I was attended to by a physician named Dr. Gale, who we knew from previous family visits. It was a comfort to hear English spoken and to see a familiar face. I was in a daze but didn’t lose consciousness. When I asked the doctor why he was monitoring me so closely, he told me I had a concussion above my right eye about 2 inches and if my head had swollen inward I would have died, but it swelled outward and I was going to be fine. I told him I didn’t know where P.D. was and he said he was leaving to go find him and bring him there. Later that night a nurse brought P.D. in his bed to my room so we could see each other.

The next day another missionary friend came to visit and he read Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: who are called according to His purpose.” After 3 days in the hospital, P.D. returned to our home but I was in the hospital for 10 days with a swollen grapefruit on my head above my eye, but very grateful to be alive.

We had 10 more weeks of classes in the semester.  P.D. returned to school and finished as the top student in the upper class of students. I was never able to get back into classes, but the Lord sent me a lovely Costa Rican lady named Maria to care for me and help me with my Spanish. After a few days at home, I asked Maria to bring me my Bible. My Bible opened to Psalm 139 which at that time I was not familiar with. Since that day the Psalm continues to be a blessing in my life.  The theme of the Psalm is: “The All-Knowing, Ever-Present God.” I challenge you to know it because it will change your life.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.” - Psalm 139:23,24

We later found out that the pastor of a local church we were working with was visiting in the home with which our truck had collided. One of the ladies involved shared that she viewed the miracle of their lives being saved as an omen to change their lives because she found God. The University Baptist Church offered the family a place to live while their house was being repaired, and the ladies were saved and became a part of the fellowship of the University Baptist Church.

Many miracles took place that day in San José – both with our physical lives being spared and with the souls impacted by the wreck that “saw the light” and came to know Jesus because of it.