Norma McQueen: One tragic death, one changed life.

"I HAVE INSTILLED IN ALL MEN

A KNOWLEDGE OF ME"

The above is a "scripture" that I always heard in my heart as I was growing up. Always thinking that it was from the bible, I felt everyone knew of Jesus, as I did.

However, when I finally, one day, not so very long ago, looked for this passage in the Bible, I could not find it. That is when I realized He had instilled in ME the knowledge of HIM. This was His way to get me to hear HIM. I also realized how much God loved me. This was a message He had given to me.

I grew up knowing about God, but never really knowing God; until 1983 when I lost my best friend. Then I found my very, very, best friend… JESUS.

My 'best' friend Marlene was killed tragically in a car accident on January 31st, 1983; Super Bowl Sunday.

We had been living a very wild life for some time; we partied a lot, and didn't concern ourselves with the consequences. I lost a very close friend to drowning 6 months earlier. My daughter and I were both overcome with grief. We started searching for a better life, and for answers. With the help of her aunt and uncle, Jack and Lori, Tamara found Jesus.

When Tamara began going to church, she asked me to go with her. I said  "no way!" Finally I said, "You go ahead, and if God can help you, then maybe I will give Him a try."

My daughter had been on heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes. Within a few days she was on nothing but Jesus. She was on a high that none of the drugs could ever have put her on. I could not believe the change in her. That is when I knew Jesus was in the miracle business.

The change I saw in her was no less than a miracle; and I knew I would have to have a miracle, if I was to stop the ride I was on. However, I had to be picked up and shaken before I would hear the Lord. That is exactly what happened.

My daughter Tamara had been trying to talk to me about the Lord. I heard her, but I was not listening. I was not taking it seriously. God had to finally shake some sense into me.

One night I had driven a friend home. We were sitting in my van talking, about 3 am. All of a sudden my van began to shake! It was gentle, but firm. We looked at each other, not with fear, but with shock. I looked out the window at a row of tall birch trees, expecting to see them bent over from the wind. The trees were perfectly still, and the van was still shaking. There was no wind! I knew it was the Lord! I just knew. I drove over to Tamara's house, and told her what had happened. She also knew it was the Lord. Tamara had been praying for me constantly.

The next day I called a reverend that I knew and made an appointment to meet with him. When I got into my van, to go meet with him, it wouldn't start. It was totally dead! I went back into the house, and at that moment the phone rang. It was Tamara, wanting me to go to a Christian friend's house for prayer. Since I had time before the meeting with the Reverend, I said ok.

Totally forgetting that my van was dead, I turned the key, and it started on the first try. I drove to the address she gave me and met the lady she told me about. She lived in another state, and just happened to be in town that day.

I won't even try to describe what happened when this lady laid hands on me and prayed. All I can say is - The Lord touched me.

For years I had been a semi-invalid, hardly able to walk at all. When I tried to walk - I was in excruciating pain. Suddenly I could do all the things I could not do for years.

I did not even know what had happened, but when I went out to the bars, I could not drink. The bars were the only place I had felt at home for three years, and suddenly, I was not comfortable, and felt out of place there. However, I am stubborn! I kept trying, and was soon able to drink again. With a vengeance!

I know now that there was a battle going on deep within me; A spiritual battle. The voice of darkness that I had been obeying for years was not willing to let me go. The Lord now had a claim on me, and I was being torn apart.

Tamara kept telling me, "someone is trying to tell you something mom." I just said: "I am not listening!" -"Go away!" But Praise God, He does not let His own alone. He does not 'go away.'

I did not know it would cost me my best friend, before I started listening to the "right voice." The Voice of light; Jesus.

Things just went from bad to worse in my life. My health suffered, my finances vanished. I had a van I could not drive; I didn't have a valid drivers license; I did not have license plates on the van. So I walked.

The night my best friend died, I was supposed to be in the car and in the seat that she was in, as I had the night before. For some reason I had a drink in front of me, then I had two and both were full. I could not drink. As the party wore on I sat and looked around... thinking: 'what am I doing here?'

My friends were all getting drunk. It was my friends fiancé's birthday, and Super bowl Sunday. When they got ready to leave, I tried to stop him from driving. I pleaded with everyone to please not let him drive. I didn't have a license, but even if I had he would not have let me drive. I know. I felt like I was invisible, no one was hearing me.

They left.

In those days Tamara was writing down her prayers. On that date she prayed: "God please let my mom know he is going the wrong way, and have her go the other way. Your way."   I did not get in the car that crashed on the way to Longview, as was planned. Instead I walked in the other direction... to Kelso.

The Car my friends were in hit a parked flatbed truck. My best friend was killed, setting in the seat I had been in the night before, and was supposed to be in that night!

I quit drinking that night. I have not had a drink since. My friend is gone but I have Jesus and a new life.

I had a settlement coming to me for three years. I was supposed to receive it, way before that night, but the Lord in His wisdom kept me from getting it, Until the day after I quit drinking; After I asked the Lord to help me, and turned my life and my future over to Him.

I had been on a death wish since the end of my marriage. I was not suicidal; I just lived life like a roller coaster ride, and waited to die. The night my friend died, I died too, and was born again.

I know I was born again, because I was a new person! All my old feelings were gone, and I had a new hope. My hope was, and still is in Jesus. He will never let me down and He will never leave me nor forsake me.

Then and only then, I got a call from my lawyer, who said "I have a check here, for you for $14,500.00." I know if I had received the check before I stopped drinking I would have spent it on all the wrong things, and in all the wrong places.

 In the following years, after I turned my life over to Jesus, my back continued to improve.

The Doctors had told me in the 1970s that I would be totally crippled and in a wheel chair in less than five years. It has at this time been over twenty-five years, and I am still going strong. My "wheel chair" is a 1994 Oldsmobile; that I have personally put one hundred and seventy-seven thousand miles on.

I now spend my days, doing volunteer driving Medicaid transportation; doing the Lords will. I drive some people that no one else would want to be around. I drive some people that are a blessing to be around. I tell them about Jesus. I lead them to Jesus if I can. I know that is the very best thing that I can for anyone! And in blessing people by telling them about Jesus, I am also being blessed.

I meet wonderful people every day. And almost every day Jesus performs miracles in my life; miracles that are noticed by my clients also.

> He has stopped my car in an instant, when it was skidding headlong into a fatal accident that had just happened in my path. I was suddenly sitting still only feet from the crash; the four other people in my car knew it was a miracle too. We did not even feel it stop. It just was not moving anymore.

> On another occasion I had my radio on and heard of accidents that closed the freeway, right after I had passed the spot where they had to close it.

> On one trip there were two incidents like that in one trip back from Portland, OR. Many times, when I don't know how to find a place, God will show me the way. I just ASK and then drive.

 I spend hours waiting for clients in Vancouver, Portland, Olympia, and Seattle, while I am waiting, I walk, and I pray for the people. I know I don't pray enough, but while I walk, I talk to the Lord, and thank Him that I am able to Walk. I have driven three hundred thousand miles in the last eight years, and probably walked hundreds. My car is my only wheel chair.

My Doctor is amazed at the energy and ability that I possess. He knows I trust the Lord for my health. He also knows that the hardest thing on my back is sitting; only exceeded by sitting and driving. But he does not scold me for doing the volunteer transportation, because he knows that I serve the Lord, and trust Him for my well-being. He is a believer too.

Jesus is the beginning of my life, the center of my life, and He will be my all in all, until the end of this life. When the life I have is over, and the one He has for me is come, I'll spend eternity with my Redeemer.

While I am here I enjoy and occupy.

I have a Beautiful Himalayan Persian kitty, and a brand new poodle puppy. I sometimes wonder (especially at 5:AM when puppy wakes) if I should have taken this on this eight-week-old puppy. But I had to say goodbye to my other little toy poodle last month. He was Thirteen and a half, and was all done here on earth. So I sent him on ahead. )':

I knew that I needed to fill a little of the spot in my heart that Pepi left. It helps a little.  My puppy is “Killer Caramel, aka KC – my Himalayan is named Mocha. KC is caramel color.

I have my hands full with my driving and my critters, but I love it.

Some of my clients have told me they like to ride with me because they know Jesus is in my car. They do not worry when I drive them.

Most of my trips are personal requests for me. I am praying and believing that The Lord will keep my car on the road; as He kept the children of Israel - when He kept their clothes from wearing out for forty years. And I know that He will, as long as He wants me to continue what I am doing.

What ever it is that YOU need… Look to Jesus, He loves you too!

Norma Jean