“While travelling from Lagos to Calabar, the commercial bus conveying Ndubuisi Nweke, a Watchman from Calabar Diocese, was involved in a ghastly accident. He was badly wounded. There were fears that he would not survive. Several other passengers also sustained several degrees of serious injuries. Although, he was in such a bad state, Nweke continued to retain and express his faith in the ability of God to safeguard his life. Despite the doubts and sense of despair that occasionally assailed his mind, he refused to give up until the God whose mighty name he continued to call upon saved his life. Today, he is alive and well with all his injuries completely healed. During a Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement (WCCRM) Leadership Conference held in LOGISS not too long ago, Nweke shared his startling testimony which drew great ovations and applause from the jubilant and appreciative audience which greatly praised God for such an astounding miracle of deliverance. His testimony:
PRAISE the Lord! If anyone gets closer to me now, the person would notice the scar of a deep cut on my forehead down to the back of my ear. Because of that my name now is ‘Undieable Practicalised.’ On July 19, 2014, I took off from Lagos by road, stopped over at Onitsha, did one or two things, after which I boarded another bus billed to take us to Calabar. I sat behind the driver. After prayers, we took off. The driver was speeding. On approaching a town called Akaeze in Ebonyi State, I reached for my phone to make a call. As I bent down to make the call I heard a bang that sounded like a gun shot. I raised my head and noticed that the vehicle was swerving sideways wanting to somersault. I closed my eyes and began to shout Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! That was all I knew that happened.
After the vehicle had stopped somersaulting and I later opened my eyes, I found out that I was lying on a farm. I noticed also that the woman who sat beside me in the bus was being given a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Blood was rushing from her nose. I examined my body and thanked God that I didn’t sustain any injuries or so I thought at that time. I got up and started walking towards the road while some of the victims were being helped to the road. A man who was among the rescue team shouted that I should sit down. I looked back to see who he was addressing, but he pointed at me and said he was talking to me that I should sit down. I asked him why and he said I should touch my head. That was when I recollected that I had been having the feeling that something was hanging over my ear. I discovered that the skin covering my scalp had peeled off and was hanging over my ear. I held it and moved it over my head to cover it up. I was heading towards the road but some people held me and asked me to sit down.
The road was not a busy one and the accident had occurred around six in the evening, and we were about twelve passengers in the vehicle. Some commuters in other vehicles would manage to stop at the scene of the accident merely to observe us, and on seeing that there were no faces they could recognise, would go their ways without offering any assistance. It suddenly began to be impressed on my heart that there was no way anybody with the type of injury I had on my head could survive, so I began to pray that if there was anything that would hinder me from making heaven that God should forgive me.
We remained there for about an hour and my body was soaked with my own blood. I used my hands to wipe the blood that was dripping down my face. Luckily, a vehicle pulled up and some of the victims were helped into it. I guessed that because of the way I was soaked with blood, nobody would want to come near me. It also dawned on me that if I remained where I was, they might end up leaving me to my fate; so I stood up, walked to the vehicle and sat inside. We were taken to a hospital in a town I later came to know was called Akaeze.
No sooner had I disembarked from the vehicle and cleaned the blood dripping from my face than I heard a voice that said: “You are a Watchman; your death is not necessary”.
My mind changed from then and I became angry at the devil, declaring that I wasn’t going to die. I continued to make this declaration and could not stay quiet. The young girls we met there told us that the only nurse and the doctor at the hospital had gone home and would not return till the following Monday morning. The accident had happened on a Saturday evening. By this time the blood had soaked even my inner wears and was running down but I was still shouting and talking. Somebody advised that I should stop talking since continuing to do that would only increase the flow of blood from my body. However, I continued to make the declaration that I would not die. I told them that what I was saying was doing something in me. Suddenly, a lady walked in and she was introduced as the nurse. One of the girls had called to inform her that a patient whose scalp was broken had been brought to the hospital. She came thinking it was a case she could handle but was taken aback when she saw the extent of the damage on my head. She called the doctor immediately and as the God of Watchman would have it, he arrived soon. After examining me, he ordered that I should be taken into the theatre immediately. They started with suturing from the back of my head to my forehead and it lasted for about two hours.
I was still talking even though I had not eaten anything throughout that day. I had set off from Lagos by about 4.30am and had not taken anything since then. I had it at the back of my mind that I would arrive home and eat the sumptuous meal my wife had prepared for me. As I continued to talk, the doctor warned me that if I did not keep quiet, the remaining blood might be exhausted and that would be disastrous. I told him that even if the blood in my body finished, I would still live. He was confused and concluded that my brain had been affected. When he made that negative observation, I quickly corrected him by saying that nothing had affected my understanding. I declared to him that since my blood had stained the floor of the hospital, none of the accident victims would die. While he was busy with the stitching, I asked him why he and the nurse had not said sorry to me. He said to me that they were trying to save my life and all I was concerned about was why they had not said sorry to me? I said, yes, that they should have sympathised with me by saying sorry. Why I said that was because some of them that are in one cult or the other usually take delight in seeing blood, but if they sympathise with the victim or say sorry, that would neutralize their evil intentions. He said, ‘Okay, sorry.’ I turned to the nurse and without hesitation she said, ‘Sorry, sir.’ I then said, ‘Better, you can now continue with what you are doing.’
While they were working on me, I made them know that I was a Watchman from Calabar Diocese and that no member of the Watchman died that way. The anesthesia they gave me did not have any effect and so I shouted like a little child at every stage of the stitching. That was the situation until he got to my forehead and as I wanted to shout again, I went off. That was the day I had a taste of what is called death. I sort of lost consciousness because I wasn’t hearing any voice any more. There was complete silence. I noticed that the environment had changed and the doctor, myself and the drip-stand were now moving upward though my body was still on the operating bed. We moved very far into the sky and the whole surrounding was bright. I asked the doctor why and how we came that far when he had not completed what he was doing but he didn’t say anything. The nurse could also not say anything either, so I requested that we should go back because my wife would be coming to take me back to Calabar the next day.
Suddenly, a very tall and huge being appeared and was dressed like a doctor. He then spoke to the doctor attending to me: ‘My friend, this man said he doesn’t like this place, so why keep him here against his will?’ Each time he spoke, his voice echoed far into space. I was very happy because of what he said and as I turned to thank him, I couldn’t see him again. I said to myself that this being should have waited to ensure that I was taken back. Soon after that, I noticed that we were descending. Suddenly, I felt pain again when the doctor was doing the stitching and I shouted. I was very confused and didn’t know where we just went to. So I asked the doctor why he took me away from the hospital to somewhere else. He said I was disturbing him that he didn’t take me to any place that as I could see he was still working on me. I was dumb-founded because I really didn’t know what happened.
After the stitching, I was carried away to the ward. I couldn’t walk because I had a dislocation and an internal injury and as a result, I had become very weak. Between 2.00am and 3.00am, it dawned on me that it was death that I had experienced. I began to sing praises to the Lord thinking it was already time for my morning devotion. In the ward, there was an elderly woman who was taking care of her husband and shortly after I began to sing, she started saying, Ebube, ebube, ebube, meaning, ‘glory, glory and glory.’ I looked at her direction and heard when she said: this is a child of God indeed. She joined me in singing which attracted other patients who came to see what was happening. When it was day I requested for a pain reliever because my whole body was aching. The nurse came wanting to administer an injection on me and when she asked me to adjust myself for her to do that, I told her that I had not eaten since the previous day. She exclaimed and said that she administered six injections on me the previous day! Psalm 124 verse 2 says, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us…”
One of the young girls working there had made a phone call to a brother called Chinedu and informed him that there was a man in a very critical condition in their hospital who had been talking only about his being a Watchman, that he should come and see him since he (Chinedu) was a Watchman. Before long the brother came to see me. Shortly after, the Watchman parish pastor of the area also came and spoke to me and treated me as though I was in my house. Watchmen are connected anywhere in the world! After introducing ourselves to each other, he said I should excuse him to go back home to prepare something for me to eat but I told him not to bother that I would be fine. The next day (Sunday) he came with two other brothers and in fact I became a sort of a hero in the hospital. Watchmen in that village took turns to visit me and I was the most visited patient.
After the Sunday Light fellowship that day, a number of them came and said they had the mandate of the Diocesan Pastor (in Abakaliki) to move me from that hospital to a better one. Can we now see what I said about the Watchman? This was a place I thought was a strange land where I felt nobody knew me, but you can now see what was happening. I became so happy and felt on top of the world but I told them that my wife was on her way to the hospital and pleaded that if they took me away it would be an additional burden for her coming to the new hospital I would be taken to. I appreciated their concern, but told them I would prefer to go to Calabar so I could go to the Teaching Hospital there. With that they prayed for me and even extended the prayers to other patients. When my wife arrived, driver whose vehicle was involved in the accident asked my wife if I was her husband and she said yes. He said, this man’s faith has saved all of us!
When we departed for Calabar, it was Watchman in action again. They had already gathered in one of the pastors’ house and with them was a medical doctor who was also a Watchman awaiting my arrival. When I eventually arrived, the doctor suggested several hospitals where I could be taken to but I chose the Teaching Hospital. He said he would contact a consultant there who would attend to me by 10.00am the next day. When I met the consultant the following morning and gave him a reference note which stated my condition, he said he would see me on Friday that week. He asked me to go home without even examining the wound. I was disappointed but couldn’t say anything. I recall though that they (doctors) were on strike then and probably that was the reason he couldn’t attend to me immediately. But then he could have at least examined the wound.
The following morning, I began to perceive a foul odour and asked my wife where the odour was coming from but she had no clue as to where it emanated from. Meantime, I couldn’t walk without leaning on somebody’s shoulder for support because I had an internal injury. I managed to enter my bedroom and sat down but I perceived the odour the more. I called the doctor and informed him of my observation and he insisted I should see him on Friday. When I kept the appointment on Friday, he asked a nurse to remove the previous dressing and while she was doing that she noticed that my scalp was turning round as she was loosening the dressing. It was then she discovered that an accumulation of pus had lubricated the bandage on my head. What happened was that the area that was really battered which was covered had begun to fester and to produce some pus. When the nurse saw what had happened to my head, she exclaimed and the doctor had to rush in to see what the problem was. Having seen the extent of the damage on my head, he assisted the nurse in draining out the pus.
After about three weeks the wound at the back of my head could not heal and I was told a vein had cut from there so there was no supply of blood to the area. Along the line, however, another nurse who was assigned to dress the wound expressed some satisfaction at the speed with which the wound was healing. She said that they used to see my scalp each time they opened the wound, but now flesh had covered it. The interesting thing was that in spite of the bleeding that I experienced, I did not have any blood transfusion. My wife took time to always prepare fresh vegetable (pumpkin leaves) and fruit juice for me which helped in nourishing my body and in no time I began to regain my strength and was like somebody who had just come out from the fattening room.
Later, I called the doctor whose hospital I was taken to after the accident. After I had introduced myself to him and reminded him of my case and the period I was in his hospital, he asked if I was really the one speaking and when I said yes, he gave glory to God. Praise the Lord!”
