Miraculous Survival: Prayers Answered -- Part 1

(The following is Part 1 of a two-part article sharing the miraculous events that followed a nightmarish accident that took place on Dec. 14, 2024.)


That semi is in our lane! That’s the thought that flashed through 21-year-old Owen Post’s mind as the semi-truck bore down on the van he was driving, with his brother Aiden and his father, Jon, also in the vehicle.

THE TRIP

A light, misty rain had started falling on that unusual December 2024 evening in north central Illinois. Even as the sun set at about 4:30, the temperature, which began that day well below freezing (25), continued to inch upward toward 40 degrees — a light fog was forming.

Jon Post, a bivocational minister, and his sons, Owen and Aiden, 18, were headed to a youth Christmas party at their church in Carthage. Carol, Jon’s wife, was not feeling well and it was agreed that she should stay home with their daughter, Grace, who had come home for a visit.

However, just before heading out, Jon was contacted by his employer — an IT problem had come up for a customer. So, Jon asked Owen to drive while he worked on his laptop and made some phone calls from the passenger seat, with Aiden sitting behind Jon in the van.

About 90 minutes into their two-hour journey from Peoria, they were on IL 336 south, heading toward Calvary Church and the Christmas party. It was about 5:30 p.m., with the dark of night settling in. 

In the opposite north-bound lane, an SUV with blindingly bright-blue LED lights at eye-level, sped by the Posts, and a moment later was replaced by the headlights of a semi, only the semi was completely in the Posts’ south-bound-lane, headed straight for them!

With the semi’s north-bound lane completely open, Owen swerved hard to his left, while the truck driver, instead of attempting to swerve back into his own lane, chose to head for the opposite shoulder.

But it wasn’t enough. With both vehicles at highway speed (estimated at least 55-60 mph) and no time to brake, the truck struck the passenger side of the van on an angle, collapsing the front door in on Jon and completely ripping off the sliding door next to Aiden, and spinning the van — it coming to rest on the north-bound shoulder of the road, upright, but now facing north.

Owen, miraculously was, for the most part, physically unscathed. He checked his father — unconscious, bleeding. Unable to clearly see Aiden due to the wreckage, Owen, got out and hurried to him . . . blood was pouring from Aiden’s badly broken and lacerated face and head.

“It was definitely a traumatic sight,” Owen recalls. “It definitely hit me very hard and was a sight I wish to never see again.”

As his cell phone was lost in the crash, Owen flagged down a car, with those individuals calling 911. Then noticing Aiden was starting to slide out of his seatbelt, Owen and a bystander moved Aiden from the car and onto a blanket on the side of the road. It would take nearly 50 minutes for an emergency team to extract Jon from the van.

As Owen watched from the back of a police car, an officer found and gave him Jon’s cell phone, so he quickly called his mother, Carol. But as Aiden and his father were loaded into separate ambulances, Owen’s mind was flooded with thoughts and “survivor’s guilt.” Having acted calmly and effectively throughout the ordeal, now he broke down. Meanwhile, as Carol later learned, the EMTs had little hope for Aiden’s or Jon’s survival, with Jon losing far too much blood and Aiden's head and face broken beyond human recognition.

BACKGROUND

Jon, 44, and Carol, 47, have been in ministry their entire marriage. In 2020, the couple along with Aiden, Owen, and their daughter Grace, were in midst of a missionary associate assignment in the Czech Republic — the oldest son, Chase, having recently married, remained stateside. However, as COVID shut down the industrialized world and subsequently dried up a significant portion of the Posts’ support, they returned to the United States, making a home in Peoria.

Prior to going to the mission field, the Posts were volunteer youth and worship pastors at Calvary Church through 2011. From 2012 to 2015, Jon was the youth and worship pastor at Peoria First AG, and then the Posts volunteered with worship and outreach at Relevant Faith (AG) in Peoria before heading to the Czech Republic.

A few years later, Calvary Church was searching for a lead pastor, and Jon and Carol felt led to submit their resume. After being offered the position and much prayer, the family agreed to step into the lead pastor role, though they added the stipulation that they wouldn’t consider moving to Carthage (located two hours from their home in Peoria) until after Aiden, then a junior, graduated from high school. The church agreed.

“The church provided us with a small parsonage that we furnished, so we didn’t have to drive super-early on Sunday mornings,” Carol explains. “We held services there on Wednesday evenings and Sundays.”

That December 14th day and evening, Carol knew something wasn’t right as she had, for some reason, been experiencing a real heaviness about her spirit for the last few days, causing her to physically feel unwell and stay home that Saturday evening. And then her phone pinged. It was Jon’s phone. The automatic message indicated that Jon had been in a crash and gave his location.

Unable to reach Jon or her sons on their phones, and her concern continuing to grow, Carol contacted the Macomb Sheriff’s Department . . . they had multiple units dispatched.

“I knew whatever it was, it was bad,” Carol says. “Then Owen called me. He didn’t know if Jon or Aiden were alive. An EMT then got on the phone. I asked if they were OK and he told me, ‘It doesn’t look good,’” which she knew was a nice way of saying, “Prepare yourself.”

CONDITION

As Carol, Grace, and Chase and Kiley (Jon and Carol’s oldest son and daughter-in-law) hurriedly made their way to Macomb, Carol received two calls to discover their location as Jon and Aiden’s survival was in serious doubt.

Although Jon and Aiden had miraculously arrived alive at the hospital in Macomb, since that time, Aiden had to be resuscitated five times and Jon’s blood loss had brought him to the brink of death.

Jon’s right arm was shattered, he also had a broken femur, a puncture wound to the thigh, neck and rib fractures, severe lacerations to his scalp, was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, had a lacerated liver, and a blood clot developed in his thigh.

“Aiden’s skull was fractured in two places, and he had very severe brain bleeds on the right frontal lobe,” Carol says. “Also, both eye sockets and his nasal area were broken, his nose was split wide open, and his upper jaw was broken. The brain impact and subsequent swelling were so severe that the blood flow to his optic nerves were cut off, which took away his vision.” He also suffered a neck injury which initially led doctors to believe his legs could be paralyzed.

After stabilizing Aiden and Jon as best they could, physicians quickly determined the pair’s injuries were beyond the capabilities of the Macomb facility, and they needed to be transferred. However, due to rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, a Life Flight helicopter was not an option — so highly risky, but necessary, ambulance transports were made to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, the area’s only Level 1 trauma center.

In Peoria, surgeons removed one-third of Aiden’s skull, which left only the skin and the dura layer that surrounds the brain, to protect that portion of his brain — if struck there by a heavy or sharp object, it could be catastrophic.

“The skull actually makes blood flow the way God intended for our bodies,” Carol explains. “Without his skull, gravity affected his brain. The change to blood flow slowed his cognitive thinking, made his left hand (and somewhat his left foot) not work properly, and made his balance off.”

MEET AIDEN AND JON

Aiden is a multitalented young man. An athlete who competed as the No. 1 runner on the Richwood’s High School varsity cross country team, Aiden was also involved in the arts. He was an accomplished guitarist, led worship at church, loved to participate in madrigal at school, and just prior to the accident, he had competed at the Illinois Music Educator Association (ILMEA) competition where he was named first chair all-state alto saxophone for jazz band — another way of saying, “the best in the state.” His musical talent earned him a scholarship to attend Illinois Wesleyan University.

Aiden was also an intentional Christian. He regularly lived and shared his faith, praying with his teammates, inviting classmates to church, and witnessing — he wanted everyone he knew to be introduced to and have a relationship with Christ. As time has proven, this desire continues to be fulfilled on a scale he never imagined.

As a pastor and former missionary, Jon had a calling to ministry and to do the will of God in service to Him. He was also an IT engineer for a medical company, which enabled ministry, and was quite proficient in a number of handyman skills.

MIRACLE AFTER MIRACLE

Carol, who says at first she hesitated to post about the accident and journey, quickly changed her mind.

“That first prayer request, I put it on Facebook and deleted it,” Carol says. “But then I thought, Either you believe in prayer or you don’t.”

Bolstered by a surge of peace and faith through the Holy Spirit that God was in control, Carol began to make regular posts to her Facebook page, making specific prayer requests.

The answers to prayer began and continued. Within hours of his arrival in Peoria, doctors reported that Jon’s vital signs “couldn’t be more perfect,” with medics left — as Jon says — “befuddled” how he didn’t bleed out to begin with.

Carol asked for prayer that Aiden’s brain pressure would drop . . . overnight it fell from 22 to eight. He had a blood clot in the main vein that runs in the center of his brain — she asked for prayer for the clot to dissipate — several days later it did, something a veteran nurse said she had never seen happen before.

Within days, Aiden began to respond to commands and Jon, with his vent removed, was talking.

Carol requested prayer for Aiden’s facial reconstruction surgery — doctors found that facial fractures weren’t as extreme as they originally believed, and Carol noted how Aiden’s face looked amazing following the surgery.

“As part of the surgery, doctors had to wire Aiden’s jaw shut,” Carol said. “But Aiden had elected to take ASL (American Sign Language) in high school and due to that decision, he was able to communicate.”

Carol also shared a hidden miracle. Commonly, when CPR is done correctly, ribs are broken. Aiden had to be resuscitated five times, yet not one rib was fractured.

Throughout the first several weeks, Jon and Aiden had blood clots in different locations, yet they all dissipated. And then, on Dec. 23, doctors shared that both Jon and Aiden were “ahead of the curve” (ahead of expectations) in their recovery.

Carol also asked for prayer for Owen as he faced emotional and mental struggles. As time passed, God gave Owen a peace and assurance.

The neurosurgeon told Carol that he was 99.5% sure Aiden was going to need a permanent shunt — no option. They prayed over Aiden, asking God to intervene. Four days later, the neurosurgeon reversed his decision — this time, no explanation.

“The doctor who released him (Aiden, from acute care) said that she has been amazed at how far he has progressed considering the severity of his injuries,” Carol reported.

Some of the other prayer requests Carol made over the next six months included: Aiden experiencing no additional falls (he had fallen out of his hospital bed), his vision be fully restored (he was legally blind), his clarity and memory be restored, movement in his left hand and wrist be restored, his neck be completely healed so his neck collar could be removed, and surgery for his skull replacement to be approved and be successful. For Jon, in addition to earlier requests concerning his memory, prayer was asked for full use of his right arm and strength and feeling to return to his injured leg.

Over the past nine months since the accident, nearly every prayer request has either been fulfilled or has seen progress toward fulfillment. Aiden’s biggest challenge that remains is his eyesight, which is slowly improving. Jon has seen improvement in his arm and leg.

Aiden even met a friend and ran a mile on the track with his old cross country team this summer. His first attempt to run distance since the accident, he clocked an 8:49 mile, and a week or so later ran a 5-mile course during the heat of the day (90 degrees) on the streets of Peoria with a friend, who acted as his guide. He’s also recently led worship at his church and, with his left hand and wrist mobility now restored, has started playing the guitar and saxophone again.

(This concludes Part 1 of a two-part article. Part 2 reveals the Posts’ faith and struggles behind the miraculous and how God is using their difficult journey to bring glory to His name.)