Dear everyone: I have been meaning to get this email out. I apologize for not having done so sooner. I therefore relate the following facts as they happened in narrative style:   There I was on a brisk windy day in downtown Tijuana. I had been on a kind of mini quest trying to find a Christian bookstore which is an arduous task in itself. It must have taken me quite some time trekking up and down the dusty streets trying to find this particular bookstore as I kept asking for directions along the seemingly continuous row after row of pharmacias (drug stores) which are nestled in amongst the ubiquitous bars and nightclubs. I even was stopped and cornered by a group of local policemen who assumed I was price shopping the various drug stores wanting to load up on drugs to transport back to the US. As it turned out (after I was frisked) I struck up a conversation with one of the policeman who told me the reason he spoke such good English was because he grew up in an American supported orphanage in T.J. Since I had a good Marine Corps style haircut that also helped me... I was Scott free (no pun intended).   Given a new pedestrian bill of health I continued on far away from the hubbub of city congestion to find myself crossing a street corner when out of the corner of my eye I saw a taxi driver (taxista) barreling around the corner as I was three quarters having made it to the other side. It's one of those quintessential moments that (and I'm not kidding) time literally stands still and you then proceed in a kind of quasi surrealistic slow motion. I remember thinking three times: "he's going to stop; he's going to stop; he's going to stop" and then BAAAAAM! I literally went flying through the air.

If (and I say this in the subjunctive tense) I had not gotten my right leg out in front of my left leg (which caught the brunt of the impact) and if I were a half second more slower - I would have been "under the car" and not writing this email. You would have been saying what a nice guy Scott was and hopefully he practiced what he preached... I would have made it to the great city in the sky where the streets are made of gold. But alas, God had different plans for me.   I was now immediately confronted with an excruciating "wall of pain" that cascaded down my left leg and I mentally struggled to keep my bearings insomuch that I wouldn't pass out. I also fought to assure myself that I was still alive and not go into shock. I tried to re-acclimatize myself with my surroundings and reassess the situation. All that good Marine Corps training did pay off... I knew mentally that I had at least a simple fracture and quite possibly a compound fracture at worst. I tried not to look down since I figured it would not be good for my morale. In any event, the gregarious taxi driver speed off as if nothing happened and didn't even bother to stop. Realizing this in itself to me at the time was quite shocking because when you're in a mountain of pain reality really does stand still on a pin head and something as climactic as getting hit by a car; flying through the air; and the person not stopping seems quite immoral. That in itself would put a person in shock.   The reality I was now facing would soon take a wry twist and become even more surreal and bizarre. As I’m trying to gather my bearings in the course of me flying through the air things went flying as well. I had a pocket mini organizer/dictionary/Bible that lay a few feet from me. I also witnessed a man who was pushing a cart who immediately proceeded to throw down a shirt over the electronic device and then wrap it up and throw it in the cart. I was incredulous almost to a state of unbelief. Also at the same time another man approached me and asked what I did for a living. Somehow, I just knew that Rod Steiger would pop out from a corner and tell me this was indeed the “Twilight Zone”...

As I picked myself up in consonance with the mind-boggling intense pain I argued with the “thief” that I demanded my pocket Bible back. He finally conceded even though he was lying through his teeth that he didn’t have it. I didn’t know what was worse - the fact that he was lying or all the pain I had. At any rate, I then turned all my attention to the man asking me what I did for a living since he kept asking. I was at the point of telling him where to go when all of a sudden I heard a loud inaudible voice that said “pray for him NOW”. So I said to myself “OK, great, why not (in a sardonic kind of way); all the while I felt like I was some kind of actor in a very strange plot. I told him I was helping to build houses (at that time) for the poor in Mexico. He said “wow, that’s what I do is construction”, and he asked me to give him a job for pay. After I explained that all the work was pro bono he looked very sad and dejected and started to walk away. I was still in a mountain of pain but I said - look, here’s a little cash and since I’m a Christian - let me pray for you... I then proceeded to pray for this man on this busy, crazy, downtown street in Tijuana Mexico that most Americans wouldn’t be caught dead on (albeit the fact I almost was)....   Just as I finished praying for him - he thanked me and walked away. As soon as he walked away; absolutely, positively, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 100%, I had NOT a single trace of pain. NONE. In essence I went from the shock of having pain so bad that I almost passed out to now having no pain whatsoever. And now I was in a state of shock for having no pain!!! I remember looking around me on that busy garbage infested street walking uphill thinking - there’s no way, there’s no way,,, Right at that very moment the same loud inaudible voice said to me - “remember, you are a spiritual being having a human experience”. So, I walked up the street about half a mile more after I pondered that statement and I replied - OK, I finally understand that Lord; but why does it have to hurt so much??? I don’t know for sure - but I think I heard God laugh.   Scott Sepanek - missionary for God (anytime/anyplace)   Post Script: - This all happened a few years ago and to this day - I have absolutely no pain...