Gen-Z social media influencer Yamilexis Fernandez broke the cycle of witchcraft, addiction, and abuse in her family and now shares the Gospel through her platform. 

It was a beautiful day as 15-year-old Jade Seymour saddled her mustang, Kateri, for an afternoon ride with her friend, Sam. Jade’s mom, Rachel recalls, “When she left, she said, ‘Okay, Mom, I'm gonna go riding. We're leaving now.’ That's the last I heard from her.”  

They were about a mile from the house when something spooked Jade’s horse. Sam, who was in the lead, heard Jade yell and spun around to see her slide off and hit the ground… headfirst. Sam rushed to her side. Jade’s nose was bleeding and she was unresponsive. With no cell service in the remote area, Sam couldn’t reach 911. Reluctant to leave Jade, all he could do was yell for help.

Soon after, Jade’s mom, Rachel noticed the horses had returned alone. She recalls, “It was pretty common for me as a kid to, you know, get bucked off and walk home and-and have the horses come back by themselves and I called for the kids.” She got no answer…

Meanwhile, a neighbor had heard Sam’s yells for help and called 911. First responders were on the way. Deputy Brian Lunquist was the first to arrive. Deputy Lunquist recalls, “I immediately realized that Jade was in very serious condition. It was obvious that there was a brain injury of some sort.”

He immobilized her until the paramedics arrived a short time later. By then, a helicopter had been dispatched to the nearest open area. Deputy Lunquist says, “They just started talking getting everything stabilized and getting her down to the landing zone for the helicopter as quick as possible.”

Back at the house, Rachel recalls, “When I saw the fire truck go by, my stomach dropped. And that's when I knew something terrible had happened.” Rachel rushed down the road to find paramedics loading Jade into an ambulance. She says, “Her hair was matted with blood and dirt and blood, there was a lot of blood.”

The ambulance took Jade and Rachel to the waiting helicopter, that flew them to Valley Children’s Hospital near Fresno, California. Soon after, the hospital called Jade’s dad, Scott, who had been driving home from out-of-town. The information was sparse, and Scott prayed, struggling to stay calm. He says, “I knew there was a head injury. I didn't know if there was a neck or back. I knew it was grave enough to dispatch a helicopter out to our area.”

Doctor Molly Dorfman was the pediatric intensive care physician on duty when Jade arrived. Doctor Dorfman recalls, “When she first came in, she looked incredibly ill. She sort of came in and out of consciousness, to the point where she stopped protecting her airway, meaning her brain had sort of shut down a little bit.”

They called in pediatric neurosurgeon, Doctor Julia Sharma, to assess the CT scan of Jade’s brain. She says, “There was, what we call a contusion in the frontal lobe of the brain on the right side, which is kind of like a bruise within the brain or bleeding within the brain. When you have something that's expanding inside from swelling, and it's stuck against a closed space, which is the skull, the pressure will go up and up. Eventually, if that's left untreated, that will push the brain down through the narrow opening at the base of the skull and can lead to death.”

Doctors had Jade sedated and intubated, and prescribed medication to ease the swelling. Her chances of survival were high, but doctors didn’t know whether she’d ever be the same again. Doctor Sharma says, “I still wasn't sure how she would recover. Because we were seeing already some weakness on the opposite side of the body.”

The next 48 hours were critical, so Scott and Rachel asked others to join them in prayer. Rachel recalls, “The incessant prayer of, ‘God, please be with Jade. God, please help Jade. God, if you can bring her back, please bring her back,’ you know.”

Two days later Jade’s brain pressure was still critically high, forcing Doctor Sharma to perform a craniotomy, removing a large section of her skull to allow the brain room to expand.  While that brought the pressure to safe levels, Jade still wasn’t showing signs of improvement. Rachel says, “I looked at Dr. Sharma and I said, ‘She can fully recover from this, right?’ And she just put her eyes down and she said, ‘Um, we don’t know. We don't know yet.”

The waiting—and the prayer--continued. Rachel posted updates and prayer requests on Facebook. Scott says, “The prayers started pouring in, it was a huge comfort.” Rachel recalls, “I had a friend tell me, ‘Don't let anybody else define what only God can do.’ And that I held onto to the entire time we were there.”

Then, two days later on Thanksgiving… Rachel remembers, “She started to open her eyes and then she could move her right side.” Scott says, “We were finally given a tiny bit of hope. And it was given to us by God on Thanksgiving morning.” And that hope grew. The next day, Jade was able to follow simple commands and communicate with her hand. Doctor Dorfman recalls, “We were able to take the breathing tube out, which is incredible. And-and in doing that we were able to advance her care, get her to rehab, start working on those deficits that we knew she might have and try to get her back home again.”

Jade progressed through her physical, speech, and mental therapy with a speed that surprised her doctors. Doctor Sharma remembers, “All these things that can sometimes take a week to happen, she was kind of doing in the span of a day. That was remarkable. And that was really wonderful to see.”

Incredibly, less than a month after the accident, Jade went home. Jade says, “I got out of the hospital and I couldn't stop seeing the amazingness. Just being home and being able to see my family whenever I wanted to, see my brothers. And be back into a sense of normalcy was really, really important and huge for me.”

Six weeks later, Jade had the surgery to repair her skull. Today, life in the Seymour household is back to normal, except now, Thanksgiving takes on a deeper meaning for Jade and her family.

Scott says, “Every Thanksgiving we get to see the miracle that happened on that day that started turning the corner on that day.”

Rachel believes, “It's just a reminder of, like, life is precious. You know, you look around the table and you just go, ‘this could be so different. This could have been the worst holiday. And now it's the best.”

Elmer and his family spent a terror filled night when a Category 5 hurricane blasted through their home in Mexico. Elmer recalls, “I was scared. The storm was getting worse and the roof fell on us. We took shelter under some stairs, but a piece of the metal roof still hit my mom.”  

Elmer’s mother, Monica, described the aftermath, “The whole roof blew off. The tree looked like it was spinning. We just stayed together and held each other until morning.” 

After the disaster, Elmer heard that a church supported by Operation Blessing was providing hot meals and clean water for affected families. Elmer explains, “I went there, and they gave me food. I took a plate for my brother and for my mother.” Elmer also watched CBN’s Superbook at the church, met the story’s character, Gizmo, and learned how to trust God in tough times. Elmer shares, “God is good and powerful and I know that He will take care of us no matter what."

The Operation Blessing Team then went to visit Elmer’s home, where Elmer explains, “Our house is full of garbage that was flying around. We can't sleep because when it rains, and we get wet, I have asthma attacks.” Monica adds, “I'm afraid he's going to get pneumonia. And there is no hospital to take him to now.” 

Thanks to supporters of Operation Blessing, we provided Mónica and her family with new polycarbonate vinyl sheets for the roof. We also gave them food, a solar lamp, a mattress, and a tarp to temporarily cover the house until they could repair it. With help from their neighbors, they soon installed the new roof. Monica thankfully says, “Now we will finally sleep well.” 

Elmer shares his delight saying, “I felt very happy because it is a miracle that you helped us.” 

And when we explained to them how God had used people to help in the midst of the disaster, the whole family prayed to become Christians. Elmer gratefully insists, “I feel very excited knowing that one prayer can bring so many good things. I thank you very much.”

“I started to really realize,” Josh Clendenen recalls, “hey, alcohol provides me a release. Alcohol numbs my feelings for right now, I may wake up tomorrow and not feel good, but I'm not feeling depressed like I was.” Josh was 15 when he turned to alcohol to numb his depression. Three years earlier his parents divorced and Josh was living with his dad.  When his dad remarried, Josh was forced to change schools leaving him feeling isolated and abandoned. He says, “I really started to feel like, okay, my life is all over the place. There's no anchor. There's nothing steady about my life. I didn't think, God, where are you? Why is this happening? I just didn’t think about it.” Josh grew up afraid of God from listening to his dad’s ‘hell fire and brimstone’ sermons. After the divorce his dad stopped preaching and Josh’s view of God turned from fear to indifference. He recalls, “To be honest, I just didn't even think about God at that time. God wasn't even a factor in my life.”

Life was fine until junior high and his dad’s second marriage. That’s when the isolation and depression hit. Josh says, “I remember drinking to, to numb my feelings. Prior to that, it was just partying and going out and just having fun. I started to realize that there's a, there's a spot when I'm drinking that my cares would fall away, and I wouldn't cross into severe depression. So, I, if I could just find and maintain that spot, then, you know, I'm, I'm good.” After graduation Josh drifted from job to job. By now he was a budding alcoholic. Then, at 23, he joined the Air Force and married soon after. Josh recalls, “We just did not have a healthy marriage at all. We were basically just two people residing in the same place. Once we added our, our daughter, my oldest daughter, once we added her to the mix, it became a little bit more difficult.  I was still drinking, I should say, consistently through that time.”

A couple years later, he was selected for the elite Air Force squadron: the Thunderbirds. With Josh now on the road most of the year, his already struggling marriage ended bitterly. Josh says, “The hardest thing for me was that she took my daughter with her. And that was, when I really started to like drink, because I needed that numbing of my feelings.” After his divorce Josh started dating a fellow Thunderbird crewmember, Yvonne. They married in 2009 after both were honorably discharged. To them, life was a party, that is until, their first child was born.   Yvonne says, “I wanted a better life for our son, and I was determined to bring Jesus into it.” Yvonne had also grown up in church and like Josh, she’d never experienced God’s unconditional love. Still, she knew church is where they needed to be. Josh recalls, “I said, look, we can go to church, that's fine, but don't expect anything from me. I went to church because, I loved her. And because it was something I knew that she wanted.”

They found a church where Yvonne heard about God’s grace for the first time and rededicated her life to Jesus Christ. Yvonne recalls, “It was the first time I actually felt like he doesn't hate me. He's not mad at me. He actually loves me? To see yourself as forgiven. Like that's, that changes your life. Changed my life.” Josh says, “When I saw her light up, it made me happy that she was happy. But inside of me, there was this internal struggle. I didn't want her to be happy because I wasn't happy. I wanted her to be in the same place that I was in, with the same sorrow, with the same heaviness.” Meanwhile, Yvonne started to see the depths of her husband’s addiction. She recalls, “My thinking was, if this continues the way that it's going in the way that it's going, as fast as it's going, he's gonna die.” Josh says,  “I was so hooked with addiction that I couldn't get out of it. I was drinking a half gallon of vodka and a 24 pack of beer every two days.”

So, she started praying for him; hoping he could know the joy she’d found. Yvonne recalls, “I would anoint anything, any, anywhere that he would be, anywhere that I would be in this entire house. My biggest prayer was, whatever it takes God, do whatever it takes.” Then…. On January 5^th, 2014, while Josh was nursing a hangover in church, the pastor’s message got Josh’s attention. Josh recalls, “He's preaching out of Hebrews and he said these words, basically what Paul is saying is it's time to put down the bottle, grow up and be a man. And that hit me like an arrow straight to my heart.” Yvonne says, “I knew it had happened at that moment. I knew it got to his heart.  I was like, oh, thank you Lord. Thank you, Lord.” Josh recalls, “I told her, ‘I think the time has come for me to stop drinking.’ You have to understand that I had told God, look, if you ever want me to stop drinking, here's a laundry list of things. There can't be anything in my house that I can drink. I can't get alcohol. I don't want any hangovers or any cravings. I don't want any of this stuff.”

When they got home, Josh discovered there was no alcohol in the house and since it was Sunday, blue laws prohibited him from buying any. Josh recalls, “I said, God, you know, if this is really you, and you've really done this for me, then I will live my life for you, and I'll do anything that you ask me to. And from that day on, I never had one craving for alcohol.” That afternoon, Josh rededicated his life to God. He says, “When I felt God's grace and mercy in my life for the first time,  I was awestruck.” Yvonne says, “And it was like, I had met this new person, like I'd never met this guy before. I've never met him sober, ever. So, this was a totally new experience for me.” Today, Josh and Yvonne love to share that God’s grace is there for everyone who asks. Yvonne says, “Do not stop hoping that God's gonna do what He said He's gonna do 'cause He will, it may not be in the timing that you want, but don't give up because He is working whether you see it or not. He's working.” Josh concludes, “All you have to do is just say, God, can you help me? God has never left nor forsaken you. He is always right beside you. God is always right there. There's always hope for you. And He's just waiting. He's just waiting for you.”