“Life changes in an instant.”

~Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

I’ve never walked through fire.

But I know how it feels to answer the phone and have your life change instantly through an unexpected tragedy.

On a day when he was scheduled to be off work in August of 1999, David Bowers walked through the doors of the industrial gas plant where he worked. He planned to be there for a short time, just to get some extra work done.

He came back through those doors later that day, facing a 125 percent mortality rate, with 94 percent of his body severely burned in a plant explosion.

Walk Through Fire, by Carly & David Bowers, tells the inspirational story of this couple and their two small children, whose comfortable lives were turned upside down through David’s sudden and life-altering accident.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that they tell the story, chapter by chapter, from both his and her perspectives. They take us with them into the hours and days just after the accident, so that we experience their story through the eyes of the injured and the one desperate to see him through.

In the hospital’s burn unit, their days could be summarized, “Pray. Hope. Wait. Repeat.” (page 70)

Along the way, David amazed doctors with better-than-expected recovery, but he also faced numerous surgeries, various infections, and many other challenges along the way.

After four long months in the burn unit, David was moved to a rehab hospital, where both of them faced the reality that their lives would never be the same.

When David was able to move back home again, they were incredibly grateful for how far God had brought them. But they also dealt with intense fears and anxieties, and their children needed help navigating a new way of life.

In those desperate times, they began to discover the truth of Nehemiah 8:10~For the joy of the Lord is your strength.

On the one-year anniversary of the accident, they opened their doors and threw a big party, to celebrate David’s life and recovery. The tradition stuck, and they’ve celebrated every year since.

David and Carly knew they could easily get lost in the misery of this tragedy and fix their eyes on all they had lost. Instead, they chose to get busy living, to find joy and hope in the Lord.

“I’ve learned, through fire of the body and struggles of the soul, that God goes before me. And He will always prepare my way.” (David Bowers, page 257)

They made a deliberate choice, to believe in a God who brings light into the darkest places.

This book will encourage and inspire you, and I highly recommend it. If you or someone you love have been through a life-changing hardship, please let David and Carly encourage you with their hopeful perspective, as they share their story of growing stronger in faith through this adversity.

Click here to find out more about Walk Through Fire, and to receive the first chapter in your inbox for free!

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