This story has been edited to correct the date of the accident.

On June 4, Mike Parry, pastor of Fruitland Community Church, was driving his church’s van with six other volunteers to Rayville, Louisiana, on a mission trip.

At an intersection, soon after crossing into Arkansas, the van collided with a tractor-trailer. Parry said the stop sign for the truck was on the ground, and the driver didn’t see it.

“The people in the car behind us saw everything and said we were gonna get T-boned,” Parry said. “I felt the same way so I put on the brakes, he went ahead of us, and we slid into him. It did pretty good damage. Church vans aren’t supposed to meet semi-trucks, right?”

Parry and Eric Macintyre, who was in the front passenger seat, were seriously injured and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The five other passengers, with injuries ranging from broken bones to cuts and bruises, were taken to a nearby hospital in Arkansas.

Mike ParrySoutheast Missourian file

“I had a lot of blunt force trauma,” Parry said. “I was the driver of our vehicle, and I blacked out so I can’t give you a lot of details. I can tell you I probably hit the air bag and steering wheel. My stomach was thrown up into my diaphragm. My diaphragm was herniated. My left lung collapsed, and then I had a rib cracked, and then my shoulder blade had two cracks in it.”

Parry said he had emergency surgery and was in the hospital trauma center for six days. Parry said he’s doing well and jokingly tells people he’s 98% recovered. He said he missed about seven weeks of preaching, but he’s back to preaching every Sunday working full days and even playing racquetball.

“I’m not saying I don’t need prayer anymore,” Parry said. “I would always take prayer, and I’m grateful for all the prayers since this happened, but Eric’s the one who still needs prayer for his recovery.”

Parry said Macintyre suffered a broken neck and had a serious concussion. Macintyre recently had surgery on his rotator cuff to help allow his neck to continue healing.

Parry said he’s been amazed by how many people told him they were praying for him and the others hurt in the accident.

“We had more people, more churches praying, and we received cards from churches we did not even know who said they were praying,” Parry said. “I would be out and about telling people the story in a restaurant and then a stranger in a booth next to us would say, ‘We heard about that. Our church was praying, too,’ and that happened time and time again.”

Of course, the mission trip had to be canceled after the accident, but Parry said after they heard what happened, one of the missionaries came up to Fruitland to help.

“She came up to check on us and speak to our church,” Parry said. “She helped organize our youth mission project, and they painted Eric’s deck. The church down in Rayville sent us a really nice card and a love offering to help any victims that needed it.”

Parry said he wants everyone to know he’s extremely grateful for all the concern expressed to their team, all the prayers that were offered and mostly thankful to God for his mercy and helping them to recover.

“We are grateful for the fact that we’re here and healthy,” Parry said. “We’re grateful we had so much care expressed in our direction, so much prayer expressed for us.”