Explosions
by Sharon Hill

It was 9:12 a.m. on April 16 when a small Texas town suffered the worst industrial accident in the history of our nation. A father was drinking coffee from a green mug. His eleven-year-old son headed to school on his bicycle. The mother finished getting ready for work and was helping her four-year-old daughter put on her patent leather shoes to go to her grandmother’s house for the day.

All of a sudden, there was a loud boom outside. The house shook.

The mother ran to the front door to look out. Within a few seconds, that same door fell on her, severely breaking her collarbone. The little girl rushed to look out of two large windows in the bedroom. At that very second, the windowsill flew over her head, missing her by a few inches. Although she was sprayed with glass from the windows, she suffered only one small cut inside her lip. A miracle!

Texas City was a small town of 15,000 people, surrounded by chemical refineries along the coast of Texas, near Galveston. A French freighter, the Grand Camp, carrying ammonia nitrate fertilizer entered the ocean port, on fire, and exploded in the harbor near Monsanto Chemical Plant, only two miles from this family’s home. This set off a chain reaction of explosions to two other chemical factories.

The Texas City Explosion is said to have had the force of an atomic bomb.

• 580 people were killed (including the entire Fire Department).
• One out of every three people were disabled or
• Every home was destroyed or badly

The roof lifted off this family’s small frame two-bedroom home and the house was picked up and turned on the foundation blocks. Their postman, who was delivering the neighbor mail, was blown to dust. The high school gymnasium converted to a morgue.

Riding her tricycle down the sidewalk just a few miles away, in a small town called La Marque, was another little girl. Her name was Kay Bailey, Former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the first woman to represent Texas in the United States Senate. That day, Kay also felt the ground shaking beneath her tricycle.

Pieces and chunks of the Grand Camp covered the city. When this family drove down the alley to leave town, a piece of the ship lodged in his car, puncturing a hole in the radiator. That caused them to stop many times to add water. Yes, in fact, that was my family. I was the little girl, and I still have a piece of the ship found in our front yard that terrible day.

Because of the many ambulances, fire trucks, emergency vehicles, and hundreds of people badly burned or injured, we could not get medical help for my mother, so we left town to drive to my grandmother’s house in Aransas Pass, Texas.

Although we were posted on the city’s Missing List, presumed dead, we were survivors of the Texas City Explosion and that was a day God had his hand on my life, and the lives of my family. It was a day I will never forget.

Can you think of a time in when God had His hand on your life?

Little did I know at the time there would be many more explosions in my life.

I met someone who left a huge impact on my life. I would go back to her words many times when the explosions of life tried to take me down.

Following the Texas City Explosion, we moved to another house in Texas City. A woman named Mrs. Frank lived across the street. Mrs. Frank and her family had been missionaries in India. Although I grew up in a church, we never carried our Bible to church, read the Bible in our home, or prayed as a family. But when I was six years old, I would run across the street to visit Mrs. Frank. She would tell me about Jesus and pray for me. There were Bibles and many pictures of Jesus in the Frank’s home. Even though I was just a little girl, I had a hunger to learn about God.

One night I had a dream. I dreamed I saw Jesus’ head surrounded by a large cloud. When I awoke, I could hardly wait to run across the street and tell Mrs. Frank.

“Mrs. Frank, I had a dream about Jesus. He was dressed in a white robe and surrounded by a cloud.”

Mrs. Frank was pleased and continued to tell me more about God and His love for me. Then as time passed, I would have the same dream again. There He was, dressed in a white robe surrounded by a cloud. With excitement I would race across the street. “Mrs. Frank, Mrs. Frank. I had that dream about Jesus!” “Oh, Sharon,” she would say. “Jesus loves you very much.”

Over the next few months, I had the same dream several times and would always run as fast as my little legs would carry me to tell Mrs. Frank.

Then one night, I had the dream, but this time it was different. Jesus was there, surrounded by that cloud. I dreamed He stretched out His arm, draped in a white robe with long sleeves, and He moved His arm and hand to the right toward me. I raced across the street so fast I nearly broke my legs. I couldn’t wait to tell Mrs. Frank about this dream.

“Oh, Sharon” Mrs. Frank said, “Jesus loves you very much and He is inviting you to Himself.” And then Mrs. Frank said these words, “Sharon, you are specially chosen.”

“Specially chosen.”

Throughout my life, I often thought about that dream and Mrs. Frank’s words. As I went through many deep valleys in the years that followed (as maybe you have too), I never forgot those four encouraging words:

“You are specially chosen.”

And to my recollection, these were the first words of encouragement about Jesus, spoken into my life.

A few years later at a Christian Youth Camp, at age nine, I understood more about God’s plan of salvation. I prayed to receive Christ into my life as my personal Savior. As I grew older, I understood that anything I think, do or say that breaks the heart of God is sin but when I confess my sins, those are taken care of on the cross and forgotten. I came to know and understand God’s wonderful promise found in Psalm 138:8 (NKJ): “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”

Growing up, I was fortunate my mother always took me to church but my father did not attend. He was an alcoholic, which brought me much pain and embarrassment. It was difficult to invite friends over because I did not know how my father would act.

However, my father loved me very much and I loved him. He called me his “princess.” On occasion, I would talk to him about Jesus but I am not certain he ever surrendered his life to Him.

With on-and-off dysfunction at home, I wanted nothing more than to leave home and get married as soon I could. I wanted to have my own home, a Christian home, with no alcohol where I could bake bread, make curtains, and have babies.

Upon graduation from high school, I did just that. I married a Christian man who planned to complete college and attend seminary. Through my eyes, the candlelight wedding was second to Princess Kate’s wedding, complete with a large performing choir and five hundred people attending. My father was able to give me away at the wedding and he was proud of his beautiful princess, adorned in a magnificent wedding dress.

My father later died at age 54 from a sudden heart attack. It was no coincidence that years later, I came across a small plaque with my name and title, Sharon PRINCESS. It reminded me of my father. The scripture inscribed on the plaque was John 15:16 (KJV): “I have chosen you.” That was the message spoken by Mrs. Frank and I again claimed that promise for my life.

As our new life together began and continued, my husband ended up dropping out of college and having many different kinds of jobs. Life was very unstable. There were times we had little or no money. Then to my shock, my husband came home one day, on my birthday, to announce he was leaving me and our children for a woman we both knew. She was four months pregnant with his baby.

It was another explosion going off in my life. I was devastated. Yes, I was abandoned at the age of twenty-five with three small children. In agony, I cried out to God and screamed these words, “But Mrs. Frank, you said I was specially chosen!”

I didn’t understand. This doesn’t happen to Christians, I thought. How could this happen to me, and my precious children?

A few days later after many hours of tearful prayers and walking in disbelief, I found the strength to call my children around me (ages one, three, and five), and tell them their father would not be living with us anymore. I assured them we had God and His love, we had each other, and we would be just fine. To my surprise, my five-year-old son then asks me this question, “Mom, is it okay if I sit at the head of the table?” And that is exactly what he did.

I sought godly counsel and of course had Biblical grounds for divorce, but I certainly was embarrassed, as a Christian, to be a divorcee. It was like a mark on my forehead. At the time, we had been youth directors in our church for over two hundred teenagers. Humiliating.

The day came when my lawyer and I went to court. Seven years of marriage was over in about three minutes. As we walked out of the courthouse the lawyer said, “Well, Sharon, you are a free woman.” A free woman? I didn’t want to be a free woman. All I wanted was to have a Christian home, bake bread, make curtains, and have babies. I found myself walking alone around the courthouse calling out to God for peace and comfort in the midst of the most recent explosion. And I cannot explain how powerfully I felt His loving arms around me. As we read in the scriptures, I knew Jesus became my husband for this season of my life. I had a supernatural peace.

I spent many hours in God’s Word and in prayer. By God’s grace, I became stronger each day. I wrote my way to healing in a journal. I became a survivor and provider for my little family. I went on to work for a marketing company owned by Christian friends and became a conference speaker. At age twenty-five I stood in front of thousands of distributors across the nation as a trainer and motivational speaker. I often shared my testimony about the love and grace of God. I knew that no matter what the people in the audience were experiencing I wanted to give a word of hope and encouragement by telling about what God had done in my life, regardless of the loss and circumstances.

I was single less than a year and remarried a man, who loved my children and adopted them. We all had the same last name; that was a huge thing to me. We moved into a beautiful home and had a fourth child, a beautiful daughter. Life was luxurious. I had live-in maids, we traveled as a couple and as a family, had a large hunting lease, enrolled our children in Christian schools, and were both very involved with our children’s activities and sports. We went on fishing trips, ski trips and wonderful vacations.

But following what began as a wonderful Cinderella story I found myself, five years later, living with a man who entertained his customers a lot and became an alcoholic. He was a man who, to my surprise, did not know Christ. In fact, he was an abusive alcoholic. As his addiction to alcohol spiraled out of control, my children suffered from the abuse and emotional pain of a dysfunctional home. Oh, you might have read about us in the society column of the newspaper but behind closed doors, life was worse than words can express.

Everyone handles pain in different ways. How about you? Have you ever coped with depression by overeating, overusing prescription drugs, alcohol, or other drugs and mind changing chemicals? God can help you through your pain.

I suffered the most severe pain a mother can ever experience. Because of the abuse and dysfunction, some of my teenagers began using drugs and alcohol to mask their pain. They began making poor choices, resulting in serious consequences. One son was incarcerated many times for DUI’s.

After twelve years of marriage, and for our own safety, I was forced to leave husband #2 and file for divorce. Although I again had Biblical grounds for the split, I experienced embarrassment as a Christian, devastation, and severe heartache. It was another explosion, leaving my life in rubble. I would often think of Mrs. Frank and those words she spoke into my life years earlier. “You are specially chosen.”

And this time, somehow in my spirit, despite the wreckage around me, I knew I was. You see, Mrs. Frank left words of encouragement that became a lifeline.

God began to rebuild my life after this when I launched a successful career as President of an international marketing company with over three thousand women. The success of this company brought recognition on television, radio, magazine, newspapers, and presentations, including one to the White House staff and wives of Senators on Capitol Hill. My company was formed and operated back in the 1980’s. Although I was President and responsible for the success, products and sales of the company, it was owned by a holding company who held the purse strings. Unfortunately, when the oil crash hit the economy, my company suffered cash flow problems and came to an end.

Although I lived in a large home with a Cadillac in the driveway, I was without title and a job. I was overqualified for jobs or they underpaid. With two hundred people every day walking out of their houses and over 20,000 foreclosures in the Houston area, I could not sell my home. I soon spent my savings to survive and became almost penniless. I did get a job but the pay was not much. I spent two years in what I call the desert. Those were the days God didn’t say yes or no. It seemed like he didn’t say anything at all on what I should do next. Have you ever had that experience?

I fasted and prayed a lot. I grew leaps and bounds spiritually. Many times, God pulls out treasures from the wreckage.

One day I was invited to a friend’s home in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to hear a speaker. Across the room, I eyed the best-looking man I had ever seen in my life. Ronnie Hill. He had received Christ just five days earlier. He was almost forty years old and had never married. I was a grandmother. To bring our lives together, there was a lot of work to do, but God can do all things. We dated long-distance for twenty months and were married in the same living room where we met. This was indeed one of God’s miracles, all part of His perfect timetable. God knew I needed a “gentle” man, and that is what I received when He gave me Ronnie. The Scripture that best tells our story is found in Job 42:12 (KJV): “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job (Sharon & Ronnie) more than the beginning.”

Recently, I came across another scripture in the Living Bible that jumped right off the page, and best tells my entire story: “For I have specially chosen you, said the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:23 TLB).

I could not believe my eyes! Those were the exact words Mrs. Frank spoke over my life as a small child. I cherished that verse from that point on.

Many people ask how I survived these life explosions, full of pain and trauma. The answer is I learned about the power of prayer and journaling. I learned to write my way to healing and how to hear from God on paper. That led me to author the OnCall Prayer Journal.

I’ve also learned there will always be explosions in life, some larger than others. About three years ago, due to circumstances, my alcoholic son became homeless. He lived and slept under a bush in a vacant lot in the frigid cold weather for six months. The pain in my heart was so intense I could hardly breathe or function. That was when God said to me, “Sharon, you have been praying all these years that your son be delivered from alcohol. Your son drinks to mask pain. This is how I want you to pray for him: “Pray that he will feel my love; “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that he may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18-19).

And next I want you to pray these five steps:

1. The scales will fall from his eyes (Acts 9:18).
2. For total surrender (Joshua 22:5).
3. God would remove the heart of stone and give him a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).
4. He will have a hunger for God’s Word (Deuteronomy 4:29).
5. He will become a mighty man of God (Zechariah 10:7 and Psalm 112:1-2).

With that Word from God, I then prayed this prayer: “Lord, you gave me Your Son, and now I give you mine.”

Today God is doing a great work in my son’s life.

Everyone has a story. Everyone has their own explosions that detonate in their lives. Maybe you can relate to some of mine. Like me, we don’t always understand why some things happen or why we suffer pain. God does not promise us a life without problems. But He does promise us He will carry us through the pain. He carried me through devastation many times. And He will carry you out of the wreckage. God says, He will never leave you or forsake you. He certainly never left me.

I know I am specially chosen. You are too.

Sharon Hill is the Founder of OnCall Prayer, Inc. She is also President of Fellowship of Professional Women and the Executive Director for Christian Women in Media Association. Sharon is the author of the OnCall Prayer Journal and The Power of Three-How a Protective Shield of Intentional Prayer Can Transform Your Life.www.OnCallPrayer.org