I Almost Burned to Death

Church of God Evangel May 12/ 1975

When I returned home from the church on Wednesday afternoon, May 9,1973; my wife told me she smelled gasoline fumes. I went to the basement of the parsonage to check and found that a gasoline can had leaked on the floor. In a split second, heat from the furnace ignited the gas and it exploded. I was set aflame.

I tried to climb out of the window because the flames were between the staircase and me. Upon the first attempt to get out of the window, I could not make it. I prayed, "God, you've got to help me or I will burn to death!" After this prayer, I was able to climb out.
My wife was in the yard hanging out clothes. She quickly smothered the flames.

I was rushed to a local hospital but the doctor said he could not help me. I was then rushed by ambulance to the Intensive Care Burn Unit of the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. The doctor told me that he would have to lacerate my legs or they would burst. Sixty-three percent of my body was burned and the doctors did not expect me to live.
My wife called many Church of God people, including the Prayer Vigil at General Headquarters. Just a few days later God came to me in a vision. I saw heaven open and the prayers of God's people going through to the Father.

During the Illinois Camp Meeting, I asked for five ministers to come and pray for me. On Tuesday, the doctors had told me the ligaments of my left leg were still exposed and they would be unable to graft new skin. On Wednesday, the ministers came. Two entered the burn unit and laid hands on me and the other three entered the hospital chapel and prayed. We had the assurance that God had answer prayer.

On Friday, the doctor came and told me that skin had begun to grow and that they would now be able to graft skin. God was with my family and me through eight surgeries of skin graft and nineteen blood transfusions. I am alive today because of the mercy of God and God's children who prayed, fasted and wept before God on my behalf.

Harvey Mitchell
Sesser, Illinois