September 21, 2019, started out like just any other day. Jaxon Dickens was riding the tractor with his dad just like he had so many times before. But this time was different.
In a split moment, Jaxon fell off of the tractor and was run over. His tiny 4-year-old body lay trapped underneath the tractor as everyone rushed to him to dig him out.
His mom, Amanda Moore, was over 4 hours away in Franklin, Indiana, clueless as to what was going on. All she knew was that her son was hanging out on the farm with his dad just like he always did. Then, she got a phone call that changed her life.
“She says, ‘Amanda, don't freak out but Jaxon has been in an accident,’” Amanda said. “‘He was ran over by a tractor and he is currently going to be lifelined to the trauma center…’ I don't recall much after that. I think I just kind of went numb. Like, is this a joke? What is happening?”
That was all she was told — he was run over. She was 4 hours away from her son with no idea about how he was doing or if he was even alive.
She immediately called her parents, who raced her over to the trauma center in Champagne, Illinois. There, what she saw broke her heart.
She entered the emergency room and immediately saw his father, who was as pale as a ghost, couldn't move or speak, and looked beyond traumatized. Doctors were racing in and out of the room in a blur. She then turned as she heard her son cry, “Ow that hurt,” the sight made her sick to her stomach.
Jaxon was strapped to a board with a neck brace on. His blood was everywhere. He had a road rash all over the right side of his body and a gash over his eye. The entire side of his face was scabbed, and his eye was swollen shut and filled with dirt. His body was swollen. He had IVs everywhere.
He immediately noticed her presence and called for her.
“Mom,” he called out.
“Hey, buddy,” she said back.
“I got ran over by a tractor,” he said, trying to be brave.
“I know,” she replied back. What else could she say at that moment? There, her full-of-life 4-year-old was strapped down and somehow still alive, even though there was no reason he should’ve been in that moment.
That moment was the beginning of what would be a very long week for their family.
Amanda and Jaxon didn’t grow up in church. Before the accident, if you had asked either of them about God, they would’ve laughed and said they didn’t believe. Jaxon went to a Christian preschool, but Amanda wasn’t raising him in the church or to believe in a God.
All Amanda could do some nights was just pace back and forth outside, worrying about her son and trying not the think of the worst. During the first night of her pacing, she noticed a chapel at the hospital. This chapel wasn't anything special — just a small room with a couple of pews that had a funny smell to it.
Amanda felt called to walk inside and immediately started crying once she made it through the doors.
“I remember praying and asking, ‘Please don't take him from me.’ Basically begging because at that time we didn't really know what was happening. We didn't even know what the aftermath was gonna be like. If there was permanent brain damage? We just didn't know it's too early to tell,” Amanda cried.
As the days went on, they learned that Jaxon had sustained no permanent brain damage. 7 days later, he walked out of the hospital with a crack in his skull, one broken rib, a scar above his eye, and completely blind in one eye. It was a miracle.
Amanda made the decision to let Jaxon stay with his dad after the hospital visit. Both Jaxon and his dad were traumatized by what happened, but Amanda knew that they both needed to heal from this together.
On the last day, as they packed their stuff and started loading the car up again, Amanda passed by the chapel. She hadn’t been in there since the first night, but she felt called to go back. She went back in the chapel and immediately started saying thank you.
“I got to take my son home with two feet and two arms. He was laughing, and I shouldn't have done that. We should have buried him that day. He was dug out from the dirt under a tractor tire at four years old,” Amanda said through her tears.
After returning home, Amanda felt like she needed to find a home church where she could give back to the community. After lots of research, Amanda found Emmanuel Church’s Franklin Campus. As soon as they walked into the building, they immediately felt at home, and have since joined the Impact Team in the Kids Ministry.
As the years went on, Amanda thought about being baptized, and so did Jaxon. But she was worried that he wasn’t old enough to understand it and wanted to wait so they could be baptized together at the Franklin Campus.
During Reset Nights, Amanda and Jaxon watched online because Jaxon had soccer practice. After seeing the spontaneous baptism on night 2, they knew it was time for them to be baptized and to go to Reset in person the next day. Jaxon looked at his mom and told her that they had to do it.
August 15, during Reset Nights, both Amanda and Jaxon were baptized. Since that night, they have both decided to step into more serving opportunities and have seen a positive impact on their life.
It’s been 4 years since the accident happened and months since they were both baptized, but the main takeaway Amanda has had from the experience is that the power of prayer does work. Even though she was not a believer, she prayed, and her community prayed for healing for Jaxon. Now he is an active 8-year-old boy who loves to tell others the story about how God saved him.
“The power of prayer does work,” Amanda said. “It may not be the outcome that you want immediately. But in the end, it is a positive outcome. You just have to wait.”