A Collision That Renewed My Cause

“I remember seeing headlights. I remember seeing headlights, but it was one of those moments where can I react quick enough?”

“And that's the last thing that I remember is headlights.”

Just after midnight on August 29, 2022, 40-year-old pastor Rashad Cartwright was hit head on by a pick-up truck going the wrong way. Rashad and the other driver were trapped in the mangled wreckage.  

After being cut out of their vehicles, the two men were taken to a nearby hospital in Newport news, Virginia with injuries. Rashad’s were life-threatening: he was bleeding heavily from a fractured skull and numerous cuts and broken bones. Rescuers weren’t sure he would make it.

Soon after, his wife, Shanae was awakened by a phone call with the news.

“I just got in the car and I'm just like, oh my God. You know, I don't know what's going on. I don't know, you know, how bad is it? I, I just was so shocked,” Shanae said.

By the time Shanae arrived, her husband was stable and in and out of consciousness. Along with the skull and facial fractures, Rashad’s pelvis, left arm and leg were broken. He would make it, but the journey ahead was uncertain.

Shanae said, “He lost a lot of blood. They did report that. And I was concerned about that. But because he was talking, you know, he was spitting up a lot of blood. But he was talking, he was alert.”

Rashad said, “At that moment, you know, we preach, and I preach, we all as Christians, trust God. And in that moment, I didn't know what was going on with my body. So, I had to pray. I had to trust God.”

Family, friends, and their congregation at Little Piney Grove Baptist Church in Virginia Beach prayed as well.

Over the next 48 hours Rashad would have two surgeries to repair his pelvis and broken bones. Doctors were unsure, the man who loved to run and exercise, would walk without the aid of a cane or otherwise.

Shanae said, “The doctor is saying, we're going to monitor you. We don't know what it's going to look like in the weeks and months ahead. We just want to continue to monitor you. I remember Rashad asking I’m going to be able to walk ok, right?”

“I cannot move my leg. My arm is, is in a place that is, feel like it's had been torn apart,” said Rashad. “And so I am not sure that when this is over, if I’m able to walk again?”

Shanae said, “I was certainly asking God, you know, Lord, we need you. We need you to touch every doctor, to touch every, everyone involved in his care.”

It would take a month of recovery before Rashad was strong enough to be moved to a rehab facility. He was about to face a grueling journey to recovery.

Rashad said, “I'm still believing before I went to that physical therapy that I'm going to be up, I'm going to be, when I leave here, I'm going to be running, I'm going to be jumping. And when I had to first exercise, even sitting it down and just simple, like moving my leg, I said, okay, but let's reassess this. And after about a couple of days of that not seeing progress, and just that feeling defeated and feeling, is this going to get better? Is this going to, am I going to get to, at least not, not to run? Am I going to be able to, to walk?”

While the man who hit Rashad was later found guilty of wreck less driving, Rashad knew to be healed, he would have to forgive him.

“I prayed for that person because I recognized that the challenge that I was currently in, if I held anger and unforgiveness, I believe it would've altered and hindered my ability to get well,” said Rashad.

Two months after the accident, Rashad was released. Although he still needed a wheelchair they continued to believe for his complete healing.

“It was, it was time that I had to be stripped of it and recognize, listen, it's not about me. It's all about his glory,” said Rashad.

The progress was gradual as each day brought small improvements.  Then, in January of 2023, 4 months after the accident, Rashad returned to the pulpit fully recovered.

“And you better believe when I got back in that sanctuary and I got back and the power of God and the power of the people as we praise in the worship and the Lord at a moment when I had to run my lap,” said Rashad. “Because it's almost like if you knew what I've been through and knew the story and knew the journey and the transformation, you can understand the praise. And, and just from the people of so many people, just not about my story, but their story and their transformation and what God is doing within them, we rejoiced, uh, for the goodness of the Lord.”

Shanae said, “God is still getting the glory. Someone is, is seeing this and they're realizing, okay, God, if you could do that for them, what can you do for me?”

“And I just wanted to let folks know about what God is up to and that God is a miracle worker,” said Rashad.