CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS (ANS) -- A divisive spirit reared its ugly head in a Texas church until a young man suffered a catastrophic brain injury. As church members locked arms to pray for a healing miracle, another miracle happened -- the bitterness brewing in their midst suddenly vanished like a summer rain.

Nate Lytle

It started when the lead pastor and worship pastor announced they would leave their church in Victoria, Texas to plant a church in Tallahassee, Florida. Stunned church members were left shaking their heads, asking about their motives and wondering what would come next.

“All this brought division, with people going different ways,” says Nate Lytle, who was 23 at the time – and in many ways caught in the middle of the fracas. The departing pastors wanted Nate to go with them and become a youth pastor. Many in the Texas church wanted Nate to stay in the same role at his present church.

“I felt a lot of pressure; I didn’t know where God would take me,” Nate recalls. “I kept praying, ‘God, I want your will to be done in this whole thing. Use me and do whatever it takes to bring you glory.”

Shortly after Nate prayed this prayer, he was standing atop a ten-foot ladder, helping to unload a large metal pipe in the warehouse of his father’s industrial supply company. Nate’s father, Billy, was on the rack as they slowly eased the oil pipe out of its position.

Somehow they lost their grip and the massive pipe fell to the concrete floor. On its way down, it hit the bottom rung of the ladder and knocked Nate into a 10-foot freefall, sideways.

“It happened so fast I didn’t have time to react,” Nate says. “I tried to grab something, but there was nothing there.”

When he landed, Nate’s head hit the pipe with tremendous force. “My skull went on top of the pipe and it shattered like an egg.”

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