By Ryan Lindsey

Only by the grace of God am I even still here; and for that reason, I am writing this for the sole (soul) purpose of glorifying God.

I grew up in the sandhills of Nebraska, on a smaller family ranch. You would have to drive at least an hour in any direction to find a stoplight. Even then, you are most likely to only find one. It was a very rural area with way more cattle than people. It was a wonderful place to be brought up. If memory serves me, when I was in the 3rd grade, I attended something called The Good News Club. This is where I first accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I would say I sort of understood what that meant, but definitely not close to the full extent. My parents were good to me but not exactly lovey-dovey. They were not the church-going type—there were seldom church services held in a bar. My grandma Anna, however, was a church-attending Godly woman. She was the only spiritual influence I remember. Grandma would make sure to take me to church with her when she could. She also got me into summer Bible school on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away when I was reaching the seventh grade. For as good as my childhood was, I always seemed to have some sort of a hole or a void inside me. This feeling, as I recall, only grew larger after Grandma passed.

Rodeo is big in Nebraska and there was a history of it in our family. I had started riding calves at Jr. rodeos by the age of 5. This moved to steers and the natural progression by 13 or 14 into bull riding. The first year or two of attempting to be competitive did not go as planned. After enough buck-offs of colts, you are breaking on the ranch or bulls at rodeos, and you need to figure out how to improve. I have always seemed to have plenty of determination. Whatever I try to do, I want to be the best. An all-or-nothing mentality. With some focus and practice, my bull riding took a turn for the better. I ended up winning the state high school rodeo finals, qualifying for the national high school rodeo finals three times. I ended one year being tied for 6th in the nation. This led to a college scholarship and then riding in the professional ranks. However, at college when we would practice, I started stepping in for protection purposes. The next thing I knew, I had found a passion for fighting bulls! Like everything else, if I was going to do this, I strived to be the best I could be. Over the next 13 – 14 years, I managed to be voted the

bullfighter of the year 7 or 8 times. I was able to work many pro bull riding events all over the Midwest as well.

By around 30 years old, although my rodeo career was doing fine, my personal life was pretty messy. I still had that unexplained void in my life. It was a strange but very real pain inside of me and I could not find a pill for it. My pill of choice was alcohol, and I turned to that in to hope of dulling the pain. After two previous marriages, one resulting in a wonderful little boy (Dakota), I met my current bride. She had a cute little boy (Zach) of her own. Three years later, we got married and very soon brought home a gorgeous little sister (Jaeden). At this point, it was very evident that I needed to learn to live life without the bottle. It had already cost me many precious things and was threatening to take the rest. Only by the grace of God, once again, I was able to get there after a long road. I knew I had to change my playground, so I retired from rodeo, and we relocated. God had given me the strength to turn my attention from drinking to trying to be a good father and husband. That being said, the void was still present. It may have lessened just a bit, as I was fighting it and putting all my focus on my family. I did not realize at the time, but that is where I was still missing the picture. Family can be a close second…but God has got to be number one! (This memory just hit me, and I am jumping ahead here, but it seems important. ….. Our youngest daughter, Jessica Ryechel, understood this even at a young age. When I would tuck her in at bedtime, she would remind me that I was her number two dad and that God is number one!)

We had another beautiful daughter (Jessica). After starting a new chapter of life in a new state and some job hopping for one reason or another, I finally found a decent job. (Still there today!) At this point, we were occasionally attending church and taking the children to kid’s programs on Wednesday evenings. We knew we needed to somehow give the kids a foundation of faith at the very least. And this seemed like what we were supposed to do. We were living what I would call the “American Christian” life. As we were celebrating Jessica’s 6th birthday party… the unimaginable happened. We had eaten some of the birthday cake, and the kids at the party ran back to the swimming beach at the park to get in one last dip. I walked over to the trees right alongside the beach to grab a couple of small branches for roasting marshmallows. That never happened. We hollered for the kids, and they all came running … except Jessica. As my heart sank and a panicked search began, what you don’t want to even think became reality. When I reached the edge of the beach, I scanned and could only see a clump of floating hair. I ran into the knee-deep water lifted Jessica to my chest, and started screaming for help. In less than an hour, she was being life-flighted to the twin cities. In a bit of a blur, it is seven days later. With all the ups and downs there had been (including my wife praying for a different doctor than her original one; amazingly, he came down with gall

stones), the doctors were telling us that decisions were going to need to be made. A harder decision I will NEVER face. We needed to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was nothing more that could be done. How does one ever know that for sure?? This is where God showed up in a very real way! He had always been there, but I could not see that – nor did I deserve to have Him answer my angry prayers. Just before midnight the following Sunday, I found myself out front of Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Even though it was that time of night, the city was a noisy place. As I sat there, I looked up and saw a tall man holding the hand of a little girl, walking away from the hospital. At this moment, I was also very aware of the astonishing silence around me. A little girl wearing a princess nightgown. The very length and color of what Jessica is wearing. A little girl with the same hair length as Jessica Ryechel. Do you get the picture? Anyway, I started walking toward them, wanting to holler out – but I could see this little girl was happy…. almost skipping along beside this guy like little kids do. I watched them turn, cross the street, and then just fade away. I immediately called my sister to tell her what I had just seen. I didn’t want her to think I was crazy when I talked about it later.

The next morning her doctor (who is a Christian) asked to talk with me. Somehow, he had heard (possibly from my sister?) that I had “seen something”. He asked if I would share this with him, and I did. He then asked me if I knew what time this had happened. I did because of the phone call I had made. After he gathered himself, he put his arm around me and said he needed to show me something. He took me into a small room next to Jessica’s. He pulled the paper from the EEG machine. Jessica’s brain activity had flatlined at the corresponding time. It took me a long time after that to fully grasp what had taken place….to summarize it – God will give you what you need when you need it! I had desperately prayed for the absolute need to know that there was no more hope for her to recover…in any capacity. He answered my prayer! God knew what I needed before I knew I needed it. Thus began the most difficult time in my life, bar none. I was trying to cope with this new reality: trying to hold the family together as they were trying to cope. We were lost, crushed, angry, obviously, devastated. After some time, I knew that I had to get better or stay bitter. How that was going to happen, I did not know. I began to realize, after many talks with many people, what God had done for me. Unfortunately, it is usually through suffering that we grow closer to God. Because of my stubborn human nature, I had to be at rock bottom before I could realize the greatness of our Savior. And I did not deserve that. His love is so much bigger than anything I can ever explain or even comprehend! I believe I would not have made it through this without knowing Jessica is with Jesus!

That was 2008. By 2021, I can officially report that the void I always had is gone. It has been replaced by a personal relationship with our living Savior Jesus Christ! Wanting to serve our Lord and not the world as before, my wife Shelly and I have joined the Christian Motorcycle Association. Yes, motorcycle…. you cannot tell me God does not have a sense of humor! From cowboy to biker, wow! We have been in the CMA for a few years, and I am always looking for ways to better serve the Lord (still want to be the best I can). In September 2021, I was blessed to be chosen to attend the CMA School of Evangelism. This was one of the most positive life influences I have experienced. On the way to the Bikes, Blues, and Barbeques Rally, something went wrong on the Pig Trail. I am not real sure what exactly happened, but I ended up off the road on a corner and collided head-on with a road sign. I was ejected off the bike headfirst; I’m not sure how far I exactly flew, but it seemed to take a minute. When I landed, I recall the sound….it was as if you broke a handful of dry twigs in your hands. My foot and one hand were broken in several places…. but the sound was from my neck.

I’m not sure how soon people arrived, but I remember more than one telling me I probably should not move my head and lay still. No worries, when I tried to see how bad the bike was, my head would not go where I was asking it to. My foot had already let me know that travel was out of the question as well. After a shared ambulance ride (another bike had gone down, same corner), the doctor informed me of the extent of the neck injury. C1, C2, C5, C6, and C7 had been broke. Actually, the C1 and C2 vertebrae had been broken into several pieces. Amazingly, even though they had shattered, they had not scattered. Besides this, the arteries in the back of the neck had also been “dissected.” More than one doctor said I should have 1) died due to bleeding. 2) been paralyzed, 3) had a stroke. Apparently, there is a different route the blood can take in an injury like this, but they said some people actually do not have those alternate routes or it just does not work and results in death. God knew this would happen and designed me in the womb for a time such as this!! Anyway, the doctor wanted to try a halo instead of fusing my neck. There was no guarantee this would work, but it was the only chance I had to maybe get most of my head rotation back. It was a simple choice for me, as fusing it would mean not being able to ride again, so bring on the halo!

This is where the power of prayer shows up yet again! Many of God’s servants were praying for my recovery. Long story short, three months to the day later, it was time to get rid of the halo and move into a neck brace for a month. God’s healing powers were on display! (I was so confident; I had already ordered my new Indian by now). He is so amazing; through all of this, I did not have to even do any physical therapy! Blessed beyond imagination! In June, I was in Oklahoma visiting my son and riding beside him on Route 66! I am truly amazed at how great our God is! There is nothing I have ever done to deserve any of His grace…. yet He pours it on me! The reason I feel compelled to share this is that I feel He has blessed me so that I can personally testify to His Greatness!

I will admit I am a slow learner sometimes…But I know that I know that God is, was, and always will be here with me! And He is there for all of you too! All we need to do is recognize it….and then praise Him for who He is and all He does!!!