Moody student tells of life after near death

EULESS?Kristen Anderson remembers feeling the pain, seeing the profuse bleeding and hearing the sound of the classic Christian hymn “Amazing Grace” playing in her head. It wasn’t until later that she understood that God’s hand of grace had kept her alive that day despite her losing eight pints of blood, she told the audience at the Empower Evangelism Conference on Feb. 5.

Anderson, now a Moody Bible Institute student, was 16 on Jan. 2, 2000, the day she attempted suicide by lying down in front of an oncoming train.

She said, “I thought suicide was the only way to escape my pain” after seeing four friends and a grandmother die within a year and a half and also being raped during that time. She went to church growing up, but doesn’t remember ever hearing the gospel.

“As a young, teenage girl I didn’t know how to handle any of that,” Anderson remembered, and after being raped, “I had lost all my dignity, I felt like.”

She had considered suicide several times, but not until she saw the train tracks that day near the park in her hometown did it cross her mind again.

Over a 90-minute period, she contemplated taking her life by lying down on the railroad tracks in what she described as a “major spiritual battle” over whether or not she had a reason to live.

Looking back, “it is an incredible blessing because I can see God in all the details that night,” she said.
For example, as she lay with her legs hanging over one of the rails, the oncoming train should have sucked her up from the ground because of the air vacuum; Anderson said she remembers something almost pushing her against the ground as the rail cars severed her legs.

After the train passed, she said the scene was surreal as she saw her legs about 10 feet behind her. She crawled off the tracks, realized she was bleeding heavily, recalled feeling intense pain for the first time during the ordeal and crying for her mother, who was nowhere around.

Anderson said the doctors told her she should have died, and her family and friends rallied around her, telling her that she survived for a reason.

She returned to church after her accident and was told by a woman there that she would have gone to Hell had she died that day. Shocked by the woman’s statement, Anderson said she always thought she
would go to Heaven because she was a fairly good person.

Later, a friend of Anderson’s sister told her “all of us were created to be in a personal relationship with God. That was the first time I had ever heard that,” she recalled.

“I didn’t realize that I had to make a choice. ? God had given me a second chance, and most people don’t get a second chance,” she said.

Anderson said she has learned three truths since becoming a Christian: the importance of regular Bible study and devotional time, the importance of joining a “gospel-believing, Bible-preaching church,” and reality of Satan in the world.

Through the help of a Christian counselor who “gave me unconditional love and spoke more truth into my life than anyone ever had,” Anderson began to build on her faith and also began a speaking ministry after being called numerous times to share her story.

She has appeared on “Oprah” and a Billy Graham television special. In 2004, she started Reaching You Ministries to help people find hope from depression and suicidal thoughts.

Because of the “Oprah” appearance, Anderson said she received e-mails from hundreds of people who were contemplating suicide before they watched her share her story.