College student to speak on hit-and-run at church event

Amber Wilhelm, a college student from Horton who miraculously survived a hit-and-run accident as a pedestrian, will give a testimony of God’s hand on her life during a special concert of praise and testimony at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Horton.

The special service is in celebration of Pastor Tom and Viki Stone’s 41 years of ministry and the founding of the church in 1977.

Amber was struck by a truck April 14, 2017 as she was crossing the street in Manhattan where she was a student at Kansas State University. She suffered traumatic injuries and underwent several weeks of rehabilitation. Amber had the prayer support of her church family, Horton First Baptist, as well as much of the Horton community and beyond. She is looking forward to graduating from KSU this December with a Hospitality Management degree with an emphasis in event planning.

Others featured in the afternoon service will be the church’s newly established children’s choir under the direction of Ivy (Stone) Jelks; a testimony of healing by Abigail Compton, the church’s worship team and other local and visiting artists.

Wilhelm doesn’t remember anything from that night, but one of her friends testified in court they saw her bending down in the intersection like she was fixing her shoe.

“I was wearing sandals so I could’ve been fixing my shoe if it was raining outside,” Wilhelm said.

Just seconds later Wilhelm’s friends watched a truck hit her and then drag her nearly 130 feet down the road.

Wilhelm’s injuries ranged from a broken collar bone, lacerated liver, collapsed lung, 9 broken ribs, a broken orbital and a traumatic brain injury.

It wasn’t until a few weeks after she was hit that Wilhelm realized what had happened.

“My mom talks about the night that I actually came too and started figuring things out,” Wilhelm said. “I called my best friend, the one that was in the crosswalk with me and I said, ‘Mariah, did you hear? I was in an accident! I was hit by a truck, did you hear?’ You know as if no one knew.”

With less than two months of rehab Wilhelm was able to recover.

She took a semester off from K-State, and still to this day struggles with day to day things from her brain injury.

But for the most part she says she’s back to her old self, only now she feels more blessed and grateful.

“They say I was actually underneath the wheel, like I got ran over, so it is very much a God thing,” she said. “I shouldn’t be here, I attribute the reason I’m still here today to all the prayers that I got, to Gods will.”

Wilhelm said she really thinks it’s by a miracle she survived, almost like she was saved for a bigger purpose.

That’s just one of the reasons why she wanted to share her story.

“I also want people to understand that even though this person did these things to me, I’m not mad at him,” Wilhelm said about Blaha. “I don’t hold any grudges against him, he made a mistake just like everyone does.”

Wilhelm said she is even considering going to visit Blaha in prison soon, just to tell him that she forgives him.

• hiawathaworldonline.com and ksnt.com