Three years ago in June, Melissa Wong was waiting for a ride home after work. Standing at a sheltered pick-up point, she never expected that ordinary evening to turn horrifically wrong.

“I could see a car coming. But then it seemed to lose control and accelerated towards me. I tried moving away but it kept coming towards me,” recalled the 35-year-old.

The car careened into her, hitting her left thigh.

Melissa had always led an active life, so experiencing a major accident affected her not only physically but mentally and emotionally.

“I let out the loudest scream in my life. The pain was a numbing sensation at first, sending shockwaves to my brain. Then it became very, very painful.”

Melissa would have toppled to the ground from the impact had a passer-by not come to her aid.

“He picked me up before I fell. I blacked out for a while and he kept asking me to wake up. It was very scary, like a near-death encounter.

“When I woke up, I thought I was dying. I saw a pool of blood but I didn’t dare look at the injury. Didn’t dare to see it at all.”

Several passers-by surrounded Melissa. They called for the ambulance, encouraged her to stay conscious and offered her a drink because her mouth had become very dry.

In the ambulance, her only concern was whether she could see her family again. Melissa, who had become a Christian when she was 20, prayed to God to keep her alive and help her “not be crippled for life”.

Pain beyond imagination

At the hospital, Melissa would discover the extent of her injury. Her thigh bone, the longest and strongest bone in the human body, had been broken. There was damage to her thigh and the muscles around it as well.  

Melissa’s left thigh required an external fixator to support the broken bone.

“In medical terms, it is called a distal femur fracture. It broke from the lower thigh to the upper thigh. There was deep abrasion, a dent, where the bone could be seen.”

The doctor told her it would take six to nine months before she could walk again. For someone used to running marathons, cycling, hiking and travelling extensively, this was devastating news.

“I didn’t blame God,” she said. “I was just focused on recovering.”

Recovery was difficult. Melissa endured seven surgeries in a month to correct the damage done.

Hospitalised for two months, Melissa was bed-bound for a large part of the first month.

The first two surgeries were for her to be fitted with an external fixator to support her left leg. Then, when her leg was deemed strong enough, an iron rod was inserted into it to align and stablise the fracture. Wound cleanings, which required general anaesthesia and a skin graft where skin was taken from the back of her right thigh to patch up the flesh gouched out on her left, were the other procedures.

“The pain, especially after the surgery, is unimaginable. I was put on the strongest painkillers.”

Alone with God

Hospitalised and bed-bound, Melissa was totally helpless. She even had to depend on nurses to bathe her.

“It was humbling,” she recalled. “During that period, I called out to God often. I was really dependent on God. I kept praying to Him to do something, perform miracles.”

She thought the miracle she needed was a speedy, complete recovery, but God would show her what really needed to be healed.

The self-confessed “lukewarm Christian” found that, alone and helpless, He was the only one on whom she could count.

Despite dismal estimates, Melissa was able to progress to a wheelchair and then crutches within three weeks of the accident.

“Before, I didn’t read the Bible every day. Now, I read the Bible every day and I prayed. Worship became my routine.

“Trials and tribulations brought me closer to God.”

In turning to the Lord, Melissa gained the ability to endure.

“I surrendered the uncertainty to God,” she said. “That was when I found strength to go through the journey despite my helplessness and vulnerability.

“Through God’s comfort and peace, I somehow found joy and peace in that period even though I was going through grief as well.”

Melissa spent another month at a community hospital to undergo physiotherapy. Throughout the time, her husband was constantly with her and her cell group regularly visited and prayed for her.

Melissa spent a month in the hospital and another at a community hospital undergoing physiotherapy to aid in her recovery.

Defying estimates by her doctor, she “walked out of the community hospital without crutches”.

“I had been in bed for so long, so I was very motivated. I was determined to recover.”

Melissa (in pink) with the nurses at the community hospital. She was able to walk out without help the day she was discharged.

God began to work miracles, healing her part by part, proving doctor’s pronouncements wrong.

Melissa’s story would have ended there had her leg been the only thing God was concerned about. But it wasn’t.

Divine breakthroughs

After another month resting at home on medical leave, Melissa went back to work as a social worker. Though she could walk again, her leg was not completely healed.

Melissa and her husband.

Because the injury had occurred near her knee, scar tissues had formed as her body healed. Those tissues made bending her knee difficult. That meant that climbing the stairs, squatting, sitting cross-legged and cycling were out of the question. Running long distances was also a challenge. Despite working very hard to restore full function of her knee, there was just no progress.

By 2022, Melissa was desperate for some encouragement. God answered her. She started to see rainbows everywhere she went, more than she had ever seen in her whole life.

The first one was in January. It reminded her of God’s covenant with Noah that never again would there be destruction of all life. She felt it was an encouragement that that which had been destroyed in her world would be restored.

The next month, Melissa found that she could physically jump.

The very day of her interview with Salt&Light, Melissa encountered another rainbow, reminding her of God’s encouragement when she most needed it.

But then came bad news. In April, her physiotherapist told her she would never be able to properly bend her knee. Cycling would not be possible.

“I was in grief”

At a Silence and Solitude session with her cell group, God spoke to her through Nehemiah 8:9-10.

“It was an apt consolation. I meditated on the Word of God and it comforted me while I did my bending exercises.”

In May, she found that could run. She knew it had to be God because no amount of effort on her end had yielded any results before.

Melissa completed a half-marathon post-accident.

Last year, she joined a gym for Body Fit Training and within months, could deadlift up to 75kg.

By August 2023, X-rays showed that her thigh bone had completely healed. This year, she started “running for Jesus”, completing a half-marathon. Finally, Melissa also started to cycle again.

In August 2023, Melissa’s femur was declared fully healed.

She can deadlift up to 70kg, a new skill she picked up post-accident.

As God worked on her leg, He also worked on her heart.

In the hospital, despite God-given peace and joy, Melissa still experienced grief because of the extent of her injury, as well as the uncertainty that hung over her road to recovery.

Because she cried daily, she was diagnosed with traumatic grief and a psychologist would come to see her regularly.

Last August, she was told her bone had healed, and at the same time, a private psychologist certified that she had resolved the psychological issues caused by the accident.

But God was still not done.

Shine for Christ

In 2023, the rainbow sightings were replaced by “revelation of sunlight shining very brightly”. Wherever Melissa went, it was always sunny.

At another Silence and Solitude session with her cell group, she saw a vision of the sun with trees.  

Melissa (centre in black) with her cell group from City Harvest Church. The cell group conducts regular sessions of Silence and Solitude for members to connect deeply with God.

Melissa recalled: “The host interpreted the trees as representing man and the sun as the glory of God. The glory of God was shining through man.

“I felt God wanted me to use my story to strengthen fellow believers.”  

In June 2023, while at Yosemite National Park in the United States, she had yet another encounter with the presence of God.

Melissa and her husband in the United States.

“There was that same revelation where the sun shone brightest through the trees.”

Since the accident, Melissa has endeavoured to share her story to give God the glory. Her Instagram account, which once showcased her day-to-day activities, is now a platform for faith-based content.

“I speak of His power and glory, and people say my stories are positive and encourage them.”

Never having served in church before, Melissa also signed up for +able, a City Harvest Church ministry that reaches out to those with disabilities through home visits.

Having experienced physical limitations herself, Melissa wanted to do more for those with disabilities.

Melissa (left) with the people in her church ministry that reaches out to those living with disabilities.

“I saw in the church website that there was a vacancy for this ministry. I prayed about it and God spoke to me in my heart that I needed to heed His calling to serve.”

Looking back at this chapter of her life story, Melissa said: “It has been marked with God’s grace, faithfulness, wonders and miracles, and the satisfaction and joy of the achievements.

“Glory be to God.”

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