The next leg of her journey - The Big Change

Joseph Smith | 27 February 2007

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The Big Change - Meredith Walker, St Paul’s, Castle Hill

This 24-year-old student survived an eight storey fall while bush walking in 2004. Her broken bones have mended but it’s the guidance God gave Meredith in her darkest moments that really healed her.

Meredith Walker admits she is a ‘casserole Christian’, having done all the ‘typical’ Christian things as she’s grown up.

“Both my parents are Christian, I went to a Christian high school, I’ve always gone to church, youth group and Bible studies. I’ve always believed in God and accepted him as creator,” she says.

Meredith experienced the first real challenge to her Christian worldview when she began studying a Bachelor of Science at Macquarie University.

“A lot of subjects were based on evolutionary theory and I came up against a lot of anti-Christian sentiment. The impression I got from my lecturers was that they thought Christians were idiots,” she says. “They would toss in not so veiled comments about Christians and their ‘crazy beliefs’ that God created the world.”

Meredith says she decided to find out more about her faith and the world.

“I was reading a lot, investigating other religions, learning about different social justice issues,” she says. “During uni I discovered so much of the world’s population lives on so little. I asked myself how my faith fitted in with this new world view I was getting.”

When Meredith started her degree she had plans of being a research scientist.

“I love animals and am really interested in their conservation. I wanted to get my masters, then do a PhD, then go to Africa to pursue my career,” she says. “But the more I found out about the needs of the world the more I realised the way I was planning my future was very selfish.”

By the end of Meredith’s time at university she came to a realisation about her priorities.

“As important as conservation and protecting God’s creation is, I realised the most important thing is to tell people about Christ.”

Although Meredith had a passion to help people, share the gospel and address the injustices in the world, she spent most of 2004 deciding what to do while working in retail.

“I was working in a clothing retail store full-time and I hated it. I was selling people things they didn’t need.”

Then on October 23, 2004 Meredith fell off a cliff.

Meredith was living in the Blue Mountains at the time. “Four of my friends and I shared a nice breakfast one Saturday morning and decided the weather was too nice to just go back home.

“We went to a lookout and then that’s all I remember.”
The section Meredith was sitting on collapsed and she fell 25 metres, the equivalent of eight storeys.

“Two of my friends managed to get down to me and kept me breathing. My foot was almost completely severed and one of my friends managed to keep it on.”

The friends called the ambulance, the police, Meredith’s parents and everyone in their mobile phone lists to get people praying for her.

Meredith was airlifted by helicopter to Nepean Hospital. She had fractured her back in three places as well as her pelvis and hip. Her left leg and ankle were smashed. Her right foot was partially severed and her right ankle was lost.

“When I got to the hospital on the Saturday the doctors said I was in a stable condition. Then on the Sunday my bone marrow started to leak into my blood stream and formed fat emboli on my lungs so I couldn’t breathe,” Meredith says.

“I was kept in an induced coma. The doctors told my parents to prepare for the worst and said I would probably die because I couldn’t breathe on my own.”

There was a mass outpouring of prayer from friends and family. About 50 people visited Meredith on that first Sunday after the accident.

“After a week God saved my life. The doctors got me breathing again. They were soon able to operate on me, sew my foot back on and put my bones back together.”

Meredith spent the next two months lying flat so her back and pelvis could heal. During this time, she encountered the depths of despair.

“It was a Wednesday while in hospital after being cleaned by strangers that I said to God ‘I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore. If you could let me die that would be really good, because of the pain and humiliation’,” Meredith admits.

“I thought being dead would have been a lot better than facing how I was feeling at that particular time. I was told I might have my foot amputated, or if the infection spread, I could have my whole leg amputated.”

However, Meredith says she is incredibly grateful that God did not let her give up.

“I remembered Isaiah 53, that by Christ’s wounds we are healed. I was struck by the enormity of what Christ did on the cross and how he chose pain and suffering a lot worse than my own. He chose that for me because he loves me so much. It was the most comforting moment of my life knowing that my Saviour knew exactly how I was feeling,” Meredith says.

“From that moment my whole outlook on my relationship with God and how I serve him changed. I realised it was not so much doing physical things but trusting your entire life and future with him.”

Meredith had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to the Ukraine and Romania last year with the Mission Without Borders mission agency.

“I wondered how I could go across Eastern Europe when I could barely walk around the house. My friends and parents raised money for me to go. So, wearing a big ski-boot-like air cast on my leg, God gave me the strength to walk around Europe for a month,” she says.

“I got to see what a Christian aid worker does overseas. The only way to get people out of poverty is to educate them, give them health care and teach them about Christ.”

The trip confirmed in Meredith’s mind what she wanted to do with her life.

“I had my interview with SMBC in November and I have just started an Associate Degree in Theology with a mission specialisation. I am planning to do a Masters in Public Health because I really want to combine mission with aid work. I want to work in developing communities in Australia or overseas,” Meredith says.

“That’s my plan. But I will go wherever God takes me. Who knows? I might fall off another cliff.”

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