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CBN.com – For David Choy, music has always been his life and passion.
In the 1970s he started making a name for himself as a talented musician and composer in his home country Panama. That is until one terrifying morning in 1978.
David and three friends had just left a party when they were involved in an accident. All of them were badly injured. One was thrown from the van. David was unable to move, trapped inside the van.
“When I [came to] I realized I couldn’t move,” says David. “I had tingling on one my side and legs. The paramedics came and took me to the hospital.”
The doctors examined him, told him he’d injured his spine, and sent him home. But his condition worsened.
“At home, I was trapped in the house for 15 days,” he recalls. “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even lift a fork. One day I fell. My wife came home and found me on the floor in pain and crying.”
David was crippled and desperate to get back to his music. Then…
“That day I knew I was going to feed myself. Then I lifted my hand, and I was able to get the spoon to my mouth. To me, that was incredible because I wanted to go back to play the piano. Fifteen days later I had a doctor’s appointment, I had a neck brace, and I walked like a robot. When I went into the doctor’s office, I just remembered seeing his face. He said, ‘It’s a miracle!’”
David rehabilitated in the months following the accident. He had one goal in mind – playing his piano. But it was a struggle for him and his young family.
“I was out of money,” David says. “It wasn't like they paid me. When you work, you get paid. I was sitting down to eat, and I would only eat soup with bread. I would sit down to eat in those seven months in order to live. I had almost nothing. I remember when I asked God to please help me, save me from this, that I want to go back and play piano.”
God answered his cry for help. David’s health improved steadily. Once again, he played the piano and his career flourished.
“In 1983, I started my own band and that year we got to share the stage with a great international band -- Miami Sound Machine with Gloria Estefan.”
David became an award-winning arranger and composer. He wrote for some of the biggest names in Latin American music. But the rigors of the music industry brought back some old injuries.
“I hate to say this but no one really cares about these people,” he says. “After I started with my band, six years went by. Due to my commitments, my health failed me again. I was directing a play. In the middle of all that, they had to take me to the hospital because my hips locked. I was in a lot of pain.”
The doctor’s report was devastating.
“He said to me to that I will have to stop, and stay home. Otherwise I will end up paralyzed for good.”
Then in 1987, David found relief in the most unexpected place.
“On that night, I was with my wife. I turned on the TV, and I was watching The 700 Club, and the host said that he felt like God was asking him to pray for the healing of spines. My spine was hurting very much, so the host asked us to pray with him, to close our eyes and extend our hands to the TV. In that moment I felt something going up my spine. Then it shook me, and when I opened my eyes, my wife was crying. I said to her, ‘Look at me!’ I jumped out of bed and said, ‘It does not hurt! Wow!’”
David’s wife says, “I was completely amazed by what was happening. He said that he felt a tingling going up his spine. I was crying because I was happy.”
David resumed his career. Although grateful for his healing, he kept God at arm's length, and his life became empty. But seven years later, that changed when a friend invited him to church.
“When I entered the church, I went to the first row. I sat down, and everything the pastor was saying was as if it was directed to me,” David recalls. “I said that I accepted my Lord Jesus as my Lord and Savior and surrendered all my life to Him.”
Then just a week later, his wife and children gave their lives to Christ.
Since then David started a music academy. He named it King David – not after himself – but after David of the Bible. While he still composes and performs, his passion is now for God.
“God’s ways are not always easy,” David says. “They sure are an adventure. God has opened many doors for me. Whatever He says, I will do. God always has provided for my family. He is faithful.”
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