When Survival Isn’t the Miracle—Surrender Is
Some stories stay with you long after the mic turns off. This one did more than that—it affected me during the episode.
In this conversation, Mick Wienholt shares a testimony that begins with a breathtaking near-death experience and unfolds into a journey of deep surrender to Christ. From surviving a devastating avalanche in the Colorado mountains to facing the unthinkable loss of his firstborn son, Mick’s story reveals how God rescues not only the body, but the soul.
At nineteen, Mick set out to climb Colorado’s Gray’s Peak, driven by pride and a desire to prove himself. Within minutes, the mountain gave way beneath him. An avalanche sent him tumbling hundreds of feet. He woke at the bottom—bleeding, broken, and alone in the snow. By God’s grace, a stranger appeared in the parking lot at precisely the right moment.
“He had no reason to be there,” Mick said. “God dispatched him. I would have died without him.”
Mick survived emergency brain surgery and weeks of recovery, knowing God had spared his life—but he also realized something more profound: he believed in God without truly knowing Him. Pride remained untouched. Gratitude hadn’t yet become surrender.
Years later, that changed.
Just days before the birth of their first child, Mick and his wife lost their son, Luke. The grief was overwhelming. But in that place of heartbreak, something shifted. What they thought was a Luke-shaped hole turned out to be a God-shaped one—and He met them there.
Through loss, Mick’s faith moved from acknowledgment to dependence. His prayers changed. His posture changed. Humility replaced striving.
“Because you are created,” Mick shared, “you are subject to—not central in—your own life.”
🎧 Listen to the episode to hear how God uses rescue, loss, and surrender to draw us into real relationship—and why survival is sometimes just the beginning of the miracle.
💬 After listening, join the conversation in the community, where we reflect together on grief, humility, and what it means to say—Your will be done.
Wife. Mother of five. Podcaster. Fiction Novelist
Ana is the host of the Honest Christian Conversations podcast and a prodigal saved by God’s unending grace.
She grew up in a legalistic Christian home where asking questions often felt wrong. In her early twenties, overwhelmed by confusion and hurt, she walked away from her faith. Yet even then, God’s love never stopped pursuing her. At thirty years old—and after a painful second divorce—He brought her back to himself, and she has never looked back.
As Ana returned to Christ, she began rebuilding her faith from the ground up and asked the questions she once feared to ask. Along that journey, she discovered inconsistencies, misplaced teachings, and even lies woven into the Christianity she grew up with. Instead of destroying her faith, this only deepened it. Out of that discovery, she founded Honest Christian Conversations. Ana's heart is to help others navigate the same tension she once lived with: wanting to know the real Jesus while sorting through the noise of deceptive teachings, spiritual manipulation, and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Everything she creates flows from gratitude for the God who rescued her, restored her, and continues to shape her into who He intended her to be.
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