Diggin' My Own Grave

The Bible states in several places that the enemy cannot touch you without permission from the Shepherd of your soul. We see this clearly in the book of Job, where Satan argues that he cannot touch Job because of the "hedge" God placed around him. Similarly, in Luke 22:31-32, Jesus tells Peter that Satan has "asked" for him, to sift him like wheat.

These scriptures emphasize God’s protective nature. They support the comforting truth that the enemy’s reach toward God's children is limited.

Shayne’s life serves as a testament to this protection. From a highway in Texas to a garage in Arizona, Shayne has walked away from death not because of luck, but because God’s hand was upon him.

Miracle on I-40

It was early winter in Amarillo, Texas. The snow hadn’t fallen yet, but the temperatures had plunged below freezing, turning the roads into invisible traps. Shayne was driving his Datsun 200SX sports car, rushing to pick up a friend for evening revival services. Because he was running late, he wasn't paying as much attention as he should have.

On an overpass of I-40, he hit a patch of black ice.

The car spun out of control, slamming into the safety barrier at over 65 mph. Dazed and confused, Shayne climbed out of his totaled vehicle. Less than a minute later, a bystander jumped the barrier to check on him—just as another car hit the exact same patch of ice, careening toward them before barely regaining control.

As Shayne stood there, shaken but unharmed, sirens began to wail.

"Wow," he thought. "That was a really fast response time."

He would soon learn the sirens weren't for him. Minutes earlier, another vehicle had hit that same patch of ice and flipped over the barrier, leaving the driver in critical condition.

As the tow truck arrived, Shayne watched in amazement. When the crane lifted his car, chunks of the concrete barrier crumbled away with it—evidence of the violent impact. A police officer on the scene offered Shayne a ride.

"It is a miracle you walked out of that crash without a scratch," the officer told him plainly. "A crash of that intensity should have killed you."

When Shayne mentioned that the Lord had His hand on his life, the officer just nodded and kept driving.

A Divine Appointment

When they arrived at the church, the officer unexpectedly walked Shayne to the door. As they entered, the usher greeted them.

"Hello, Dad," the officer said, hugging the usher.

In a twist only God could orchestrate, the officer who saved Shayne from the cold was the usher’s son—a man who had walked away from the Lord years prior but was brought back to the church house that night by a car accident.

Shayne walked into the sanctuary where Rev. John Arcovio was preaching. The evangelist stopped mid-sentence, pointed to the back door, and declared:

"You’ve just been in a car accident. The Lord wants you to know that He is going to replace what the enemy has stolen. What Satan meant for evil, God is going to turn around for good."

Little did Shayne know, this wouldn't be the last time the enemy would try to take his life.

Digging in the Desert

Fast forward a few years. Shayne was living in Arizona, working as an independent contractor doing carpet cleaning and painting for a man named John Famalaro.

Shayne was John’s second employee, thinking he was in on the "ground floor" of a promising business. But the atmosphere quickly turned dark.

First, a punctual crew member went missing. When asked, John simply claimed the man wasn't answering his phone and suggested, coldly, "Maybe he got hit by a car or something." He refused to let the crew check on him.

Later, during a lighthearted moment where the crew teased John about not having a girlfriend, John’s reaction was chilling. He told Shayne he could make him "disappear" and that "nobody would ever know."

The Secret Room

The strangest assignment came when John tore a hole in a wall of his house to access a crawl space. He ordered the crew to clear out the dirt so he could "use it for storage," claiming he didn't want a shed because of nosey neighbors.  He was emphatic that the crew only dig in one section of the space.  However, due to the noise, dust and congestion, Shayne decided to work on the exact opposite end.

While digging in a section of the crawl space, Shayne hit something hard. He pulled it into the light: a bone, about 18 inches long, with meat and hair still attached to one end.

When he showed it to John, his boss became visibly agitated, dismissing it as "an old horse bone" and ordering him back to work in the original area. Shortly after, Shayne stopped getting calls for work.

The Smell of Death

A week later, Shayne finally reached John, who told him to come over at 9:00 PM to collect his final pay—and to come alone.

That night, Shayne’s wife insisted on coming with him. "Something isn't right about him," she said. She waited in the car while Shayne went to the garage.

Inside, a massive fan was blowing air from the basement towards the front of the house, by pointing it up the stairs. The smell was indescribable—chemical and rotting. John came down the stairs, visibly upset that Shayne wasn't alone.

"It smells like someone died in here," Shayne joked nervously.

John claimed he had spilled paint thinner. Shayne took his cash and left. Later, he realized the smell was formaldehyde, a scent he recognized from high school biology.

The Horrifying Reveal

Almost a year later, Shayne was at a new job when his wife called, telling him to turn on the news.

There, on the screen, was John Famalaro’s house. John had been arrested for the murder of Denise Huber. Her body had been found preserved in a freezer inside a Ryder truck in the driveway—plugged into the house via an extension cord.

The "storage area" Shayne had been digging? Police believed John intended to bury the body and evidence there. The "horse bone" and the "missing" crew member took on a terrifying new context, though no additional bodies were found.

The trial would also reveal additional people that John had assaulted, but thankfully they had all gotten away.  Each one immediately pointed him out in photo lineups.

The Lord had kept Shayne from returning to that house alone. He realized that while he was digging a grave for a victim, he could very well have been digging his own.

Permission Denied

Shayne’s life is a walking testimony of the hedge of protection that surrounds each one of God’s children. Whether it was the invisible danger of black ice, the hidden evil in a serial killer's garage, or other events not discussed here, the enemy’s plans were halted.

Understand this: no matter what the enemy plans for you, he must go through God first. Nothing can touch you except what the Lord allows. And if He allows it, we have the promise that it will work out for good.

As the scripture says:

"Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." — 1 John 4:4