The day Philly campus stopped to pray for a student in need

As a radio, television and film major in April of 1992, Rob Baddorf was finishing up his degree at the Philly campus. In his accountability prayer group, he talked to his friends about how much he was worried about all the details of graduation, which was only a couple weeks away.

“I am so freaked out about graduation,” he’d told them. “I don’t know how to get my gown, what forms to fill out.”

They prayed for him. Baddorf says he felt a peace that passes understanding, as if he just knew God was taking care of everything.

“Then, two days later, I stepped in front of a car,” he said.

From there, he has no memory of what happened to him. What he has learned about the accident are bits and pieces of information from others, including his classmate and friend Jay McClymont ’92, who now works as Messiah’s director of alumni and parent relations.

“[Former Philly campus pastor] Freeman Miller was on the street minutes after Rob was struck, and he didn’t think that Rob was going to live. Freeman contacted the main campus and asked for prayer and headed to the hospital to meet the Baddorf family who rushed out to Philly from Dillsburg,” said McClymont, who drove to the Philly campus that night with two fellow students.

The accident

Baddorf, who had been attending a seminar at Temple, was crossing Broad Street as he and a friend made their way back to the Philly campus to grab a snack. His friend stopped to tie his shoe and Baddorf ran ahead, crossing the street.

“We were technically jaywalking. The center lane was empty. It was never used except as parking for a funeral home. I walked in front of a truck that was parked. All the traffic was still at the red light. And then I think he honked because he saw me running into the center lane. And I would’ve been looking to my right. And, sure enough, a police car was coming from the left, driving on the center median. And we met each other,” said Baddorf.

As he was struck, he went through the windshield and then ricocheted out, landing in the road. The car smashed his tibia and fibula. They shut down Broad Street. The ambulance crew tried to stabilize him at the scene. They didn’t rush to the hospital. They didn’t think he was going to make it.

That’s when the Philly campus paused—they stopped holding classes, stopped making dinner—and held one big prayer meeting.

At first, the campus prayed, simply, for him to live. Then the ambulance crew said his left foot was pointing backward, which was indicative of brain trauma.

“As news came in, the group added to the prayers. Let him not be brain dead. Let him not be paralyzed. The Messiah crew kept praying,” said Baddorf. “The doctors said it was amazing. I was completely intact, no internal organ problems.”

He spent two weeks in the hospital and attended Commencement in a wheelchair.

During the ceremony, President D. Ray Hostetter walked off the stage and over to Baddorf to present his diploma.

“He got a standing ovation, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the all of Hitchcock Arena,” said McClymont.

Baddorf says he doesn’t remember much about the ceremony. He was in pain and spent the next several months convalescing on his parents’ couch.

“I got bitter at God after that. I was mad I didn’t get to go to whatever beach town people went to after graduation. I felt like I had zero closure. I felt angry,” he said. “In the end, it ended up being absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me. God was speaking and leading.”

He realized God really had handled the details of graduation for him.

“I didn’t know You were going to do it that way,” he laughed, “but I didn’t have to take a single final. Everyone took care of graduation for me. Everything was completely and utterly taken care of for me.”

Six months after the accident, he finally went to his first job interview. Then, he and two friends started an academic publishing company, which lasted for 20 years. He recently sold his ownership in the company and is stepping out on his own, figuring out what is next.

He says he’s still astonished that an entire campus closed to pray for him. “I’m so thrilled and pleased 80+ kids and faculty prayed, and they called their home churches and asked them to pray. They said people all across America were praying for me. I wish I’d been able to be a part of it, but I was the beneficiary of it.”

— Anna Seip