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Pastor Mary Bangs’ ultimate athletic dream is to compete in an Ironman Triathlon, a nonstop 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run. A mother of four and grandmother of nine, and athlete from her youth, this Holy Spirit-energized competitor believes anything is possible with God. She’s born to compete, she says, even when disease or a near-fatal accident conspire to take her out of the running.

Married to Pastor Steve, Bangs manages an adrenal gland disease, Addison’s, alongside intense athletic training and competition nearly year round. Almost two years ago, her SUV was struck by a car traveling 65 miles per hour through a red light as she waited for two motorists to complete left-hand turns. The driver, a 16-year-old on his way to school, swerved enough to avoid head-on impact with Bangs, who was on her way to work, where she and Steve lead the children’s department and adults in ministry school, which prepares students to lead future churches. The carnage of metal that was her car stopped only at the tall, metal light pole it wrapped around.

A broken neck, scapula, ribs, punctured lung and crushed knee were the only casualties on that February morning in 2016, despite doctors’ predictions that other women Bangs’ age would not have survived the impact and injuries. Her saving grace, according to doctors, was Mary’s physical fitness and weight training, which she had incorporated into training for several planned endurance challenges and national sprint competitions in the spring and summer.

“A doctor told me, ‘Little did you know you were training to survive this accident,'” says Bangs, who endured three months in a leg cast, neck brace and crutches she used only when Steve wasn’t home to carry her from bed to the bathroom. Intolerant of “doing nothing” during her recovery, Steve began timing his wife—for entertainment really—when she was strong enough to hobble on crutches to their mailbox. “Yeah, I have a little competition in me, so we made the best of it,” Mary says with a laugh that defies the adversity she’s endured.

Steve, on the other hand, intentionally ignored the question of whether his wife would compete again. “I tried to stay focused on helping her get better,” he says. As Mary recovered, he saw glimpses of hope. “When she was cleared by her doctor to go the gym—still wearing a neck brace—I knew she would compete again.”

Someone who loves to teach the Word of God, Bangs applies Scripture to her own life as manager of a chronic condition and as an athlete who competes with screws in one knee. She also helps the children and students she loves as pastor to see the Bible’s relevance to their lives. “We’ve had enough stuff happen in our lives to know that God uses it for our good, and to encourage others who are facing adversity or challenges themselves,” she says.

An endocrinologist who helped Mary keep Addison’s under control during her training for and competition in a Half Ironman in 2015 himself turned to his patient for help after he, too, was diagnosed with Addison’s. “Isn’t that crazy? He called and said, ‘I don’t know if you remember me but I need your personal advice.’

“I’m like are you kidding me? You helped me prepare for the biggest event of my life,” says Bangs, who still communicates when needed with the 70-year-old doctor after he contacted her by phone last year.