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Missing Girl Rescued by a Dream

On October 2, 2004, 17-year-old Laura Hatch left a party in a Seattle suburb, and that was the last time she was seen for more than a week. No one knew why she didn't returned home later that night. No one knew she'd lost control of her car and careened down a steep forested ravine.

Laura's parents contacted the police and a search began. When a week went by without any leads, the Hatches organized a search team of 200 volunteers including members of Creekside Covenant Church in Redmond, Washington where the family attends.

When the extensive search failed to produce any results, family members began to assume the worst. "We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts," Laura's mother told the media.

Sha Nohr's daughter was one of Laura's friends. Norh, a Creekside Covenant Church member, told her distraught daughter that all they could do was pray. But Nohr had trouble sleeping that night. She kept having a recurring dream of a wooded area and heard the message, ''Keep going, keep going.'' The following morning, Sunday October 10, Nohr and her daughter drove to the area where the crash occurred, praying along the way.

''I just thought, 'Let her speak out to us,''' Nohr told the Seattle Times.

Nohr said something drew her to stop and clamber over a concrete barrier and more than 100 feet down a steep, densely vegetated embankment where she barely managed to discern the crumpled 1996 Toyota Camry. Nohr discovered Laura in the backseat, conscious, but seriously injured.

When the paramedics arrived, Laura was taken to Harborview Medical Center where she was treated for severe dehydration, a blood clot in her brain, broken ribs, a broken leg and facial lacerations. Amazingly, she had not had anything to eat or drink for eight days.

The miraculous rescue was announced later that night at Creekside Covenant Church, where more than 100 family and friends had gathered for a prayer vigil. The prayer service turned into a joyous celebration of praise when Nohr told the congregation how she had been led to the missing girl and that the lost had been found.

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