The Car Crash, THEE Comeback, and the $100,000 Check

Hey Hey Mafia Miracle Maker! Ooooooo I’ve been sitting on this one for a while.

Not because I didn’t want to share it.

But because I literally didn’t have the words.

First, it was our HBCU Bingo Fundraiser.

Then came move-in season.

Then travel.

Then...more miracles.

Then, prep for my second Ted Talk (which happens TOMORROW, Sept. 27th in Atlanta).

And before I knew it, Mafia Miracle Maker...

Three. Whole. Months. Had. Passed.

But guess what happened while I was gone?

WE HIT OVER 500 SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS NEWSLETTER!
Yes! Yes! Yes! To Alllllll the Yesses In Yessissippi!

I don’t even have the vocabulary to explain what that means to me.

YOU are why I came back to write today.

It’s finally time to tell you what happened.

But first...if you’re new here...

I’m TeeJ Mercer, founder of Move-In Day Mafia, where we deck out dorm rooms and send monthly care packages to
HBCU students who’ve aged out of foster care, are unhoused, or navigating life’s hardest hits without family support.
We call our supporters Mafia Miracle Makers because they don’t just donate.

They show up. They pour in.

And they make miracles in motion possible.

Every Friday (usually), I write about the miracles we’re walking in. But this one? This one’s a comeback story.

🚗 The Crash
Two days before our very first in-person fundraiser, THEE HBCU Bingo Experience, I was on the freeway, headed to the airport to pick up my family, when I was hit.

Hard.

I was stopped at a freeway off-ramp because traffic had stopped. Next thing I know—BOOM!

Spinning. Spinning. And spinning some more.

And all I could think was:
“When is this gonna stop?”

When it finally did, OnStar called. Police were instantly there. One officer said he normally takes a different route, but felt a nudge that day. That’s how he got to me so fast.

He cut me out of the car and stayed with me all the way to the ambulance.

Then a bystander who'd stopped to make sure I was ok, yelled out:
“YO, THE CAR IS STILL PLAYING GOSPEL MUSIC!”

The song?
“PROOF” by gospel artist, Pastor Mike Jr.

The line playing at the moment she yelled it?
“IF YOU WANNA SEE A MIRACLE, HERE I GO.”

I kid you not! That was the first line I heard.

I am THAT miracle.​

The whole third row of my minivan rental was gone!

But me?

Scratches, a nasty bruise, a tight calf muscle... and then came the aftershock.

At first, it seemed like I had walked away mostly okay.

But once the adrenaline faded and the pain meds wore off, the real aftermath hit.

My knees are still angry.

I’m in physical therapy.

Healing is ongoing.

No one could understand how that minivan didn’t flip over the embankment into a vertical drop.

How I didn’t end up with faaaaaar worse injuries.

But we understand, don’t we?

I'M STILL HEEEEEEERE!

💰 The Check I Didn’t See Coming
At some point while planning THEE HBCU Bingo Experience, our very first in-person fundraiser, I whispered a wild prayer:
“Lord… what if we could raise $100,000 that night?”

Mafia Miracle Maker, I wasn’t scared to say it. It wasn’t a lack of faith. It was just hard to see how. I couldn’t map the math. I couldn’t trace the path.

But I whispered it anyway.

And then... two days before Bingo, that driver knocked the hell out of me.

So by the time we got to the end of the Bingo night, I wasn’t even thinking about that $100,000 prayer. I was just gratefulto be alive. And from the way the room was buzzing, it was clear that folks had a blast.

We had done it. We pulled it off. The food was poppin’, the prizes were hittin’, the vibes were unmatched.

I had already given my thank-yous, hugged necks, shouted out my team, and told everybody good night.

And then...

Here comes Lacy.

She’s one of my former Media Mavericks coaching clients, and she had flown in from Los Angeles just to be there. She’s walking up toward me with a long box in her hands.

But her energy was different. Quieter. Calmer. Not the usual bubbly Lacy I know.

To be real? I was just glad she made it. I didn’t even ask what was in the box.

She stood in front of me and softly said, “I’m just being obedient to what God told me.”

Mafia Miracle Maker, that made me pause. That kind of sentence makes you tilt your head in the Spirit.

I watched as she opened the box... and pulled out an oversized check.

Now listen. I saw the zeros and thought:
“Ooooo she’s giving us $10,000?! WHAT?!”

But then I looked closer.

It wasn’t four zeros. It was five.

It wasn’t ten thousand.

It was ONE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

I froze. I stared. I squinted like I was seeing things.

I was so stunned, I had to walk up front and stop the music to tell everybody what had just happened.

And check out the date on the check. Bingo was on July 12th. She had had this check done on June 8th!

The answer to my prayer was already in the making before I even prayed it.

This wasn’t just a donation.

This was a divine confirmation.

That whisper I sent up? God heard it.

That “impossible” math I couldn’t figure out? He carried the one.

That accident that should’ve taken me out? It became the setup for something only God could script.

He waited until after I had poured out everything I had.

And then He said:
“Now watch what I can do.”

It still doesn’t feel real. But this I know for sure:
Miracles are in motion and...
#IBelieveInMiraclesForMoveInDayMafia

I have so much more to tell you, Mafia Miracle Maker; we've got so much to catch up on.

Although I've been a little quieter these last 3 months, miracles have definitely been in motion! I can't wait to tell you more...like what Amazon did to surprise me.

MY TED TALK
Before I share this week's Miracle Motivation...

​Tomorrow, I get to deliver my second Ted Talk in Atlanta under the theme "It's Bigger Than Us: The Power Of We."

I was so excited about this theme because it's perfect for what WE have built with Move-In Day Mafia because of people like you. The title of my talk is "The Superpower We've Been Taught To Hide." If you're in Atlanta and want to come, you can grab your ticket at https://wiseguys.moveindaymafia.org/TeeJTedLive

​The funny thing about being a miracle in motion?

Sometimes you don’t realize you need to stop...

Until your body shuts all the way down.

Truth is, I wasn’t resting for three months when I wasn't writing Mafia Miracles Report.

I was working. I was pouring. I was hugging necks.

I showed up for every Move-In Day with joy in my heart, even when my knees were screaming and my spirit was running on fumes.

It wasn’t until the last dorm was decked...
The last care package delivered...
The last scholar hugged...
That I finally let myself sit still.

And when I did? Whew, baby.

My body had been carrying what my heart hadn’t fully faced:
The trauma of that car accident.

The weight of leading something this massive.

The cost of giving and giving... without breathing.

And still...
God didn’t let anything drop.

He covered what I couldn’t.
He moved where I couldn’t.

He answered prayers I didn’t even have strength to repeat.

So let this be your reminder, Mafia Miracle Maker:
You can be called and still need care.
You can be faithful and still feel fragile.
You can carry miracles for others...
and still need space for your own healing.

I didn’t stop because I wanted to.

I stopped because I had to.

And now?

I return with rest in my bones,
power in my belly,
and a fresh fire in my spirit.

Because even when I sit down, miracles don’t.

See you next week!