A Personal Miracles Journey by Terrence J. Hatch, Karen Delaporte - HTML preview

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CHAPTER 16

Godslist?

Around the year 1998, Brenda's aunt gave us a car, and we decided we needed to sell our other car, which was an older Plymouth Horizon. At church one Sunday morning, we asked our adult class to pray with us that God would help us sell the car. We told them we were planning to list it in the paper. But God had different plans.

When we pulled into our driveway after church, it seemed our friends prayers had already put things in motion. To our amazement there was a family of five standing in the front yard.

After introductions, the father asked us if we had a car for sale. I nodded, and asked them how they could possibly know. They said they noticed that the car in the driveway did not have license plates. They somehow concluded that this meant it might be for sale!

I quickly pointed out that the one in the driveway was not the one for sale. Instead, it was the one we were driving. Soon we had negotiated a price and completed the transaction. The next Sunday, I had a great testimony to share with our Sunday morning class. I have only rarely been more amazed at how quickly God can answer a prayer!

Balloon coincidence

Hot air balloons are a rare sight in our city. But on one warm summer day when our kids were young, the wind died and a hot air balloon became stalled over our neighbors' house. After much time passed, it finally landed by the corner of our front lawn. I didn't see him land, but I snapped a picture as our sons stood watching, and showed the picture to our Sunday school class.

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Eventually, a crowd gathered and watched as the balloon was loaded into a truck. However, not long after, and not to be outdone, a couple in our Sunday school class also had a hot air balloon encounter when one landed in their backyard. It's as if God has a sense of humor. Even though it seemed hard to find any deeper meaning, the landings seemed humorous, and they did result in a great Sunday morning discussion on the subject of coincidences, which apparently God felt we needed!

Our three sons – closes ones to the camera – stand watching the balloonist who landed by the hydrant in our front lawn.

Another coincidence also occurred around this time.

Culture has always been a lofty goal for me, as evidenced by a fondness for blue jeans and the avoidance of fine restaurants. But still, even I find this next story embarrassing. One day, after a stop at McDonalds I went to the Menards home improvement store to pick up a few things. Then, on the way to the car I noticed 90

a large vertical slop of ketchup on my cream colored polo shirt, a mess that had certainly been glaringly obvious to the checkout clerk and others. The only fix was a trip home, and a change of shirts.

I wish I could say that was the end of the story. The next morning, our local Christian radio station asked people to call in with their favorite pet peeves. One woman called in to say her pet peeve was when a “decent looking guy wears a nice polo shirt with ketchup down the front.” Of course I was sure she was talking about me, and I was so embarrassed! The blow was softened slightly by the words “decent looking,” but as my wife and others seem way too quick to point out, she did not say “great looking!” Wouldn't it be another funny coincidence if the person who called the radio station that day would someday read this?

A child near death

One Sunday morning in church Brenda and I learned that the daughter of a couple in our class was in a life or death struggle. Callie, their little girl, had been diagnosed with pneumonia, and was listed in serious condition. We prayed for her, and trusted God to heal her, but on Wednesday night at the mid-week prayer service we were told she was in critical condition and might not last the night. So those of us in the Wednesday evening service gathered around the front and knelt at the altar to pray.

I felt devastated by the possibility that this little girl might die, so the next day I determined to fast until such a time as I heard that Callie was okay. On my lunch break, I didn't eat, but used the time to pray and read my Bible. By the end of the lunch break I felt I had a confirmation that Callie would be okay, and I returned to work encouraged. When I arrived home, I was delighted to learn that suddenly on Wednesday evening, Callie had surprised everyone by taking a turn for the better. By the next morning she was so healthy it was as though she had never been sick. The timing of her recovery suggested that our prayer service 91

was indeed effective, and my additional fasting and prayer seemed unnecessary. I have often recalled this answer to prayer when I pray for people who are sick, or when I begin to feel like things are hopeless.

As I mentioned before, James recognized the dynamic that prayer has when followers of Christ pray for each other. He instructs us to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16, NIV). Jesus also alluded to the amazing power of prayer when believers gather together.

He said, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19, NIV). This is certainly the dynamic that seems to have been in effect the day God healed Callie. •

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CHAPTER 17

Kids in danger

One afternoon on a weekend, I was taking a nap when I suddenly woke up alarmed, somehow convinced that our three sons aged 6 to 10 were in serious danger. I raced to the front room and looked out the window, only to see them sitting calmly on the front step talking with a neighbor kid. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so I opened the door a crack and listened. An older teenager from down the street had their undivided attention, and was telling them that the gay lifestyle was wonderful and fulfilling. Immediately, I opened the door wide and told the boy with strong words to leave and not come back. I strongly believe that God intervened in this situation because of our prayers for the safety of our kids, and in doing so protected them from a situation where sexual abuse would have been likely.

A supernatural connection

Mike was a fellow employee who often vocalized his belief in the non-existence of God. One day after work, we entered into a discussion in the parking lot. During the course of the conversation Mike stated, “In my entire life I have never experienced a single event that I would consider supernatural, or even mysterious.” I said, “Well I'm going to pray that you do.”

And so I did. The next day, Mike was giving me a hand at the parts washer, when suddenly I felt a sensation of panic, as though I was drowning. I gasped, and when Mike asked what was wrong, I told him what I had felt. I noted the time and said, “I have never felt this before. I'm going to ask around and see if anyone I know had something happen to them at 9:50 am.”

That evening when I arrived home, I asked Brenda, “Did anything unusual happen today?” She replied, “No, not really.”

So I asked more questions, “How about something scary?” She 93

looked puzzled and said, “As a matter of fact, I went to a tanning place and when the door on the tanning bed closed it jammed and I wasn't able to get out. I panicked, but then when I pushed really hard it opened, and everything was okay.” So I asked, “About what time would you say that was?” I avoided leading her in any way. She said, “Well, I left the one place about 9:30 and got to the tanning place about 9:45.” So I asked, “Exactly what time do you think the door jammed?” She was puzzled why I would even care, but then said, “I would guess it was about five minutes later, or about ten minutes to ten,” which is of course 9:50am!

The next day, I relayed that conversation to Mike, but I could see he didn't believe a word of it. He apparently thought I must have fabricated the entire story for his benefit, so I let it drop. However, about a year or so later, another experience also involved Mike.

Coincidence marathon

It began on a Sunday morning when in the course of teaching a class I commented that coincidences often are signs from God that let us know he is with us and loves us. I also mentioned in the same class that Brenda and I had been using firewood to cut our heating costs, and mentioned that we needed firewood should anyone know of any. Someone in the class may have prayed for us, because when we arrived home from church, there was a trailer loaded with firewood parked in our driveway.

Ben, a landscaper who did not attend our church had cut down a tree for a customer and thought he might be able to dispose of the wood by giving it to us.

Later that day and during the next there were several more

“coincidences.” They were less significant than the firewood, but still I was recording each in my journal. The sudden cluster seemed unusual. I continued to note coincidences over the next several days. By Thursday, I had documented fourteen

“coincidences,” so I decided to share my list with my skeptic friend Mike. Just as I finished reading the list, Gina came out 94

from the office. In the noisy machine shop she was completely unaware of our conversation, but said excitedly, “Guess what happened yesterday? We had a bill where we owed a large amount of money, and I had no idea how we were going to pay it.

So, I prayed about it. Then yesterday, when I went out to the mailbox, there was an unexpected check for exactly that amount of money. It was a miracle!”

Mike emphatically commented, “It wasn't a miracle!” So I said, “Look, here I am, sharing a list of fourteen coincidences, when Gina stops by and shares an amazing coincidence of her own. That in itself is another amazing coincidence. These aren't just coincidences, but God wants to show you that he is real.” To this Mike replied, “The reality is that both of you are living in some other sort of reality – a Terry reality.” And then he walked away, and that was the end of that. Except then I told Gina what we had just been talking about, and shared the list of coincidences. I still have that journal with the coincidences somewhere, and it reminds me that not only is God with us, but he loves us and wants to reveal himself to us.

Also, I actually think Mike was on to something. It is scriptural that there is an alternate reality that overlaps this earthly one. Jesus often mentioned the Kingdom of God, telling people that it was near, or upon them. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus even declared that “The Kingdom of God is in your midst!” In other words, the Kingdom of God is all around us, and is internal, being seen and felt by those who know God!

I often think about Mike when I run into people who reject God. To me, the way God tried to make himself known to Mike is evidence that God is calling everyone to himself, and offering a gift of faith to anyone who can find the will to break free from the chains of skepticism and receive it. •

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CHAPTER 18

Three cardinal signs

As years passed, I gained experience in the field of gear manufacturing, rather than writing. The call to write wasn't forgotten, it is just that I continued to be haunted by the feeling that I lacked the depth of education. Even when re-reading the Nostradamus manuscript, I felt the flow was choppy and amateurish.

At some point I had an epiphany that one of the most effective writers of old was Paul the Apostle, and he was educated. He had been trained by Gamaliel who is respected by Jews even today. Of course, once educated, Paul went on to write many of the books of the New Testament, and became influential even to the point of surpassing the fame of his teacher. Thus it seems the value of Paul's education was great, and one could argue that the impact of his writing far exceeded the impact of his preaching.

Of course, I already had some education that even included writing classes, but I hadn't paid enough attention because my passion had been refocused to engineering. But now things were different. The passion was back, and I began to feel that if God was calling me I had better do something to get back on track.

Therefore, in the year 2000 I began praying about completing a college degree, and decided to check into a number of schools, My brother-in-law suggested Cardinal Stritch – a Catholic school where he had gone. I also did some research, and there were two other Christian schools with Rockford area extensions that seemed appealing. The result was that I had not reached a decision. Furthermore, I wanted to be led by God, and I wasn't even sure that God was calling me to go back to school.

One evening, when I attended a board meeting at Riverside Assembly, a board member looked out the window and spotted a cardinal. Pastor Moore became excited and ran to the 97

window, but the bird had already flown away. Then he explained that he had lived in Rockford for more than ten years and had never yet seen a cardinal. He added that it seemed like everyone else was seeing them, but not him. I thought to myself, "I wish I had prayed for a sign that very day, for then I would be able to claim this as a sign to attend Cardinal Stritch!" But such was not the case, and I couldn't bring myself to make such a life-changing decision on such scanty evidence.

However, the episode did cause me to begin to pray more earnestly for a sign. Several weeks went by. Then one day at work everything seemed to come to a head. While working I specifically asked God if he would give me three signs before midnight to reveal which school he might want me to attend, if any. I felt that one sign could be just a coincidence, but three would give me confidence that God was speaking. And then, just to prove I was serious, I decided that if I did not receive three signs that day, I would interpret that in itself to be a sign that it was not God’s will for me to go back to school, and I would no longer seek a sign. The truth is, I was becoming frustrated not knowing my future and wanted some kind of closure to the decision-making process.

A few hours later as I drove home, there was a Christian song on the radio. Suddenly, inexplicably I felt certain the next line of the song would contain a sign from God. So I listened intently. The line in the song mentioned two things – fire and blood. As I pondered their meanings, I was able to almost immediately connect the word “blood” with Cardinal Stritch University, since the word “cardinal” and “cardiac” have the same root, and also relate to the color of blood. But I had no clue how the word “fire” might apply. After I got home, I went on the Internet and began checking out each college on my list. But only Cardinal Stritch seemed to connect with fire, for I then saw that the school logo was an oil lamp with a flame! So I decided both words could point to Cardinal Stritch, and there seemed to be no such connection to any of the other schools. But that still left one more sign unfulfilled.

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Image 14

As luck would have it, this day was a Tuesday, and there was again a board meeting at our church. During the course of the meeting, our pastor again looked out the window. Only this time he announced that he was actually looking at the very first Cardinal that he had ever seen since moving to Rockford! So this became my third sign. I bit my tongue and said nothing at the time, but when I returned home I announced rather excitedly that I was enrolling at Cardinal Stritch University.

My new resolve caused me to promptly contact the school and sign up for its Business Administration program. The coursework emphasized writing. Even though the school was Catholic based, I found that its professors claimed many different philosophies. Paul Leisure was their writing instructor, and I took several of his classes by the

time I graduated. He also did

the Community Calendar

episodes for WGSL, our local

Christian radio station, and he

shared my worldview. He

also took a personal interest

in my writing, critiqued a rough draft of my book “Amazing Evidence,” and helped me improve it. So I was beginning to see why God had led me to Cardinal Stritch.

It took a lot of hard work, but after four years of classes, a wannabe writer graduated with more writing experience thanks to the creativity of an amazing God who was able to connect a school's identity with fire, blood, and a little red bird.

Gifts received

While I was attending Cardinal Stritch, we received a brand new 2003 Dodge Caravan as a gift from Brenda's aunt. It was an answer to prayer that took a long time to materialize. It was not the only gift that Aunt Betty gave us. For years we had used a 13-inch television that was actually a vintage computer monitor from the days of Atari and Commodore. By connecting it 99

to a VCR's output, it became a color television. I was okay with that, because I have always had a love-hate relationship with television anyway. But Brenda had been hoping for something better.

One day, as we shopped at Walmart, some large TVs were on display in the main aisle. Brenda mentioned that we could buy one on credit, since money was tight. I suggested that we pray for one, and avoid the debt. Brenda agreed, and we both silently agreed in prayer for a new television.

Within a week or so, Aunt Betty also saw the same display and was apparently led by God to buy one for us – the same exact one that we had been looking at! It had an extra large screen by the standards of the day, and was more importantly a welcome answer to prayer – at least for Brenda! Maybe God does actually approve of television?? •

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CHAPTER 19

We hear from God

Teaching Sunday school was rewarding, but required hard work. I usually spent at least eight hours preparing a lesson. Also, during these years I ran sound for services and events, worked with Sonlight and Royal Rangers, and served on the board. At times I felt stretched, but change was coming.

One Sunday morning, a member of our adult class asked me if I had ever considered writing a book. It struck a nerve, because I hated to admit that I felt called to write, yet wasn't producing anything. Then, after Sunday School in the main service, Pastor Moore preached a sermon titled “Getting Out of the Rut.” After church I remarked to Brenda that I thought I had heard from God that morning. Brenda said, “So did I!”

Remarkably, neither one of us, in my memory, had ever made such a statement after a church service.

Brenda asked me what I had heard, so I told her that I believed God wanted me to write a book about evidence for faith.

Fifteen years had passed since my first attempt to publish a book.

I then followed that up by telling her that I couldn't see how to free up enough time to write.

So then Brenda said she had a solution. She said she believed God was telling her we should switch churches to help my dad's new church get established. They had been meeting in a school but now had purchased a building.

So we switched churches and I began writing a book.

Switching churches was a major move that caused us to feel both sadness as we left friends, and also excitement as we embraced new opportunities, but for us, the move became a major milestone in our spiritual journeys.

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Image 15

Faith Community Church in Rockford, as it appears in Google Streets. Main entrances are on the opposite side of the building.

Amazing Evidence

For the next several years I worked on writing the book,

“Amazing Evidence: Grounds for Belief.” Part of the focus of the book was evidence that the Egyptian army actually drowned in the Red Sea, and that a mountain in Saudi Arabia was the real Mount Sinai. As a result of my research, I read books and watched videos by people who had unearthed some of this evidence. This left me feeling somewhat unsettled, for it seemed all the people who had written about this subject were explorers with major discoveries, while I had nothing to add to the discussion. So one day I prayed and asked God if he would allow me to discover something that I could use in the book. I then recall ending my prayer by saying, “Like that would be possible, because I am stuck here in Illinois.”

A couple of days later, on February 21, 2008 to be exact, our son Justin was helping me document artifacts around what we believe is the site of the real Mount Sinai where Moses camped in Saudi Arabia. We were doing this by looking at satellite images in 102

Google Earth. Then Justin scrolled past something that looked like a skeleton. We were both a little startled. It had already passed from the screen, so he quickly returned to it. That began a process of investigating this object. It measured about the size of a football field, and looked like it might have a tail that stretched for one third of a mile. After a couple of days, we decided it could be the Biblical sea serpent, Leviathan, which the Bible describes as having been killed in “the wilderness.” Since the wilderness is the area where the children of Israel wandered, it made sense that the skeleton of Leviathan at the foot of the real Mount Sinai.

Levitical traditions suggested that the death of Leviathan provided food for the Israelites, and that its light colored skin was used to make shoes for the women, and also to make the covering for the tabernacle.

Over the next couple of years we were able to accumulate a substantial amount of evidence. I also created 3D images of the skeleton by paying to have a satellite take a picture of it from a different angle, and it still looks like a skeleton even in three dimensions.

Then, Justin took a trip with a group to Israel. Their tour took them to Zippori where there was an ancient tile floor. The guide pointed out an image of a fire-breathing Leviathan swimming in the Red Sea, which would place it about twenty miles from the location of the object we found. Justin took digital photos of the floor, one of which I have included here. The tile floor also shows a tower on the edge of the Red Sea that Solomon may have had constructed. It looks remarkably similar to the ones Ron Wyatt found on each side of the Gulf of Aqaba, where Wyatt proposed the Rea Sea crossing actually took place. So the tile floor became another piece of previously unknown evidence connecting our skeleton with the Red Sea crossing and Mount Sinai. So in answer to prayer, this skeleton-like object may indeed prove to be a discovery. Only time will tell for sure.

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Skeleton-like object as it appears in Google Earth. It is about the size of a football field. Placing this image next to one taken from a different angle creates a 3D image, in which it can be seen that this object lies above ground level, and appears hollow beneath the torso. Notice the shadow on the far side of the object. A semi truck at the same scale inside the black inset square reveals how huge the object is. (Google Earth coordinates 28.5637N, 35.2808E).

Prayer moves a U-Haul

Faith Community Church was our new church, and I was working hard on the book, yet there was still time for helping a member move. When the day for the move arrived, a blizzard had dumped a lot of snow. We managed to fill a large U-Haul truck, but when we tried to drive away, the truck was stuck. Everyone pushed, and we rocked it back and forth, but it still wasn't going anywhere. Someone suggested we pray, so we gathered around.

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As as we finished praying, a 4-wheel drive pickup truck stopped and asked if we needed help. They lived a few blocks away, and amazingly had also rented the same size U-Haul truck.

When it became stuck, they had just finished pulling it out with their truck before they found us. With their fresh experience, pulling ours out was quick and easy. So God lined up experienced help, then led them down our street with perfect timing to offer help when we finally got desperate enough to pray! •

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CHAPTER 20

Did he say janitor?

In these days we were attending Faith Community Church in Rockford where my dad was a pastor. During this time I continued to work on writing the book, Amazing Evidence. Late one Saturday I was reading Hand Me Another Brick, by Chuck Swindoll. At one point he said it was important to have a good attitude doing menial jobs. When I read the words, I suddenly felt certain God was speaking to me directly. More specifically, I felt certain that God that had a janitorial type job for me to do at church. It did not sound great to me, but I began to pray earnestly to pray and read my Bible. I doing so it seemed there were confirmations this was true. Though I wasn't excited about it, I surrendered my will and told God I was willing to do whatever he would send my way. The next morning, a co-pastor named Dan Koehler approached me and asked if I would be willing to take on a task that needed to be done at the church.

I immediately said, “Yes! But then I thought, “Oh no, here it is!” I hadn’t even asked what it might be. The task he was referring to was that of putting together and printing the church bulletin each week. Relieved, I told him that I was all prayed up to clean toilets, so I was actually glad that what he had in mind was a little more appealing. Then, for the next couple of years I found colorful public domain pictures to put on the cover, and took pride in printing attractive weekly bulletins. I still have copies of all those bulletins in a couple of notebooks, and enjoy browsing through them from time to time, remembering all the hard work. It is easy to see that the earliest bulletins were a little rough around the edges, and I suspect God's purpose in this was simply to improve my desktop publishing skills, which have been useful when self-publishing books like this one.

In the same church, there was a husband and wife team named Toby and Sandy Moore who were the youth leaders. This became especially significant for our family, because they poured 107

into the lives of two of our sons, Justin and Daniel, even after we moved away. And Justin ended up marrying their daughter Paige, so now we are family!

A broken speedometer

Occasionally my younger brother Keith has asked me to help with various handyman projects. One such task involved cutting and removing a client's large tree stump. When our chain saws failed to reach the middle, I attempted to pull the stump over with our minivan and a chain. It didn't work, and the jolt at the end of the chain somehow damaged the van's speedometer.

In the end we succeeded in removing the stump, but the speedometer was still dead. Money was tight, and I worried that the lack of a speedometer might lead to a speeding ticket. A few days later, I was reading a shopping flier, and noticed a Garmin GPS with a speed display. I wasn't prepared to buy one, so I began to pray for a Garmin.

Meanwhile, the lack of a working speedometer caused us to drive extra slow. But not to worry, a solution was in the works.

After a short time, my brother-in-law called and offered us his old Garmin, as he had just received a new one as a gift. I told him it would be an answer to prayer and explained our need. He dropped it in the mail and in a few more days our problem was solved.

Now, I don't know why God didn't just fix the van's speedometer in the first place, but I was grateful for the Garmin, and since then I have never been without a Garmin. .

Guardian angels

Brenda works the night shift, and commutes about thirty miles each way. This has led to three deer encounters in the past twenty years. I credit her guardian angels with keeping her from injury. Her latest encounter provided the most direct evidence yet that God wanted us to know that he sent angels to protect her.

It happened late one night. Brenda was driving the Prius to 108

Image 19

work when a deer crossed in front of the car. Brenda braked hard but still struck it lightly. She promptly called my phone and told me about it. Her voice was shaky and emotional, and I thanked God that she had not been hurt. But there is more to the story.

Brenda did not think she hit the deer, but video from the dash cam suggests otherwise. In the video, Brenda is heard singing along with the radio, a fact she is not proud of. The song ends, and out of nowhere a deer runs across. As it passes the left front corner of the car you hear a loud “thump.”

So what does that have to do with an angel you ask? The very next thing in the video is a female voice that says, “I love living independently at home, but sometimes I need a little help.

That's when it's nice to know I have an angel by my side.” It was a commercial for “Visiting Angels” caregivers, and it is as though God wanted to let us know that Brenda had an angel by her side!

The dash cam image moments before impact.

Before this encounter Brenda also had a couple other deer encounters when she was driving our van. In her first one, she didn't hit the deer – rather it hit her. It was a big buck that first struck the left front fender, then incredibly bounced past the driver's door and struck the van's sliding door. Both the fender and door were seriously damaged, while the driver's door was as good as new! Not so with the deer. It died. But we were thankful Brenda was not hurt.

Afterward, the van was ugly. We drove it for a long time without fixing it. Then one day, apparently God thought it was 109

time to stop procrastinating. As I was driving to work a car went through a stop sign and smashed the driver's door, damaging only that door! I was shaken, but not injured, but now the fender and both doors on that side were trashed. Thankfully, there was no frame damage. It is as though God has a sense of humor – or that he wanted us to upgrade our image!

The teen girl who hit the van had no insurance, and we didn't make her pay. Who would have believed that the one door she hit had been in perfect condition, while the fender and other door were trashed. But now, we finally got the repairs done. •

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CHAPTER 21

God speaks to a little girl

My sister, Karen Delaporte, tells a faith story that involves her daughter – our niece – and a trip through a haunted house.

Brenda and I also went through he house with them, making for a great memory. But I will let Karen tell the story. Karen posted this account online in a forum under the pseudonym, “Katie Delap.” She has granted permission for it to appear in this book, so here it is, in Karen's own words:

One morning the weekend before Halloween my 13-year-old daughter came up to me and said "Mom, today I'm going to meet the man I will marry!" "How could you possibly know that?" I asked this daughter, who had never been boy-crazy like her girlfriends nor ever had a boyfriend or date. She answered matter of factly, "Because I've been asking and asking God who I would end up marrying, and this morning when I was praying, he told me I would meet my future husband today!"

Needless to say, fear struck my heart. My impressionable daughter believing this crazy idea would make for an interesting –

if not scary – day. Today, I would definitely keep her close to me and keep a strict eye on her! That night I knew we had plans to take my daughter and her friends to a haunted house. I asked her if she thought she was going to marry one of her friends. She said

"No, I'm sure it will be someone totally new that I've never met before." Yikes – fear again.

Nothing eventful happened all day. But that evening the line waiting to go into the haunted house went down the street and around the block. The kids didn't seem to mind the long wait and goofed around in line and talked to others nearby. I kept a very close eye on my extremely attractive daughter. Come on, I AM

her mom, but others think her attractive too. I suspiciously eyed every boy who talked to her!

Finally, our group of teens got to enter. I was behind the 111

group & directly behind my daughter. The long walk was dark, scary, and fun, and took us through pitch-black, winding corridors. Suddenly a man dressed as the Grim Reaper jumped out right in front of my daughter and scared her so badly she screamed and fell backwards - on top of me and those behind me

- toppling all of us over! The now kind and sorry Grim Reaper helped us all up, and, noting her extreme reaction of fear, he came out of character long enough to offer to sneak us out a side exit.

She said 'no, its okay' and we moved on - embarrassed.

That night my daughter was SO disappointed when she said "I was so sure God told me I would meet him TODAY." Fast forward 10 years. My daughter was the maid of honor for her best friend's wedding and gave a beautiful toast and prayer at the wedding. One of the men attending the groom was from out-of-state and took an interest in my daughter, emailing and calling her after the wedding. Eventually they engaged and married.

After they were married, we were sitting around talking and the subject of haunted houses came up. My son-in-law said he had once helped construct one in an old grocery store building when he spent a year in our town. "Really?" "Yes," he said, and I got to be the Grim Reaper for it and carry a fake scythe!"

Comparing notes, they figured out that the exact year he had spent in our city was the year my daughter was thirteen! When asked if he remembered an incident at the haunted house with a frightened girl, he wasn't sure – as all young girls scream. But when he heard she toppled me & others over and he came out of character to offer assistance out a side exit, then he said, "That was you?!? But that was just a little girl I offered help! Usually I pride myself in never coming out of character, but she was so scared and I worried people might have fallen and gotten hurt!" So funny!

Yes, a 13-year-old 5-foot girl to a 6 foot 2 inch 19-year-old young man IS 'just a little girl,' as it should be! So my daughter did, indeed, meet her future husband that day. Amazing! Out of the mouth of Babes...! They have been married now for almost 13

years and have 5 children.

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So God came through for Sarah, and then allowed her to be so startled that he created a story that could eventually become a small gift of faith! Brenda and I, of course, have close relationships with the individuals in the story. I recall that the haunted house was a church based event, and we were handed Gospel tracts as we left. I also recall Sarah was somewhat traumatized when she fell, and complained as we left that they shouldn't be allowed to make haunted houses so realistic! •

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CHAPTER 22

House judgement

Raising kids can be expensive, so Brenda and I took a course on real estate investing. We used our new-found knowledge to invest in a house, and we helped the owner avoid foreclosure in the process. In the end we made a sizable profit which we split 50/50 with the owner. Of course, then we were ready to do it again. This time, we used the profits to buy a house outright, but a short time later the housing market collapsed and we were left with more debt than we could manage. In all honesty, I ignored signs suggesting we should not have bought this second house, but I trusted my own judgment and felt desperate to pay bills, so we pushed ahead.

At the same time, the following recession resulted in my work hours being cut. The result was that our main residence fell into foreclosure. During the next two and one-half years, we tried everything to catch up and restore our good-standing with the mortgage company, but the mortgage company utilized a variety of unethical schemes to add outrageous lawyer's fees to our debt at a monthly rate that far exceeded our monthly house payment.

Ultimately, we failed to get out of foreclosure, a fate that many experienced during those years, and the mortgage company had so increased what we owed that there was no money left over from equity when they sold it to pay off any of the second mortgage.

Because we believed the mortgage company was acting unethically, we prayed that God would judge them for their greed.

I also made it a point to ask friends, family, and our pastors to pray that God would judge them. Finally, the day came when we were told to vacate the premises. I then canceled insurance and signed papers to turn over the house on a Saturday, two days before the deadline.

But the story doesn't end there. On Sunday night a storm blew through the area. Then on Monday, our good friend Ron 115

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Our house and garage after trees fell on them 36 hours after we vacated it.

Shown viewing the damage are my sister-in-law Tina, and our son Daniel.

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called and asked if we had seen our house. We had not. He told us the storm had seriously damaged it, so that afternoon, we drove out to see it. It appeared to me that three trees had fallen on the house. A maple tree from the neighbor's yard to the south fell on the garage also clipping the corner of the neighbor’s house, a massive limb from a tree in the neighbor's yard on the north side landed on the back bedroom, and a walnut tree from our own back yard fell onto the family room. The trees knocked the garage off its foundation, and collapsed the family room roof. In other words, the damage was extensive. Incredibly, this appeared to be the only house in the neighborhood with serious damage. We were very thankful that we were no longer in the house when it happened, and also that we no longer owned it.

And that was only the beginning of woes for our mortgage company. Lisa Madigan was the Attorney General for Illinois.

During the foreclosure process I had written a letter to her detailing how we were being mistreated by our mortgage company. She wrote back saying she was going to do something about it. I really doubted she could do anything about it, yet she proved me wrong. She actually did something.

In the end she won a seven billion dollar settlement against CitiGroup which owned Citimortgage, our mortgage company. The settlement, along with her name, made national news headlines, which is where I first heard of it. As a result, we were issued a sizable check. This check was enough for us to purchase a used Prius outright, which at the time saved us about $250 per month in gas, due to Brenda's long commutes.

A yellow blessing

The Prius was a former Yellow Cab brand taxi that had reached Chicago's mandatory five year retirement age. The car had holes where the taxi sign mounted, not to mention bold black cab numbers and Yellow Cab emblems. On the day we bought it, I taped over the holes with aluminum tape, then spray painted over the symbols and numbers. The job was less than 117

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professional, but by blending two shades of yellow the colors actually matched fairly well, and really did not look bad – at least if you are a fan of spray paint and aluminum tape! For us, the car became a major blessing, and its great miles-per-gallon motivated us to begin a tradition of driving to find warm weather in January.

In fact, on our first trip we were actually able to drive to Orlando, Florida on just $51 of gas!

Our yellow taxicab Prius on the day we brought it home, after a quick spray paint job.

In hindsight, it is easy to see God's hand in all of this, but at the time the changes were scary. When I look back, I see that when we ignored God's direction and things went horribly wrong God somehow brought good from them. Misfortune turned into blessings. The bottom line is that God did indeed judge our mortgage company for their misdeeds in response to prayer, and he also was watching out for our well-being, even though at times we could not see it.

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One of the results is that Brenda and I now look at finances differently. Like many others, we have caught Dave Ramsey's vision for debt-free living. So while our experience was embarrassing, we are now more conservative with money.

Prius Miracle

March 6, 2015 brought a bitter cold morning, and the Prius would not start. There was little money for repairs as we had been saving to attend two weddings. One wedding was to be in Seattle where our son Justin was to wed Paige, and another would occur in Texas, where our son Jonathan was to wed Kiley.

The weddings were only one month apart, money was tight, and we were budgeting well in advance. This car problem seemed to threaten the trips. So we prayed hard. I was determined to not dip into savings, so the car continued to sit in the driveway while I attempted to fix it myself. But after spending a meager 34 dollars on parts it still would not run.

According to my journal, about two weeks passed and I finally gave up. It was then I called Toyota. Their service department was gone for the weekend, so they advised me to call back Monday. But Monday morning brought a blizzard with seven or eight inches of snow – not great weather for towing.

By Tuesday the roads were plowed, and I called for a tow.

And then an amazing thing happened. While I was still on the phone with Toyota, Brenda announced we had just received a check in the mail for $580. It was part of a class action settlement that we had signed up for during the previous summer, and one that had nothing to do with the house. We had no idea how large the settlement might be, and we had completely forgotten about it.

But that is not the end of the story.

A couple hours later, a tow truck took the Prius to the Toyota dealership. Two days later we had the car back for a total cost of $546 – less than the check in the mail, But when you add that to what I had recorded in my journal that I spent on parts, we were exactly even! In spite of our doubts, God had answered our 119

prayers in his own way, and his provision and timing were perfect!

As a side note, my journal also reveals that on that same Monday morning with all the snow, our daughter-in-law Kiley called at 5am saying her car had gone into a ditch on a country road. After a long struggle in deep snow with lots of prayer we were unable to pull her out. But then, a Baptist brother with a truck stopped and succeeded in pulling her out. We thanked him profusely, and also God! Someday we may visit his church in appreciation. It was Heritage Baptist in Roscoe, Illinois. But now, back to the Prius.

Brenda safe

Since we moved to rural Wisconsin, Brenda has continued to commute thirty miles to and from work on the night shift at UPS. I often worry about her driving in the middle of the night over snowy roads. On more than one occasion she has been nearly stranded during blizzards when driving the Prius, which sat so low that it often dragged its underside on snow that other cars had already passed over. So a topic of our prayers became a request for a Jeep. It became a prayer that God answered, but not without pain in the process.

One evening after Brenda left for work she called me, sounding panic stricken. She told me that she had just been rear-ended while sitting at a stoplight. Brenda said she was okay, but the car didn't fare as well. I immediately borrowed a vehicle and went to get her.

When I arrived, I found that the back left fender of the Prius was digging into the tire, three of the four doors wouldn't open, and the rear hatch wouldn't latch because the rear bumper had been pushed in several inches. As a result, the rear fenders were also bulging out. The good news is that we were able to drive the car home with the fender rubbing the tire after some serious prying with a tire iron.

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The other driver's insurance totaled the car out and offered us a check. Then, for a little less money they let us keep the car.

After putting on my “Red Green” hat (www.redgreen.com) I was able to stretch the frame to nearly original dimensions with the help of a tree and a chain. This fixed the doors and even the bulging fenders. Only the rear hatch still had problems – it wouldn't latch. But it actually didn't look bad, and the creative use of a bungy cord inside the car kept it from bouncing. So the car was like new, at least in my way of thinking. We then went in search of an all-wheel-drive vehicle with insurance check, which seemed like too little money.

Buying a Jeep

One day on Craigslist I saw a Jeep Cherokee for sale at a local car lot. Brenda was feeling ill, and I am not proud to say that I dragged her out to look at it. After a test drive, we decided to look for something better – and cheaper. So then, without going home, I found another Jeep on Craigslist sixty miles east in Kenosha that seemed like a steal. After emailing the owner, we learned he could show it to us after 6 pm. Knowing bargains don't last long, I am again not proud that I dragged my sick wife along to go look at it. We didn't even take time to stop home, which would eventually come back to haunt us. I then emailed the owner asking for his address.

When we arrived in Kenosha, the owner still hadn't replied, and with no address, things seemed hopeless. Brenda commented that we hadn't even prayed about this, and it certainly seemed like we were paying the consequences. So we stopped at McDonalds and prayed. Then, looking on Craigslist we found another Jeep well under budget across the state line. It had fewer miles and was five years newer than the one in Kenosha. After asking God for guidance, we felt we had confirmation that we should look at it. I called the owner to say we could see it the next day because it was already getting late, but he told us we were only 20 minutes from his house. So even though it was late, we 121

headed over to see it. After a test drive we made an offer and bought it.

By then we were really tired and didn't want to drive back home in the middle of the night over strange roads. So we checked in at a nearby motel. Of course, we had never packed for such a stay! In the end it seemed worth it, and the next day Brenda was feeling better. The drive home was sunny and pleasant, and the Jeep, with only minor repairs has proven itself dependable. Since then it has been the vehicle of choice in blizzards. So now, in answer to prayer, we had two cars – a Prius with great gas mileage, and a Jeep that goes through snow.

My take-away is that God does not always do things the way we would want him to. In the end, God answered our prayer for a four wheel drive in a dramatic fashion with a collision and an insurance payment. Then, we almost blew the search by not praying, but God still led us to a good outcome.

Trust in the name of Jesus

We continued to drive the damaged Prius, which really didn't look that bad after my amateur repairs. But I never managed to make the hatch work properly. Then, in January of 2016, Brenda and I planned a vacation to Florida to get away from the cold.

When our neighbor Michelle learned of our plans, she told us she was praying God would bless us with us a new car because she insisted, as she had informed us on several occasions, that the Prius was “on its last legs. ” But we didn't pay much attention to Michelle's worries since the car was running fine. I recall once chuckling and saying, “I second that prayer for a new car,”

assuming of course that if God answered her prayer it would be free!

In nearly 34 years of marriage Brenda and I had never made car payments. As you may recall, even the Prius was a cash purchase, and its great mileage encouraged us to take more trips.

We had already driven it to Colorado, Florida, Washington State, 122

and Texas twice. Now, with the odometer nearing 325,000, there seemed to be no end in sight. But Michelle continued to worry.

On the morning we left for Florida, it was twelve degrees above zero. We weren't fazed by the cold because we were heading straight south into warmer weather. We took the long way, wrapping around the Gulf coast through Louisiana and Alabama. As we approached Tallahassee, however, Michelle's worries were realized, and the car quit. We ended up stranded beside the expressway in the shade of an overpass for about two hours in wonderful 75 degree January temperatures. Finally, we were able to get the car towed to the nearest Toyota dealer in Tallahassee. It was Sunday, and the dealer was closed, so the tow truck driver dropped us at a nearby motel.

The next day was January 16, 2017. The dealer reported that their technicians failed to find an inexpensive solution. We were feeling desperate, and were not cash rich. So we began talking options. If we had to make a down payment on a used car, it would cut our vacation short. And that is why we ended up with a brand new Corolla. You see, Toyota had a special no-money-down offer for new Corollas.

But as we sat at the salesman's desk, I entered the anticipated payments and insurance into my checkbook app. It was worrisome. Money would be tight if we signed – or so I thought, and just as we were trying to pay off lingering debt. So I said to Brenda, “What else can we do?” At that exact moment the news channel on the big screen behind the salesman zoomed in on a street protester's sign which said, “TRUST IN THE NAME OF

JESUS.” I said to Brenda, “Did you see that?” She had not, so I said that I was now okay with signing the papers, and then told her about the sign.

We then went on to enjoy a warm and wonderful week in Daytona Beach with a brand new car, while Wisconsin suffered in a deep freeze. Immediately upon returning home, God came through for us. A long-time employee at my company left for another job. The result was that my very next paycheck increased due to more hours. The increase was more than enough to offset 123

the extra monthly payment, and it has remained so. A few months later, I even began routinely working overtime, after our company was bought by Seraph Industries, as described earlier in Chapter 16.

Indeed, Michelle's prayer was answered, and God did it without us even having to initiate a car search. In the end, the only necessary decision was to trust in the name of Jesus! •

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CHAPTER 23

A prophetic dream

One winter evening in 2012, I asked God if he could give me a prophetic dream to bolster my faith, because I had just read a story of a prophet in the Old Testament that caused me to seriously doubt whether it really happened. In hindsight my request seems a bit selfish, because other than my lack of faith there was no reason I needed a dream. Yet I still prayed passionately because I felt skepticism creeping in, and I didn't like that. So after making the request, I fell off to sleep.

Shortly before waking, I had a vivid dream. In the dream I was driving a snowmobile in a field, and Brenda was sitting behind me. At one point we stopped and gazed at the back of a ranch style house that looked like ours, except this house was white, while ours was dark blue. After a short pause, we rode in a large oval circuit in the field and came around again. At the same place we again stopped and looked at the house. Only this time I noticed that the patio door blinds were now closed and swinging as if they had just been closed. Suddenly I felt embarrassed because I realized that the people living there must have noticed me staring at the house on the previous pass, and closed the blinds. Then I woke up. I immediately mentioned to Brenda that I had just had a vivid dream. I told her that I had prayed for a prophetic dream, but this one certainly didn't seem prophetic. In fact, I have never ridden on a snowmobile, and I doubted it would happen anytime soon.

About a week or two later, I was working on my laptop computer by our patio doors at dusk. It was getting dark in the house, and I hadn't turned on any lights yet. Enough time had passed that I had all but forgotten about the dream. It was then that a snowmobile with two riders appeared in the field behind the house. They swung around and stopped. It seemed to me that they were staring at me. I assumed they could see everything, 125

including my laptop computer and our television in the other room. I wondered why they were staring. It occurred to me they might be tempted to steal something, so when they left I closed the blinds and went to peer out the kitchen window. I didn't expect the snowmobile to return, but they swung around and stopped again in the same place. It was then that I noticed that the blinds were still swinging from having been closed, and realized that the riders were seeing that also, which made me wish that I hadn't closed them. Then the riders left and did not return.

It was only then, at that moment, that I remembered my dream and realized it had just been fulfilled in every detail, except in reality our house was dark blue while in the dream it was white! Otherwise, even the terrain was the same, as was the path the snowmobile followed, and the swinging of the blinds. I had just experienced the fulfillment of the dream from a totally different perspective.

As a result of the dream, I now gained a new understanding. I now believed that the snowmobile riders had not seen me sitting at the table, nor seen the laptop or TV, nor had it occurred to them they might be invading our privacy. On the second trip, when they noticed the swinging blinds they probably then experienced the same embarrassment that I had known in the dream.

In the end, I understood that God had answered my request for a prophetic dream, but I also realized that God was apparently not calling me to be a prophet or he would have given me a dream with more significance for others. The lesson I learned is simply to not doubt that God is able to communicate to us, and it is my job to simply trust that he will reveal what we need to know when the time is right.

Proving a dream

More recently, I experienced another prophetic dream indirectly. It was not my dream, but I like it because it is something that anyone can verify. In other words, anyone reading 126

this can prove its truth with the help of the Internet. For me it became a small gift of faith, and I include it here because I believe it can also become a gift of faith for others.

On April 25, 2018, I stumbled upon a YouTube video only a few hours after it was posted. In the course of the video, the man who posted it said, “Last night … I prayed to God, ‘Give me a dream, something that I can share with everybody.” Then he went on to say he dreamed a vivid and memorable dream. The video-maker then opened with a simple prayer and shared a couple of Bible verses, followed by some other unrelated ramblings. I am not trying to be harsh, it is just that he likes to ramble. He then began to talk about the dream, which I quote in part here:

“Okay, I am going to tell you about the dream I had. …I just felt like God put something on me, and I fell to my knees and I just started crying out to people that things were happening – like things were happening right then and there….and there were all these gas lines rupturing –

bursting – and causing fires all over. But the thing with those gas lines rupturing – they weren’t, or at least they said they weren’t caused by earthquakes. And it was happening all over that these gas lines were bursting. And for some reason I got Wisconsin in my head, but maybe that was because of that drill that they’re doing, I don’t know.”

And then he went on to describe other aspects of the dream that don't seem related. Then finally he told us that he felt compelled to share the dream.

After watching the video, I didn't know what to make of it, and promptly forgot most of it. But then, the very next day, on April 26, a gasoline refinery in Wisconsin experienced a series of major explosions, shaking the ground for miles around, and injuring many. So it seemed the dream was right because there 127

Image 23

were major gas explosions in Wisconsin. And then, the author of the video posted another video in which he noted the fulfillment of his dream. So for those who wish to investigate further, the title of the video on Youtube was, “A Dream, A Message and Some Predictions,” and it was posted on the channel, “To Those Who Will Listen.” This video was the first time I had watched one of his videos.

I relate this story here because not only did this person experience a prophetic dream, but I experienced it also indirectly, since God allowed me to watch the video before the dream was fulfilled, thus increasing my faith also.

Again, it is not very often that you can document 128

something supernatural with hard facts, so here is a video that anyone can watch on YouTube to increase their faith, and anyone can search out the news accounts of the explosions. After all, don't we all struggle at times with the balance between skepticism and faith? •

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CHAPTER 24

A call to switch churches

When Brenda and I moved to Beloit, we visited a few churches in the area before we settled on Central Christian as our main Church. We went there for several years until God led us to Family Worship Center, where we go now. This is how our most recent move happened.

One day, Brenda and I were leaving a store when we passed an elderly woman trying to start her stalled car in a parking lot. I offered to jump it, and soon she was on her way.

Before she left I gave her our cell number, just in case she didn't make it home.

A short time later she did indeed call, telling us that she was once again stranded. By the time we arrived at her location, a nearby resident was already helping her. We then struck up a conversation and learned that the neighbor attends Family Worship Center. He invited us to visit his church, and we had often talked about visiting it when we would drive past, but so far had never done so.

Several years passed without us visiting it as we still were we were happy with Central Christian. Central is a large church with contemporary Saturday services that fit Brenda's work schedule. David Clark was pastor, and we liked his preaching and theology, not to mention the music and worship. So we weren't really looking to switch churches.

But God seemed to be nudging us in a different direction.

Since moving to Beloit, we had begun attending a small Bible study in the home of Darrel and Malinda Morris. Here we met Gene and Mary Seger who also invited us to attend attend Family Worship Center. But still, we procrastinated. And then another

“coincidence” got our attention.

Family Worship Center was between pastors, and had just hired Adam and Amy Meyer to be the new pastoral couple. They had not arrived yet, and Gene and Mary had not met them. Gene 131

and Mary took a vacation to Branson, Missouri, a few hundred miles south. While there, they attended a large show. During the intermission they became acquainted with the couple sitting next to them, and to their surprise, this couple turned out to be Adam and Amy Meyer for the first time, visiting from Dixon Illinois!

Indeed, sometimes God works in amazing ways.

I have often said that coincidences show us God loves us, is with us, and wants our attention. Sometimes they can even point us to where God is leading. So when Gene and Mary told our small group about this coincidence, it became the thing that, along with our previous invites, finally intrigued us enough to actually visit their church. Adam and Amy had not yet arrived, so the first services we attended were led by interim pastor Robert Wright, who gave great messages. During one service, we recognized the neighbor who helped the woman in the stalled car, and we re-introduced ourselves. So even before we met the new pastor, we had already decided to make this our home church simply because it seemed clear that this was where God was leading. And now that we have made the switch, we appreciate Pastor Adam's passionate messages, and the anointed worship sessions often led by his wife Amy.

Finally, I wish to say thank you for reading all these chapters. But before the final chapter, I would ask you to consider posting a review of the book on-line. In this way, you could greatly help increase the ministry potential for this book. Possible places for posting reviews include Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, and Google.

Also, if you wish to contact me for any reason, I would welcome such communications and will do my best to respond.

Please send them to terrenchatch at hotmail dot com. I apologize for making this address intentionally vague, but the purpose is to make it more difficult for scammers to find via simple web searches. And again, thanks for reading to the end of the next to last chapter. And now for another miracle – this time in a cornfield! •

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CHAPTER 25

Miracle in a cornfield

A week before labor day in 2016 our son Justin and his wife Paige were visiting from Seattle. I took Monday off work early to spend time with them, and we went mini-putting at Volcano Falls in Rockford. As we finished, a thunderstorm was rolling in, and Brenda received a text from our neighbors Michelle and Ryland saying they needed help. They were on their way back from Florida with their son when they wound up stranded in a cornfield about fifty miles south of us. So we headed out to rescue them.

After driving through a torrential downpour we arrived at their location on Bollman Road, near Dixon Illinois. It was a narrow gravel road with tall corn and deep mud on both shoulders, and it was obvious that cars had driven through the mud to get past their stalled vehicle.

They told us they had been making good time on highway 16 until they came to a roadblock where a cop directed them onto this narrow gravel road. Then they described how traffic was barely moving. Then they began to hear a grinding noise, but they kept moving, and soon afterward the motor died. When they got out they saw that one end of the gas tank had fallen and was dragging on the gravel. It now had a hole in it that leaked out by their estimate about twenty gallons of gas, killing the engine. We were thankful that the cop took them off the highway when he did, since it seemed that the gas tank could have exploded if it had dragged on pavement at sixty miles per hour. This genuinely seemed to be a miracle of divine intervention. But it leaves one question unanswered. Was the cop an angel?

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Amazing God

When Brenda and I recall these accounts, we experience a deep sense of gratitude as we recall times when God stepped in and changed the course of our lives. We know that other Christians also have testimonies like these because we have heard many over the years. Sometimes I wonder if too many take prayer for granted, never record answers in a journal, and soon forget little miracles.

So what is the secret then to seeing God work? Probably most Christians would agree there is nothing we can do to force God to do anything. Our part is to simply surrender deeply to Gods will and place problems in his hands, praying pray hard when situations demand it, asking others to pray hard, and to sometimes be willing to take steps of faith based only on faith, rather than sight.

I have to wonder, if we never stepped off a faith cliff would we ever know if God could catch us? The bottom line is that when an average human being chooses to trust deeply that the God who loves them is in control of every molecule, atom, and quark in the universe, then one can look for and expect little miracles! •

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The End

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Release date: Jan 24, 2023

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