real life, real miracles

7/31/2019 Real Life, Real Miracles

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Bk J L. Gw d K W

From Bethany House Publishers

Heaven and the Afterlife

Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife

Miracles Are for Real

Real Life, Real Miracles


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Re a l life ,

Re a lM i R a c l e s

True STor ieS ThaT Will

help |ou Believ e

Ja Mes l . Ga R lowand

Keith wa l l

7


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2012 J L. Gw d K W

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system, or transmitted in any orm or by any meansor example, electronic, photocopy,

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ISBN 978-0-7642-1074-7 (k. : k. )

1. Mc. I. W, K A. II. T.

BT97.3.G375 2012

231.7 3dc23 2012028888

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Im Going to Take You to Heaven and

The Scars to Prove It, are taken rom

James L. Garlow and Keith Wall, En-countering Heaven and the Afterlife,Bethany House Publishers, a division o

Baker Publishing Group, 2010, and used

.

For more about Jason Black, eatured in

chapter 16, go to www.jasonblacklive.com.

For more about Willie Beeson, eatured inchapter 20, go to www.impossiblemiracle.c.

U w d, Sc q-

tions are rom the Holy Bible, New In-ternational Version. NIV. Copyright

1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.Used by permission o Zondervan. Allg vd wdwd. www.zd-

v.c

Scripture quotations marked KJV are rom

Kg J V B.

Scripture quotations marked NASB arerom the New American Standard Bible,copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lock-

man Foundation. Used by permission.Scripture quotations are rom the NewKing James Version. Copyright 1982 byThomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.A g vd.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV arerom the New King James Version. Copy-right 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used

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In a ew cases, names and small details

have been changed to protect the iden- vvd. A c

to a specic realperson the reader kw

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Cover design byGx

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


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This book is dedicated to the countless persons across the

nation and beyond who have prayed so aithully and or

so long or our amily to experience the type o miracles

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I dedicate this book to Mary Wall, whose commitment to

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K W


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7

contents

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11

PRoloGue

Miracles: Gods PersonalLove Letters

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rom a good job, and or the rst time in years its un-

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buried under statements and notices, numbing despair begins

to take hold. Several payments must go out today to cover this

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rates, and compounding interest. Youve done the math, and g k kckg wd .

In recent weeks your initial determination to pray and hope

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You stand up and walk to the mailbox, knowing it probably

contains more bad news, additional evidence o your perilous

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d : Please help.


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12

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sonally addressed envelope. The return address is rom a

treasured riend who moved away years ago. Contact has

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She could know nothing o your present circumstance,

yet the mere sight o the letter lits your spirits. The note

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an unexpected bonus at work. I dont know why, but I elt

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than it has in a long time. Wonderful! Its a miracle!Just

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any tighter, God arrives with reinorcements and relie. A

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Wonderful. Smile. Laughter. Miracle.

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The English word miracle originates in the Latin mirus, mean-

ing wonderul, and the Greek meidan, meaning to smile and

laugh. The Encarta WebstersCollege Dictionary (2nd edition)

dryly denes a miracle as an event that appears to be contrary w d gdd c Gd.

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will tell youand as the stories in these pages testiya mir-

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sought-ater children, treasured and valued beyond measure.

In the theoretical scenario aboveall too real or many o

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provided ora orever git that adds to your reservoir o

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Again and again Scripture reminds us that God transcends

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over were reassured that he loves us each individually and

always wants what is best or us. Whether or not we recognize

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Ah,SovereignLord,youhavemadetheheavensand

the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.

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Withmanthisisimpossible,butwithGodallthings

(Mw 19:26).

VerytrulyItellyou,whoeverbelievesinmewilldothewk I v dg, d w d v g

things than these, because I am going to the Father

(J 14:12).

Nowtohimwhoisabletodoimmeasurablymorethan

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As you read the amazing and extraordinary stories that

ollow, never orget who sent them, and take to heart the

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you, and provides or youno matter how dire and desperate

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I Miracles Are for Real, v k c,

we provided in-depth theological perspectives as well as wide-

ranging explanations and theories. We went into detail to

demonstrate that miracles do indeed still happen and sought


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Here, we let stories speak. The accounts that ollow are

told as accurately and authentically as possibletrue sto-

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many told us, I dont know why God chose to perorm a

c my . . . I j g dd!You might see yoursel or your circumstances echoed in

some o these stories. Possibly you or a loved one is ac-

ing a health crisis, job loss, desperate amily troubles, or

another heartbreaking hardship. May you nd courage in

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provision when theyve needed it most. And may you wait

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v .


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15

1

YouReinfoRthe Rideof YouRlife

On United Flight 811, an extraordinary message

saved Shari Peterson in more ways than one.

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gangway to the aging Boeing 747 or the nal leg o a journeybegun many hours earlier in Denver. Only fve thousand miles

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Inside, she handed the fight attendant her boarding pass

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R L, R Mc

16

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Seat 13F was empty. Shari took it and settled in as the

plane taxied to the runway. She closed her eyes and sighed

v, kg wd v . T was there was more on her mind than the stress o a long

travel day or the demanding schedule awaiting her in Aus-

tralia, where she was expected to babysit three hundred

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psychologically and emotionally abusive man, who took every

w w .The relationship grew more intolerable by the day, but she

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him, she said. I secretly believed he was right about me.

So I started using pills and booze like candy to make it all

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She astened her seat belt and reached or the sleepingpills to ollow her overnight-fight ritual. However, as she

shook the tablets into her palm, an insistent thought crossed

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Dont do that. You might need your wits about you in

case of emergency.

Shari stopped. It wasnt the sort o thing she ever told

.

What emergency? she thought. Flying is perectly sae these

days. The aircrat are careully maintained, and the crews are


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Y Rd Y L

17

well trained. Theres no reason to lose sleep worrying about

something thatll probably never happen.

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People with substance-abuse problems are para-suicidal,

she noted. Its a ancy way o saying were trying to kill our-

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dont care if we crash and Im drugged. Bring it on. B

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that passengers should expect the Fasten Seat Belt sign to stay

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counter with the man in 9F. She decided to take her mind , d vg , dg . S

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Tighten your seat belt, d g vc, c

. Youre in for the ride of your life.

I d vc gd g fight attendant, she said. But I knew very well that was

not the sort o thing they would say. When I put my book

down and turned to ask him what the heck he was talking

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I saw was the emale attendant whod told me to sit wherever

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R L, R Mc

18

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her thumbs under the strap. Her heart pounding, she glanced

across the aisle on her right and saw the moon, big and beau-

tiul, ramed in the window. The plane climbed smoothly.

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No more than a minute later, an explosion rocked the

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I heard a loud sound, a kind o grind and bump, and

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d g, This cant be happening! W I d

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A erce wind slammed into Shari like an arctic gale, whip-

ping her hair and stinging her eyes. Darkness lled the cabin as

the lights went out, but she could see fying debris as dislodged

cg , c- ggg, k, c, d wsucked through the twenty-oot-wide hole in the uselage.

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I looked down through where part o the foor used to be

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d I g, This isnt going to end well.

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cargo door had ailed, leading to rapid, uncontrolled de-

compression and to the structural ailure o the uselage.

Along each side o the cabin were two seats in each row,

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Y Rd Y L

19

in the planes middle section, also was ejected. He had been

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young daughter, their clothes whipping in the wind. They

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To her right, across the aisle in row 13, a couple was blood-

ied rom fying debris but still there and buckled in. However,

their seats canted orward at an alarming angle, and the foor

was gone beneath their eet. Seeing their panicked aces, Shari

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tiny space beneath the tipping seats. I they came loose, noth-

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I cd d d , j kw wasnt alone, Shari remembered. And I started praying,

desperately crying out or help. Then in my mind I saw a

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My mind was screaming that this was impossible. Id

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this crisis. His instincts took over, the ruit o many years ex-

perience as a military ghter pilot and glider pilot. He imme-

diately compensated manually or the lost starboard engines.

He began dumping uel to minimize the risk o re should

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R L, R Mc

20

visibly shaken by the extent o the damage. Given the planes

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250 k, v 240-k d.

Cronin managed to turn the plane around and set a course

or the airport. He held the crat higher than the gradual glide

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RShari watched through the foor as they turned around. As

she saw the approaching lights o Honolulu, she was amazed

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touching down perectly with an improbable airspeed o less

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Just ourteen minutes ater the explosion, the crew ex-

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less than ninety seconds. In subsequent computer simula-

tions, which sought to account or every conceivable variable,

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Y Rd Y L

21

A sot Hawaiian rain began to all on the tarmac as the

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minal. Shari looked at the plane, at the wound in its side that

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atal or everyone aboard. She trembled as she considered her

likely ate had seat 9F been empty ater all. She marveled that

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In her mind she still saw the divine hand liting them to

saety. And she saw herselin a new lightnot worthless ater

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your seat belt. Youre in for the ride of your life.

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said. Ive asked mysel many times why I was allowed to

survive, why it wasnt me in 9F. I dont have an answer to that.

I grew up in the Methodist Church and was always ascinated

with God. But I wondered, why dont the stories we read

about in the Bible ever seem to happen today? It bothered me.

Now I know: Miracles do happen! They happen today

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because you never know when you wake in the morning where

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22

2

a lonG tiMe Gone

Dr. Sean George had been clinically dead for over an hour.

His wife prayed for a miracleand a miracle happened.

On the morning o Friday, October 24, 2008, Dr. Sean

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long hours and logged many miles between distant towns

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town on the Indian Ocean, only ve days ater returning rom


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23

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o a team that treated 750 impoverished islanders in our

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two weeks and lead through the cardiac care unit o the Royal

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RMany times, in clinics and emergency rooms, Sean had lis-

tened to others describe the symptoms he began to experience:

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hot. But he was thirty-nine, with no known medical problemsd d. H ccdd d

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Back on the road, his distress level continued to rise, though

as yet he hadnt experienced the crushing pain normally

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a tiny mining town and the last settlement beore Kalgoorlie,


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R L, R Mc

24

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Dr. Drake was out or lunch when we arrived, Sean said.

I asked the nurse to do an electrocardiogram. When the test

was concluded, Dr. Drake still had not returned, so it was

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I w dd vg ck. Ud dc, nurses and the intern commenced treating me with the limited

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. I cd v w g .Dr. Drake arrived and immediately sought to begin calming

his colleague. He reassured Sean his age made the probability

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In his description, there are two kinds o cardiac arrest:

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utes, he remained in the ormer category. He received thirteen

separate debrillator shocks and more than our thousand

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ing personnel who arrived rom Kalgoorlie, attempted to

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A Lg T G

25

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made the decision theyd been trying to avoid or the past

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d cd S dd.

When the blood supply is interrupted to the brain or only

three minutes, the cells begin to die, he explained. Ater

twenty minutes the organ is completely dead. This is why

CPR is rarely perormed or longer than that. They tried

to revive me or over an hour. Had I been treating another

ccc, I wd v d w.

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knew as well as anyone that the only thing let to do was gd-.

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dd dv vg d: fervent prayer.

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only thirty-nine. I am only thirty-eight and we have a ten-

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dd g-v .

By the time Sherry opened her eyes, the room had re-

eruptedthe still-attached monitors instantly signaled the


25/27

R L, R Mc

26

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transport by ambulance to Kalgoorlie and, rom there, as

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in Perth. His pulse was still acutely weak, and he needed

g.

Then, agonizingly, severe regional hailstorms that ater-

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9:30 pm.

There, cardiologists operated to clear an extreme blockage

in his right coronary artery, inserting a stenta piece o tub-g d w d d

balloon pump to support the struggling organ. That done,

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his kidneys had ceased to unction and hed suered liver

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Ater my procedure, a hospital representative told Sherrythere was almost no chance I would survive the next ew

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aith-building miracle with her own eyes. She knew God was

g w d .When she said as much to the representative, he grew

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Seans condition didnt change on Saturday, and doctors

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ceived a phone call rom an acquaintance in India. The woman,

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prayer, had learned o Seans condition. While praying, she had

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26/27

A Lg T G

27

RIncredibly, Sean did briefy but unmistakably open his eyes

that evening while Sherry sat beside the bed. She told doctors

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Yet on Monday, Sean began spontaneously moving his

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see his latest ECG results. He had no discernible loss o brainc. H ckd v v d,

but he had none o the ear and anxiety one might anticipate

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When I woke I elt an extreme sense o peace, he re-

membered. Its something I just cannot describe. Words

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I dd v c wd. I d v vtroubling to wake up in a dierent environment like that,

knowing what had happened. But it wasnt. Ive never elt

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ROver the next week, the pace o Seans recovery was as

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explanation or it, he said. Theres no current scientic

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g.

Thirteen days ater his heart attack, Sean was released rom

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a rural physician at Kalgoorlie Hospital, with no lingering

physical disability. Since then hes traveled widely throughout


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R L, R Mc

28

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God wants people to know he is still there, very much

there. A lot o nasty stu is happening in the world, but

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is nothing special about me. The love he showed to me is

v .

real life, real miracles

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