The Car Accident

FEBRUARY 1975

I was called to be a missionary on December 31, 1973, so a month and a half later I went to Lakeland, FL to check out the closest Assemblies of God Bible College. I went to its open house during the second weekend in February with 2 High Schoolers from the church I attended - the church where I was the sole 20+ year older. Manny and Danny were both Hispanic kids who loved to have fun and who had little interest in taking life seriously.

We took turns driving my VW up to Lakeland even though it was only 4 hours away, spending a good part of our journey traveling 88 miles per hour, because that's as fast my car went.

We arrived at South Eastern Bible College on Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

For our weekend we went to a South Eastern basketball game and a prayer service. Manny, Danny and I had a lot of fun together and even though there was 5 years difference between me and Manny and Danny, they grew on me and I began to enjoy their company and their sense of humor.

On Saturday night I had a strong conviction that I never had before. I felt very strongly that we shouldn't be speeding. I never felt that before or after. I learn the hard way, through tickets, not conviction. But that night I felt it very strongly, so I told Manny and Danny that we were going to go the speed limit on our way home.

I drove the first hour and stopped at a gas station where I made friends with the attendent joking with her and telling her that if the newspapers reported a car accident the next day, it would be us... who would have known?

Manny started driving and I took my Bible and opened it up to read it for the next part of the journey, but grew tired right away and slipped into a deep sleep.

It was light out when I woke up. I was confused wondering why I wasn't at work already. I thought it was Monday and I thought I was in my bed in Opa Locka and there was a strange man in the bed next to me. I turned to look at him; he was excited. "You were in a car accident," is all I understood him to say. I fell back to sleep.

I woke up again with a doctor next to me telling me that I had a head concussion, lung contusions, a broken leg and that I lost a third of my blood. When he left I went back to sleep until sometime later when a nurse woke me up to take me by wheelchair into another room to see my friends where she left me. I looked up and saw a man I never met before, who was apologizing, "I'm sorry." His apology was hollow and timid - he was (as I was told later) an alchoholic, who had been in several previous accidents. The nurse brought me to the other driver thinking he was my friend. I found out later that my friends had already been taken to a Miami hospital only 2 hours away.

Minutes later, the nurse came back into the room and took me back to my room, where somebody brought me the bible I had been reading shortly before the accident. It was a Living Bible completely soaked in dried blood. I was amazed anybody would think I would want to keep it. I slept the rest of the day.

On Monday morning half the town of Clewiston, FL showed up as a Coast Guard helicopter landed in the baseball field to carry me by stretcher to a hostpital in Miami. The crew had to wash the entire helicopter from top to bottom after they dropped me off because one of the cuts in my lung looked like Hepetitus on the XRays.

One week after the accident a Baptist lady walked into my hospital room with my Martin 12 string guitar. She told me a girl at the accident had kicked it into a ditch to steal it, and seeing that the lady walked over grabbed the guitar and drove it down to Miami to give it to me in person. I didn't thank her, cause I was still so out of it. In fact, it was a month before I was ready to get out of the hospital and begin working again with a large cast on my leg and crutches.

Kathryn Kuhlman - part 1

APRIL 1975

I went to Kathryn Kuhlman Crusades 3 years in a row. For the first two years I was in a 300 voice choir being blesssed as I watched dozens of people healed. But for the third year I was in the audience wondering if what I was watching was real or some sort of circus show. In other words, I had learned to question and examine everything and I wasn't so sure anymore about Kathryn Kuhlman or about many of her routines. Even though I was in such a mood, the day I went to my last KK Crusade would become one the wildest of all my experiences. But before I get into that event, I need to explain who Kathryn Kuhlman is.

Kathryn started out as a Pentecostal preacher who had a good sized church until she met a radio preacher whom she fell in love with and married. The only problem was, when she met him, he was already married and had children. It ruined both of their ministries. But after 10 years of marriage together they decided that Kathryn's ministry was more important than their marriage, so they broke up.

Kathryn had a hard time getting back into ministry because news of her illegitimate marriage followed her from city to city for several years. Eventually she was able to find peace and gained a good following. That was when the healings began. They weren't planned or expected - they just happened.

As her ministry grew, she began traveling around the country holding healing services and gaining quite a following.

Her services were carefully crafted. People who didn't look like they were true followers were removed from the front chairs and services were held in buildings that couldn't quite hold the mass of people who wanted to get in. Like the Billy Graham Crusades, KK started her meetings with music and hymns, a 300 voice choir singing (she especially loved "It Is Well with My Soul,") and a flamboyant piano player named "Dino" who in time threatened to write a book exposing KK as a fraud. The book was to be called, "The Late Great Kate," but was buried in return for a hefty but unknown amount of money paid to Dino by KK.

After quite a bit of music and hymns, KK preached from the scripture. As I remember, she one of the better preachers I heard... very solid in the Bible - but I don't remember much about her preaching. Oh yea, and she had a very dramatic style of speaking and moving around on the stage. It was like every movement was over stated and filled with drama.

During her preaching people would start getting healed - it just happened. And once it began she would have ushers find those being healed to come forward to testify about their healing. After their testimonies, Kathryn laid her hands on them and said something like, "The power of God is on you." Then the people fell backwards, "slain in the Spirit."

That was the show. Occasionally, some Pentecostal in the audience would get all excited and start praying in tongues or something else to steal the attention away from KK, but Kathryn responded very wisely to this; she would not allow it. To this day that was one of the two positive things I got from KK. The second was the fact that unlike most healers she admitted she didn't know why some were healed and some weren't - some people who had no faith were healed while others with loads of faith were not. I liked that idea. There are mysteries involved in healing.

After her death Benny Hinn had a vision of Kathryn Kuhlman telling him that he should be a healer. Yeah, sure.

When I saw her in 1975 I had no clue about Kathryn's jaded past. I just knew that I was struggling with the question of what was real and what wasn't. But oh what I was about to experience!

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Kathryn Kuhlman pt 2

APRIL 1975

Manny, Danny and I were toward the back of some huge arena in Miami watching Kathryn Kuhlman. We had a car accident two months before and we looked like it. Danny's arm was in a sling because he had a broken elbow along with a shattered hip with pins and metal bars put in from our accident. I on the other hand had recovered quite well in the last 2 months. My blood level felt like it was back to normal, I was no longer dizzy from my head concussion, I could breath properly after having lung contusions (that's how I lost 1/3 of my blood), and I had become very good at walking around with crutches. My cast, due to come off in June (if everything went well), traveled from the top of my left hip to the bottom of my left toes. Manny had a few bruises and nothing else. But the 3 of us together looked like a mess.

I always felt so blessed during the 2 previous Kathryn Kuhlman services the 2 years previously, but during this service I was filled with doubts and questions.

The same routines took place - the songs, the choir and the preaching. KK told her audience that God had revealed to her that before she would die there would be a service where everybody was healed... I don't think that ever happened and when she said that, I doubted it.

According to her routine, while she preached with over the top drama in her long white gown, people began to be healed and while people were being taken to the stage to testify about their healing. Meanwhile in the audience Danny started to stretch his arm wondering if it was being healed. One of the ushers saw Danny stretching his arm still in the cast and thought for sure he was being healed, so he grabbed Danny and took him up front. Manny followed him up front, because they were best friends.

On stage they told KK about the car accident and she found out that there was another one from the accident in the audience, so I was shuttled up to the main stage as well.

On the main stage KK asked me a few questions and then told me that I was healed and that I should put aside the crutches and walk across the stage. I had a cast up to my hip, and told her that I couldn't walk because of that. She then said, "When you get your cast off you will find that you are healed." With that she reached her hand out to me so that I would be slain in the Spirit (which means I was suppose to fall backwards). I had already decided that I didn't know if this was that scriptural so was not going to let her push me down, and I wasn't going to go down just because I wanted to. I planned to stand my ground, but before her hand even reached me I fell over into the arms of one of the helpers who placed me gently on my back on the floor.

I felt awesome and praised God while trying to lift up my arms to praise him, but my arms would not move.

Fun experience, but it did nothing for my faith either way. It didn't harm it and it didn't help it. On Judgment Day God will not ask us about our spiritual experiences of falling down; He will ask us if we fed the hungry and helped the poor, clothed the naked and visited the sick and those in prison.

The service ended on the highest note - 3 young men (2 still in their teens) healed after a life threatening car accident. The only problem was, I still had a cast on so couldn't tell if I had been healed and Danny wasn't really sure he had been healed. In fact, the next day Danny told me he thought nothing had changed. Nevertheless, on the way out of the auditorium as my mind raced with conflict and more doubt, people clamored to touch us because the power of God rested on us.

I didn't feel like it.

Am I Healed?

APRIL 1975

"When you get your cast off, you will find that your leg is healed," Kathryn Kuhlman told me before an audience of thousands. Those words tormented me for 2 months.

I had just been to the doctor who kept on putting more and more cast goop on my leg cast making it heavier and heavier. My next appointment was in June. I was tormented because I didn't know if I should pry the cast off with a chisel or saw thus letting the whole Coast Guard station know that God heals. But if I did that and the Doctor said I wasn't healed, I would so dishonor Christ and make myself look like a fool. I just didn't know what to do.

Past teachings I thought I had discarded came back to haunt me. I felt like my lack of faith was keeping me from ripping the cast off, showing the world that Jesus is alive! But then again, what if I ripped it off and wasn't healed? The embarrassment would know no end and I would make Christianity look so bad. These thoughts plagued me for the two remaining months I had the cast on.

JUNE 1975

The earliest possible date for complete removal of the cast (according to my Doctor) was at hand. I decided to keep the cast on until the Doctor's appointment after all, but felt like I may have done wrong.

The nurse came in to remove my cast, but it was way too thick from a constant wrapping more and more cast stuff on it, so the Doctor sawed through it and took some xrays.

I prayed that I would not have to have another cast; I had one on for four months and was tired of it.

The Doctor barely knew me (he had no idea I was a Christian) and had no idea I was struggling so much with Kathryn Kuhlman's proclamation that I had been healed, nevertheless when he came in to the room where I was after looking at the xrays he literally shouted out (not really loud), "Rise up and walk, you're healed!"

I didn't think it was funny. It took awhile for me to get my sense of humor back.

UPDATE 2018

As I talked to my daughter about this event today, I realized for the first time since 1975 that it is possible that God was saying something to me back then. All healing, even natural healing and healing with the help of medicine is a gift of God. So, maybe God was speaking through the doctor that day.

The Last Day in the Coast Guard

The last day in the Coast Guard felt like the greatest day ever. I felt like I was going to be free to go where and when I wanted.

As the day began I walked into an office area and talked to the two women who had my papers ready. They asked me what I was going to do and I told them that I was going into the ministry. As we talked the conversation got around to Christ. "Jesus loves you so much," I said, "the Bible says that Jesus emptied Himself of all His power and glory so that He could live for you and die for you. As a result of his death and resurrection, we can be raised to new life with Him."

One of them told me she was a backslidden Pentecostal, "I need to go back to church and pray through," she replied. Some Pentecostal churches believe that you need to pray and pray and weep and weep and emotionally push yourself until you "feel" the breakthrough. It can be a long time before the feeling comes.

I told her, "You don't need to strive so hard to pray through. All you have to do is pray that Jesus Christ will forgive you of your sins and ask Him to come into your life, He will enter your life and forgive you so you can live for Him. It is simple faith that does all this, not some great pleading and weeping.

I then found out the other girl was a backslidden Baptist who agreed with me and likewise decided she wanted to get things right with God.

In hindsight I may have said about the same thing to the Pentecostal girl but may have added, "If you must pray through, then go as soon as your church is open and pray through, because the Bible says, 'Now is the right time, now is the day of salvation. Don't wait for later'"

Out of the Coast Guard

AUGUST 1975

I went into the Coast Guard addicted to drugs and a destructive way of life. I left the Coast Guard a new person ready to go into full time ministry.

After College (4 years, 3 different schools), and 2 Masters (M.Div.) and M.A. in Cross Cultural Studies, I became a missionary teacher in Africa for 5 years and then a pastor for 10 years. After being a pastor I have been an adjunct professor for three local Christian universities.

Counting the cities in which I have established residency, I've lived in 23 cities, 4 countries and have attended dozens of churches through my journey. I've met the most amazing and gifted Christians and I have met the wierdest. But all in all, my Christian faith was formed in the Coast Guard with the help of friends and enemies. Those years and the lessons I learned were rarely easy and often came came with struggle and pain, but grateful for the people I met during the four years I spent in the Coast Guard for they were the ones who helped form my faith.

Ray - who taught me how to witness and through his honesty helped me grow even when I didn't want to.

Brian - who led me to the Lord and showed me how God can use someone.

The churches I visited - where Christ was made real through so many different kinds of ministries and personalities.

My brothers and sisters - who becoming Christian in very possitive ways went against Christian peer pressure to conform to the group.

Pastor Rentz and his wife - who invited me into their house so many times.

Manny and Danny - who loved to have fun (something I did so little back then and I needed so much during the last year and a half in the Coast Guard).

The people who prayed for me.

And so many more.

Healed Again

EPILOGUE #1 - HEALING

During my 3rd year in College, Dr. Yanghi Cho spoke at two of our chapels. Dr. Cho was the pastor of the largest church in the world at the time with over 750,000 members in his church in Seoul, Korea. He had a healing service on the first day and some interesting things happened...
1- He didn't like the fact that in the U.S. people would always fall down (slain in the spirit). He didn't know why people did here.
2- He had a healing service after the sermon where he gave word of knowledge about people being healed. Let me put it briefly, my sinuses were healed - totally - for one hour. Then they got unhealed. I heard other people have gone through the same experience of being healed and the next day things are right back to normal. Don't know what to make of this. I started putting these things in a place in my brain called the "I don't know what to make of it" box.

2018 FOLLOW UP

Although I didn't know what to make of this at the time, I have since learned that temporary healing like this are common. In an interview with BBC, the interviewer suggested to Benny Hinn that the the placebo effect might be the reason so many people seem to be healed. In his normal dazed look, Benny admitted that in some cases it might be so. He also admitted the placebo would explain why people get up out of their wheelchairs on stage only to return to them later.

Temporary healing is a result - not of God's trickery and not the result of losing faith - but rather, it is that fact that so much so called healing is from the body's own reactions to expectation and the trust in some authority - or in other words, "the placebo effect."