TEST INTO TESTIMONY

                Back in June 7, 2009, my Mom and Sister kept trying to get me to detoxify from Alcohol, and go to the beach with them for a peaceful week.... So, I tried to go, and had go through the pain and agony from detoxifying a little for them and an ex girlfriend, but as soon as I get into the water, I had a seizure from the detoxification, drown.... My sister watched me float by like a turd, in a dead man’s float, thinking I was playing... She did not know I was already clinically dead for 3 min... 3 min later, a marine comes up to my brother-in-law, Steve, and says, "Dude, I think your Bro is trouble"!!! SO, they pulled me out of the water, as blue as the ocean.... I had been clinically dead for eight minutes by that time. 

I vaguely remember them putting the shock paddles on me a time or two on the chopper.  But the only thing I remember after that was floating up, above the stars, seeing the light, and I wanted to look for my grandpa Charlie.  But a hand reached out, and said, "What about your dreams of being a youth minister?? YOU have lives to save down there!!"  God told me, “Now I am going to put you back. First, you will be like a toddler in a thirty-one years old body, and then you will be like a twelve year old in a thirty-one year old body.  But you will walk out of this hospital, and you will reach one hundred percent again.  You will reach the top of your career field, and meet the woman of your dreams.  All you have to do is tell this story, and work harder to be a youth minister.”!!!!!!  So, I remember thinking I was superman, and making such a straight path back to the planet, I flew straight through the sun, through several floors and ceilings in a building, then hit with a thud into my body, l laid motionless on a table..... Of course, without my I.D. they had my toe tagged as "John Doe" and I heard a doctor say, "Let’s all keep John Doe comfortable, for his survival rate throughout the next 24 hours is not at all likely.... After that, I don’t remember that much, but was determined to wake up and WALK out of the hospital…..  After forty-eight hours, the doctor talked to my family about being in a permanent vegetative state.  I was in a coma for two weeks.  During this time, my name was put on many prayer lists, between Pikeville and Louisville. I saw faces of everyone who was praying for me.  At one point, there were enough people praying to fill up Rupp Arena.  I thought, “Wow, all these people were shooting up a prayer for little old me.”  (Keep in mind, before June 7,  2009, I was a ticking time bomb.  I was agnostic at best, and would not have believed that God was so real and so powerful, any other way.)   After waking up, I told them that God told me that I was going to walk out of this hospital, and everyone laughed. They said that I would never do that for at least a year.  A week and a half later, I made the physical therapist teach me how to walk.  In four weeks time I was running and doing push-ups at Baptist East in Louisville, Ky.   

Anyway, I have seen all of the best doctors in Louisville.  They tell me that I am a walking miracle, a freak of nature.  In October of 2009 I saw a Neuropsychiarist, who gave me a 6 hour long Neuro-Psych evaluation. He told me that NOONE gets back to 100% after this type of brain injury.... but me.  My I.Q. Levels have only dropped 10 points or so, down to around 119...... He says I should be free and clear to drive in two months..... He said that, "I doubt there was any magic or God-given healing here... I think you are just a very determined, strong willed S.O.B.!!" He wanted to see me in a year for a follow up Evaluation..... I said, "O.K. I will see you in a year at 100%!!! God Bless You, Sir!!!”

Today, I have been cleared to go back to work full time as a systems engineer, and am living in Lexington with my beautiful wife, who I married on 10-10-10.  We were baptized together October 31, 2010.  I tell everybody that I was baptized once in the Atlantic Ocean.  I went under on the Devil’s hit list, and came up on God’s mailing list.