this sounded too good to be true, but I went to Snopes.com and checked religion. according to them this is a true event.
wow.
I didn't think to check snopes, only because the person that sent the email is vigilant in not passing along bogus stuff and she also provided the person's name who sent it to her, who is also someone I know and know is vigilant about bogus stuff.
But thanks for checking anyway.
As you say - WOW!