Posted on 07/15/2003 11:26:52 AM PDT by bedolido
He was ordained in a mainstream denomination, like Methodism or Presbyterianism, which leads me to believe his story. He wasn't going to make a killing off of promoting his story.
To make a long story short, his father abused him and he was thrown out of the house to earn his own living at the tender age of 11. He would do anything, including cleaning out wells (a nasty job). One day he was down a well cleaning the muck and trash out of the bottom. Two men were working the bucket up top. The drill was, they would lower the bucket, he would fill it up with silt and mud and junk from the bottom of the well, and they would haul it up and empty it.
The bucket had just gone up, and he had leaned back over to resume scrabbling around in the water, when he felt a hand on his forehead and a voice said, "Back!" right next to his ear. Naturally he jumped back startled against the well sheathing -- just as the guys up top lost hold of the full bucket and it went whizzing past his nose. Even if it hadn't killed him outright, he would have drowned before anybody could have gotten down to him.
He told me this story himself. He said he knew it was his guardian angel, and that the Lord was saving him for something important. He went to theological school and became a minister, and had a long career in missionary work, as superintendent of an orphan's home, founder of a summer church camp, chaplain at Emory University, and pastor at various churches all over the South and Southwest. He was a wonderful man, and we all still miss him!
Wow!...and it sounds like he was a great man.
Mother Angelica, the founder of EWTN, had a similar story. When she was a girl, she was playing in the street when a car came whizzing around the corner. She was standing, frozen, in its path when something picked her up and moved her to the sidewalk. She didn't suffer a scratch. She attributed this to her guardian angel as well.
I heard she had suffered a stroke but was beginning to make a recovery. Haven't seen anything on their website in awhile.
Egad! Never thought of it that way....
Status quo, as far as I know. She certainly has suffered tremendously! It amazes me that she was miraculously healed of her life-time disability about a year before her stroke.
Does you lack of response mean:
a) no
b) I don't want to think about it.
c)Yes, but I won't tell you
d)It doesn't matter what I think, we are all just food for worms anyway.
e)I just want to be left alone (with my tag line)
BTW, you can answer "no" and still be an athiest.
If something could be an angel, but also could be a camera reflection, there's really no reason to assume that it's an angel, even if you believe in angels. I believe in God, but I'm pretty sure the furry thing that lives in my house isn't Him, even though there's no particular reason He couldn't appear in the form of a cat.
My grandmother said “who is that man in white?”....of course, she was the only one who saw him. I guess he came to help her leave us.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.