Page 11 - Good News May 2015 paper

By Lori Victa and Kathy Chiero; was an instantaneous thing.”
The 700 Club Don found himself standing in
Don Piper was relieved when front of a divine portal, sur-
the Pastor's Conference he rounded by familiar faces.
had been attending finished a “I did not see a single person
little early that Wednesday in that I did not know,” he says.
January 1989. Being associate “They were relatives, they were
pastor and having just been friends that died in high
appointed minister of edu- school, they were teachers...
cation at a Houston Area They were people I had seen episode.” internal injuries nor any head
Church, Don was a busy man. and known all my life who had injuries. Then, I began to sing,
The early start home would gone to glory. They were While Don stood at the gates of and I to heard him singing with
provide him much needed time smiling; they were embracing heaven, pastor Dick Onerecker me,” says Dick.
to mentally organize his hectic me; they were welcoming me. of Kline, Texas, stood on the
schedule. They were in the process of Texas highway by Don’s life- Don was transported to
taking me through the gates of less body. He had also Herman Hospital in Houston.
“I was thinking about that night heaven.” Looking over the attended the Pastor’s Confe- Miraculously, he suffered no
and also that I was going to be heads of his friends, Don saw rence. He came upon the head or internal injuries.
preaching that next Sunday looming pearl gates. accident moments after it However, virtually every bone
morning in three services,” happened. The EMS personnel in Don’s body was either
Don remembers. “The gates of heaven was a had told him that Don was broken or shattered.
magnificent edifice, the one dead.
Little did Don know that he that I saw. It looked no less like His left arm and left leg were
would be late for the service giant gates that had been “It was as though I was completely severed, and had to
that night - not just by minutes sculpted from mother-of- compelled to stop and to pray be rebuilt and replaced.
or hours, but by months - and pearl,” Don explains. Peering for him. The Lord had just Looking at his battered and
before he got home, he would through the gate, Don saw an impressed on me very empha- pain-seared body, this man
take a detour he would never incredible light. tically, very urgently that I was who had touched heaven’s
forget. to pray for him,” says Dick. “I gates wanted to go back.
“Behind that portal was such a walked to the car door. There
Within minutes of leaving the light that I don’t conceive of was great physical damage on “Having now seen my condi-
retreat centre, Don drove onto how you could see it in an the outside. I laid my hands on tion, and to know how beautiful
a bridge spanning a lake. It was earthly body. It could only be him and began to pray for him.” heaven was, I desperately
a fairly long bridge and there envisioned in a heavenly body As soon as Don’s journey wanted to be there again. As
was water on both sides of the because it was too bright.” began, it ended. Don found much as I loved my family, I
elevated highway. himself back in his crushed yearned for heaven. I was
And, says Don, there was vehicle, staring up at a tarp that confident of their salvation
Recalling the scene, Don says, music, that of a literal, angelic had been thrown over him by experience and I knew that
“I approached the end of the choir. “In all honesty, as medical attendants. they would join me sometime
bridge, and before I reached awesome as the sight was, the in future,” Don says. But the
the end, a tractor-trailer truck sound was more amazing,” he Says Don, “The first conscious prayers and love of family and
owned by the Texas Dept. of says. memory was ‘What a Friend we friends pulled Don through
Corrections crossed the centre have in Jesus.’ I was singing. I four months of intensive
stripe and hit my car head on.” “I heard literally thousands of was thinking to myself, ‘Why therapy, numerous operations,
praise songs. They were all am I singing this song?’ I’m in and infections that on two
Not only did the truck hit Don’s praise songs. I really couldn’t the dark. I knew it was about occasions almost claimed his
car, it ran over the passenger see anything. I was so pre- noontime when the accident life.
side of the small Ford Escort, occupied with the people happened. I’m in the dark, I’m
completely crushing the around me, I couldn’t see singing, and I’m holding a “I like to say that I came back
vehicle and killing Don Piper. anything.” hand. I’m thinking to myself, by popular demand,” he says.
Instantly, Don began an ‘What on earth is happening?’” “People prayed me back from
amazing journey. “But you could sense this hum the gates of heaven. People
of wings hovering all about Dick had begun singing hymns prayed me back from death’s
“When I was killed, I was you, like you were being to Don. “The Lord impressed door. I’m here because people
instantly transported to ministered to by angels, and on me to pray for him. He also asked God for me to be here.”
heaven’s gate,” he says. “It they were observing this whole told me that there would be no www.cbn.com

By Sheryl Fountain; The 700 feel well. His boss was con- recalls, “An alert call came arrived there, it was like a war
Club cerned and convinced Jeff to over the PA system that zone. It was chaos. Everyone
It was the morning of 20 go to the emergency room. someone had arrived at the there fighting to keep this man
September 2006. Jeff Markin Somehow Jeff made it. Once hospital with a massive, deadly alive.”
recalls heading for work as he got there, he collapsed. heart attack. Then a second
usual. What he doesn’t call went out over the PA The ER staff worked on Jeff for
remember is driving himself to Dr. Chauncey Crandall was system and specifically asked 40 minutes. They shocked him
the hospital. He had called his doing rounds in the Intensive for me, because I was the a dozen times. Despite their
Continued on p. 12
boss and told him he didn’t Care Unit that morning. He cardiologist that day. When I Continued on p. 12