Special Feature

About Miracles

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

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Series Code: SF

Program Code: SF000042A


00:17 In a world that seems increasingly out of control,
00:21 every once in a while we hear stories
00:23 that make us stop and wonder.
00:26 Stories that confront us with evidence of things
00:29 we can't see or measure.
00:32 Stories that seem to pull back a curtain
00:34 revealing one who is still in charge.
00:39 Every one has faith in something.
01:04 Brian came to the US as a visitor from India,
01:08 but he overstayed his visa so he could work
01:11 and send money back to his struggling family.
01:15 Later he was joined by his wife and brother.
01:19 I, my wife did file for a legal status,
01:22 we got approved but then again for our green card,
01:26 a permanent residence we had to file again.
01:29 There was lot of money involved in this process
01:33 and we were basically just working
01:35 and paying the lawyers the money.
01:38 And for some reason
01:39 or the other it always used to get denied.
01:42 We used to appeal, it used to get denied
01:45 and this used to take year
01:47 like, five years, six years, seven years
01:51 and still we never had a legal status
01:53 and it was just going on and going on.
01:58 Even though Brian was troubled,
02:00 he was not without close friends.
02:05 I met Brian about 15 years ago,
02:07 he was working at an Indian restaurant
02:09 and he was a waiter there
02:11 and he was running a restaurant too
02:12 and we became friends
02:14 because I was attending the restaurant quite a bit.
02:17 I got close to one family.
02:19 He was Italian, his wife was a Filipino.
02:23 So we actually grew very close to each other.
02:28 When his wife and daughter came to the country,
02:31 we became family friends
02:33 and we started socializing outside of the restaurant
02:36 and had a kindred spirit together.
02:38 Brian is one of those guys who is easy to trust.
02:40 He is a real friend here.
02:42 My wife was carrying my child
02:44 in fact, and the child died in the stomach
02:48 and after that the next week my brother died
02:55 and after my brother dying,
02:56 it was completely, I was lost completely.
03:02 We got even closer
03:03 after his brother passed away of heart attack
03:05 and we were there together at that time
03:07 and the roots been a lot deeper after that.
03:10 So it was like one after another things happening.
03:15 I don't know who had my papers so things were getting,
03:19 you know, real tough.
03:26 After that I did a couple of odd jobs here and there,
03:30 driving the taxi and then working in the gas stations
03:34 and again I joined one of my very good friend,
03:38 his gas station I joined.
03:40 So I was working with the owners
03:43 who were Muslims and they knew I was Christians.
03:47 But that did not, you know, make any different for them.
03:52 I was a person who could they could trust.
03:55 The customers, they knew me by name in fact,
03:58 because it was a while I used to work like.
04:01 I did seven, five, six years.
04:04 They had-- they shared a very close relationship.
04:08 Whatever house problems they had,
04:10 they used to come and let me know about it.
04:12 And in that neighborhood, you know,
04:14 that basically they say that that neighborhood is a crime.
04:17 You know, lots of crime happening here,
04:19 there, shootouts, but I never felt that,
04:22 you know, the fright,
04:24 you know, something is going to happen to me
04:26 because I used to be friendly with everybody
04:28 over there in fact.
04:33 I did get my work permit and my social
04:37 but that also got denied
04:39 because my sponsor couldn't show sufficient funds
04:42 and then my papers went to the court.
04:45 Went to the court saying that
04:47 as your papers cannot go more ahead,
04:50 you have to go back to your country.
04:52 You have to leave.
04:53 Yeah, we had got a letter
04:54 that says we're gonna get deported
04:56 and I mean, my parents really never told me much
05:00 not to affect me because I was like oh, deported.
05:03 Didn't realize I was in seventh grade,
05:04 didn't really understand what that meant or anything.
05:06 So it was like oh, okay.
05:08 I thought oh, yeah, we are going to India, it's fun.
05:10 Haven't seen my grandparents
05:11 but to my family that means back to suffering,
05:14 back to hard work.
05:15 So I was in a removal proceedings,
05:18 that means they would send me back home to India.
05:22 We used to ask our self, why is this happening to us?
05:25 Why is this happening to us, you know?
05:27 And I knew lot of people said that,
05:29 you know, you don't have to go back,
05:31 you know, you can still live here,
05:32 you have ten years hardship with your children here.
05:35 You can still live but my thing was already in the court.
05:38 I couldn't, if I go any part of the US
05:40 they would know with my car insurance,
05:44 or residence or anything that I would have been in trouble.
05:46 So I said, you know what, I will leave.
05:47 Neither they had to change the law
05:51 or give everybody asylum
05:53 or you know, some new law had to come in
05:56 and that was nothing which would take place
06:00 at that very moment.
06:03 One day, Brian was working the day time shift
06:06 at the convenient store
06:08 instead of his normal overnight shift.
06:11 It was approximately at 10:30 in the night,
06:15 10:30 to quarter to 11 that was a time
06:18 when I was supposed to get over with my shift.
06:23 So I was doing all my paperwork and everything.
06:25 So I was all by myself
06:28 so that was one regular customer
06:31 who I knew him and he was, he was all by himself.
06:36 He asked me, he wanted to buy something.
06:39 So he asked me, can I get this?
06:45 So at that time, you know,
06:47 as I told I did not consider it a fright that I was,
06:53 you know, scared of that place because everybody knew me.
06:57 So I went out, as I soon I went out opened the door
07:02 and I went out to open the phone accessories...
07:07 suddenly three guys came jetting in
07:11 and they had guns in their hand.
07:14 I thought it was a joke
07:15 because I really never thought that,
07:16 you know, it was something really happening,
07:18 it was a robbery.
07:20 And they turned me around
07:22 for me to come in the bulletproof.
07:25 They had the registers.
07:27 So as I turned and I be nothing
07:31 they just shot me in the back of my leg.
07:47 After that when I gave them the money,
07:51 I was just praising God and there was only three words
07:55 I was continuously raising,
07:57 "thank You, Jesus" "Praise You, Jesus"
08:00 "I love You, Jesus."
08:02 For once I opened both the registers
08:05 they caught me by my shoulder and they dragged me
08:08 because they knew that
08:10 in the office there was money in that.
08:13 As they were taking me to the office
08:16 I see a rays on the floor,
08:19 the golden words Jesus and I could see it.
08:23 That was a time basically gave me more of the faith
08:28 that nothing is going to happen to me.
08:30 That oh, Jesus is there with me
08:32 and here He is, you know.
08:35 But still I was studying these words,
08:36 "thank You, Jesus" "Praise Jesus"
08:38 "I love You, Jesus."
08:41 I could hear the other person with the gun telling me,
08:46 "Give me the money."
08:47 And that's the time I told them,
08:48 okay, take the money on the side
08:50 because I knew we always kept hundred ones,
08:53 it was in the draw.
09:40 I drag myself all the way down to the phone.
09:45 Tried to dial 911 but I was--
09:49 I never knew the same ear I put the phone in my ear
09:54 and I could not hear the dial tone.
09:56 So I was in a impression
09:57 that there is something wrong with the phone.
10:00 There was chunks of blood just coming out.
10:03 Never in my life I've seen that chunks just coming out
10:08 and I was getting suffocated because I could not breathe.
10:12 Again I tried to dial 911
10:15 so still I could not hear the dial tone
10:17 so I just kept the phone
10:19 and I just hung my head down and I was just on the ground.
10:24 And then suddenly one of our customer
10:27 who I knew he came and he looked at me
10:30 and said, oh, Brian, what happened?
10:33 So he knew that something wrong has happened
10:35 because he could see the blood.
10:37 So suddenly he dialed 911.
10:43 This man doesn't want to be identified
10:44 after he found the Citgo convenience store clerk
10:47 shot inside the store.
10:48 Is that my dad?
10:49 The man says, he entered the store
10:51 to find the clerk alone and injured
10:53 and that he had been shot in the head.
10:57 At my position I was a chief surgery resident at the time.
11:01 So when a trauma work comes in, a lot of times
11:03 if it's just kind of a run of the mill
11:06 no too heavy trauma,
11:07 I let some of the junior residents
11:09 take care of it for their own experience.
11:10 I call down there and they say, you know,
11:12 it's a gunshot would to the head.
11:14 So obviously that's not, that's a pretty serious injury.
11:16 That's not something I let the junior residents
11:18 take care of.
11:19 So I rushed down there and I get down there
11:21 and I wonder where the guy is.
11:23 Usually there is a lot of hoopla,
11:25 usually everybody is just frantic,
11:27 trying to get things done and that just wasn't occurring
11:31 and you know, there is this guy
11:32 in the trauma bay just sitting there
11:33 and he looked completely comfortable.
11:35 We found some blood in his right ear
11:37 and he had a wound in his left neck
11:39 and he also had a gunshot wound to his leg
11:42 but for gunshot wound to the head,
11:44 I mean, he shouldn't have--
11:46 first of all chances are
11:49 he probably wouldn't have lived,
11:50 the second of all, if you get there
11:52 after gunshot wound to the head you are in a bad way.
11:56 So after we find out that they are stable we do,
11:59 you know, we do a this little test,
12:00 we do check labs, just basic labs.
12:03 We get a plain film of the,
12:05 of the C-spine of the cervical spine.
12:07 We also get a plain film of the chest.
12:09 Both are tricky, they can go anywhere so you never know.
12:12 And then after that, you know, we knew
12:14 it was probably an entry wound to the right ear
12:17 and an exit wound to the left.
12:19 There is a lot of important structures
12:21 in between those two points.
12:23 Because we thought he most likely had an injury
12:25 and even if he didn't have an obvious injury
12:28 we would need to take him to the operation room
12:29 to make sure of that
12:31 because there are so many structures in between there.
12:32 If you don't diagnose it and treat it right away,
12:35 it can be fatal later on.
12:36 And then they told me about that,
12:38 that my husband was shot
12:40 and he is inside the surgery room
12:42 and you know, there is no chances
12:44 of what's going to happen to him
12:47 because he was shot on his head.
12:48 He was vomiting chunks of blood and everything.
12:52 Then there was a screaming over the phone.
12:54 She was, she was really, really upset
12:57 and she said, Brian's been shot.
12:59 My husband got the call and was talking
13:01 and his tone was serious.
13:04 He had been shot in the leg with a 45
13:07 and he'd been shot through the ear and neck with the 45
13:11 and apparently he lost lot of blood
13:13 and she actually thought he's gonna die.
13:17 Ninety five percent of people
13:19 who were shot in the head will die
13:21 and only two percent will live without disabilities.
13:25 Brian's chances of survival were even lower
13:28 since he was shot with a 45,
13:30 the largest practical handgun caliber in use.
13:34 A bigger hole means more damage and faster blood loss.
13:39 The bullet came in right here
13:41 but before it even got to the bone
13:43 it actually ducked down into the soft tissue
13:47 and it broke the mandible here.
13:48 So it didn't completely traverse the bone.
13:51 Also would have done that,
13:52 if it would have gone up
13:53 obviously would have hit the brain
13:55 and that would have either killed him
13:56 or result in pretty significant disability.
13:59 If it would have gone straight
14:01 across his eardrum is right here
14:05 and the carotid artery is right there.
14:06 So we are talking less than an inch.
14:08 We are talking maybe a centimeter difference
14:10 between that artery
14:12 and where the bullet actually ended up going.
14:14 Fortunate for him it went down
14:16 and even more fortunate for him it didn't hit
14:18 any of the important structures in neck.
14:20 As it traverse the neck,
14:21 it would have to miss his windpipe,
14:22 it would have to miss his trachea,
14:24 would have to miss his esophagus
14:26 which is directly behind it.
14:28 Then behind that you got the spinal cord.
14:30 So it missed all three of those structures
14:33 on the right side, then it went across
14:35 and it essentially missed
14:37 most of the structure on the left side.
14:39 It barely caught part of his internal jugular vein
14:42 but barely caught it.
14:45 I mean, we did fix it
14:46 but if it would have been a very significant injury,
14:48 he probably would have died from it.
14:50 When bullets hit solid objects it causes them to tumble
14:53 so the bullet doesn't always go in a straight course.
14:56 Once it hits something solid it tumbles
14:58 and it can spin like a curveball spins.
15:02 Fortunate for him it took a spin
15:04 and it's been in his favor.
15:06 I mean, it could have-- with all these structures
15:09 it should have hit something.
15:10 He said, you know what,
15:13 Mrs. Fernandez, it's a miracle.
15:16 I came and saw Brian he was in a very bad condition
15:20 but I didn't think what's going to happen
15:23 but I would say it's a miracle.
15:25 I saw thousands of traumas when I was at ORMC
15:28 and this was a standout.
15:31 Because he basically just turned around
15:32 and just called,
15:34 this pointblank fired at the clerk.
15:36 And you know, God hand have been on the clerk side
15:39 because it looks like he's gonna make it
15:41 but, you know, that's the devil at work right there.
15:45 She was weak from I guess, crying all night
15:48 but happy and excited that he had survived.
15:51 He had survived the surgery
15:52 which nobody really initially thought he would.
15:56 She had many people that were praying for him that night.
15:59 It was like the dark night with a bright morning
16:03 and that morning was
16:04 the best morning in my whole life
16:06 because I got my husband back, yeah.
16:12 We actually left to see him the next day
16:15 when she called us and said, he made it.
16:17 We were already planning on
16:18 coming down for the kids' spring break
16:20 within a couple of days.
16:22 So we just pulled the kids out of school.
16:24 It was like a second reason that became our main priority.
16:28 At that time we got to get down there.
16:30 Later on that evening we arrived in Orlando
16:33 and we went to look for Brian in the hospital
16:37 but there wasn't anybody registered
16:39 in his name in the hospital because he was shot.
16:42 The people who shot him were still,
16:45 were still unaccounted for.
16:47 So after getting through to Bindu on the phone
16:49 we kind of crept to the right area and...
16:52 My wife and I wanted to bring the kids.
16:54 We wanted them to see this miracle in action.
16:59 When we got there we were just kind of go silent.
17:03 Didn't really want to look at him,
17:05 like afraid what we would see.
17:07 You feel the same?
17:08 Yeah, I know walking through the hallway
17:10 I was like all nervous like, okay, let's do this
17:13 and I was like all nervous.
17:14 When I saw him, it didn't seem like he was speaking.
17:16 You'd expect to see,
17:19 you know, just so much awfulness
17:22 in front of you and even though there was an aspect
17:24 it was like his warm smile was still there.
17:28 I just couldn't believe that
17:31 he didn't have any real problems.
17:33 I said Brian, are you able to hear me out of your ear,
17:38 your bad ear where you got shot?
17:40 He goes, yes.
17:42 He had bandages.
17:44 There was a lot of swelling around his neck.
17:46 Remember seeing that tubes coming out,
17:49 you know, just kind of a draining,
17:51 a lot of drainage and he looked tired,
17:54 just really tired, still groggy.
17:57 To see that firsthand
17:59 and to see the evidence of God's hand immediately,
18:04 it's just so real.
18:06 For about a week or so
18:07 I never even got to go to the hospital to see my dad
18:10 because he was in the critical care
18:12 and then I had my sisters.
18:13 We can't all go together
18:15 so I had to stay home for a while.
18:19 Seeing your dad on the bed and he is in pain,
18:22 it's really not, you know, good
18:24 because he's had a heart attack before,
18:25 he suffered so much.
18:27 You know, he was just honest.
18:29 He was like in pain
18:30 so it's very hard to see him like that.
18:32 I know, so it's really hard because my dad,
18:35 because I really love my dad and then knowing that
18:38 I could almost lose him really scared me.
18:42 So it's really scary.
18:49 I was in the hospital 11 days,
18:52 so after that I was discharged.
18:55 It was like my kids, dad has come home.
18:58 Dad has come home.
19:00 Doing the bed, doing the cot.
19:02 You don't do this, you don't do that.
19:05 I said Brian, are you in any pain?
19:08 He says, no.
19:10 I said, are you not taking any pain medicine or anything.
19:14 I took, I think he said, he took Advil.
19:17 Just, you know, that's just for the pain,
19:19 you know, if I get some pain but I'm not having
19:21 because praise God there's no pain.
19:25 After this incident taking place
19:27 two months I had good rest, I stayed with my family.
19:32 After that I thought as I'm okay,
19:38 let's get back to work.
19:40 He was excited to go back to that neighborhood
19:42 and tell everybody I'm alive and he wanted,
19:44 he was very proud that,
19:46 you know, Jesus gave him a new life
19:47 but at the same time when he told me
19:49 he is going to go back for that gas station,
19:51 I was a bit scared.
19:52 I won't lie to you.
19:54 Oh, no, don't do that,
19:55 you know, they are going to come back again.
19:57 They are going to shoot you and that's not the right place.
19:59 You be in the house or you work somewhere else
20:02 but I'm not going to send you over there.
20:05 So I just told her one thing,
20:06 I said, what they had to do they did
20:09 and God saved me.
20:11 So I don't think so anything more than that,
20:13 what more than that they can do.
20:21 So we were all set ready to go but yet we were really scared.
20:26 When I went back to work no doubt there was four guys,
20:31 three were caught and the fourth,
20:33 the main shooter was not caught.
20:35 He was out on the streets but still there was no fright.
20:41 I went to the place
20:42 and I started telling my testimony
20:46 whoever came
20:48 and all my customers were so happy seeing me
20:52 and it was like overnight I became something
20:57 like, hey, that's the miracle man.
21:04 When I met Brian
21:06 he was actually in immigration court
21:09 and what we call removal proceedings
21:11 which means that the government was attempting
21:14 to remove him from this country.
21:16 And the reason he came to me is that
21:19 he was working for what we attorneys call
21:22 some sort of relief from the removal or deportation.
21:28 There is a very what I would call a rare type of visa
21:34 that is available.
21:35 The purpose behind the U visa,
21:38 the reason that is out there
21:39 is for the US government to be able to know that
21:43 their witnesses are going to be available for them
21:47 when they are prosecuting the criminals.
21:49 And they don't want to be witnesses deported
21:52 so they can be in our criminal courtroom.
21:55 So if you are a victim of horrendous crime,
21:58 but you know, the perpetrators are just will never be found
22:02 or the perpetrators have already been convicted
22:06 and by the time you come to see me
22:09 its already been said and done.
22:11 You are probably not gonna to be able to get that visa.
22:14 And then you have to have the local authorities
22:17 wanting to assist in this case Brian
22:24 by signing an affidavit declaring that they need him
22:28 and they need him to stay in this country.
22:34 It was a long process and a difficult process for him
22:38 because even though we filed the application,
22:42 just filing the application
22:44 does not remove him from immigration court.
22:46 He had to be approved
22:48 before the court would dismiss his case.
22:51 And again we needed some sort of relief
22:54 so this was the form of relief we were after
22:56 and the judge gave us the opportunity
22:58 to go forward with it.
23:04 As it turned out this is a rare visa as I said before
23:08 but it's one that because of his circumstances
23:12 not only work for him but it worked for his wife
23:14 and I knew that it worked for his daughter as well so.
23:18 Yes, no doubt something bad happened
23:22 but that bad happened for something good.
23:24 Because otherwise there was just no way
23:28 I could, I and my family could stay behind.
23:32 We never had our papers and this was the reason what,
23:36 you know, God never wanted us to go back home
23:39 so He made this way for us to live back in US.
23:45 But more than these papers I think Brian was back with me
23:48 that was more important.
23:49 Because I can live anywhere in this world,
23:52 I don't want that visa more than and if he is there
23:54 he is the visa to live.
24:06 I've already forgiven day one
24:09 when they shot me all four of them
24:12 who was involved, who shot me,
24:15 I had already forgiven them through my heart
24:18 and I would like them to ask forgiveness from God
24:22 because God loves them too.
24:24 No doubt they have done something
24:26 which they were not supposed to do,
24:29 but I know it was their hand
24:31 but it was the work of the devil
24:34 who was doing something bad to them.
24:41 You know, that scar symbolizes a soldier wound.
24:43 You know, when veterans they go they get scars.
24:46 Scars show you what happened to your life.
24:48 It shows you the past.
24:50 So that wound that my dad has reminds me
24:53 that my dad is a soldier, soldier for God.
24:55 I think that scar remains on his neck there will be is--
24:59 it's something which will always make me remember
25:02 that Jesus is alive.
25:03 So I'm really thankful
25:05 and I'm thankful for God who gave my dad back
25:09 because without Him I'm not sure where I would be.
25:11 I would just be crazy because my dad is our--
25:17 he is our foundation of our family.
25:19 He is the main person of the family
25:21 and I love my dad a lot.
25:40 Marianela was a graduate student.
25:42 When her school announced a mission trip to China,
25:45 she wanted to go but didn't have the money.
25:49 And that's when I decided to go to my professor
25:52 and my supervisor and ask for one week off
25:55 so I can go work and do this literature evangelism.
26:01 For those of you that don't know what that is
26:03 it's knocking on doors and sharing Christian books
26:06 and health book material.
26:09 So I went ahead and went with a group to Georgia.
26:14 So it was really nice to have her along in the trip with us
26:17 that she had done it before and she could help us out.
26:21 Those who were new, like me this is my first time
26:23 we would get a bit more coaching
26:25 on how to approach houses
26:27 if somebody really shut the door on our faces,
26:30 yeah, don't take it personally
26:32 just keep your hopes up, keep praying.
26:35 A good day was selling ten books,
26:38 that's over $100 a day.
26:41 And excellence per day was selling 20 books a day.
26:45 That's over $200.
26:47 I knew that to accomplish the $3,000
26:50 that I needed for the trip
26:52 I would have to sell at least double
26:54 and I only had that week to work.
26:58 We gathered together in a circle,
27:01 I remember holding hands with all the other colporteurs
27:04 and the leader
27:05 and right before we prayed
27:07 we each said what our goal was.
27:09 So the very first day
27:11 when we got there Marianela was like
27:12 well, my goal today Lord, is 40 books.
27:15 The 40 book goal was really, really a high goal
27:19 because it's really rare for somebody to sell that many.
27:24 I kind of look nerd
27:26 because I'm not a really firm believer for,
27:29 you know, that high expectations.
27:32 So I didn't think she was actually gonna get it.
27:36 I was in the van with the rest of the colporteurs
27:39 and started going door to door
27:41 and I remember my bag was full of books.
27:45 And all of sudden I started, I was starting selling sets,
27:49 in sets of five and then sets of three
27:51 and sets of four.
27:54 Then throughout the day
27:55 you can hear through the walkie-talkie
27:57 saying this is a bit of jargon that we need more bread,
28:00 I said more books.
28:02 And then when we are in the van and we are pulling,
28:05 you know, back to our little command center
28:07 I asked Marianela well, how many did you get
28:09 and she got 41 and I was just floored.
28:13 Everybody in the van was floored.
28:15 She actually sold 41 books
28:17 because one of the other girls had prayed that
28:20 she sells one book over what her goal was.
28:23 But then the next day she said, well, if God can do this many
28:27 then He can do ten more.
28:29 He came through so, you know what,
28:31 when it was my turn I said 50 books.
28:34 And again I need more bread,
28:37 I need more books, I need more books.
28:40 I need to be dropped off in another territory
28:43 because I finished these houses
28:45 and at the end of the day she met her goal.
28:48 And so then Marianela, you know,
28:50 all smiling comes along and say, hey guys,
28:52 I met my quota, you know, I met my 50 books.
28:56 I said, well, if God blessed me with 41 books the first day,
29:00 and then the second day with 50 books,
29:03 what's another time books.
29:05 The third day she said, I want to sell 60 books.
29:08 You got to help me sell 60 books.
29:10 Well, when I heard Marianela say 60,
29:12 I was just floored
29:14 and, you know, the one thing
29:15 I was going through my head was Jacob,
29:18 whenever he struggled with the Lord,
29:20 and he said, you know,
29:22 I will not let you go until you bless me.
29:25 And the same through the phone, you hear, "I need more bread,
29:28 I need more bread, I need more books."
29:31 Sixty books is over $600 a day plus donations,
29:35 it was about $800 that day and God blessed me with.
29:39 Every night when I saw the miracle of God
29:43 how He was giving me exactly the goals I had asked for
29:48 and even more with donations.
29:51 I just rejoiced in Him
29:53 and I could only praise Him throughout the night.
29:58 And Marianela then set another goal for 70 books,
30:01 that's just high calling.
30:03 I said well, if God's give me 41 books the first day,
30:07 50 books the second day, 60 books the third day,
30:11 what's 70 books to God that's only 10 more.
30:15 But 70 books is a lot to sell
30:17 and she asked the same prayer of God.
30:21 She really gonna be able to pull this off
30:23 but in the back of our thought,
30:25 in the back of our minds we thought well,
30:27 its not her, it's gonna be Christ pulling it off for her.
30:30 And she sold them.
30:31 She sold 70 books.
30:33 It's really, really unbelievable
30:35 that it's huge amount in one day.
30:38 I thought it was amazing
30:41 while that she was getting all of these books.
30:44 She was able to meet so many people
30:46 and they were all receptive to what she was saying.
30:49 Some of this gives you 13 steps
30:51 on how to find freedom from more guilt
30:53 and fear in your life.
30:54 It's the fact that she had that kind of trust in God
30:59 and it was very obvious
31:01 that she prayed for miracles to happen and they did.
31:05 Four days in a row,
31:06 Marianela sold the exact number of books she prayed for,
31:10 a grand total of 220 books
31:14 and more than $3,000 of earnings.
31:17 Nobody could question the fact
31:18 that the Lord had led in her life
31:20 and for her to be able to go to China.
31:39 Although she was seeing a doctor
31:40 for high blood pressure,
31:42 Gladys was healthy and happily married.
31:45 On Good Friday in 2010 everything seemed normal
31:50 except Gladys was up much later than usual.
31:54 There I'm sitting in the living room
31:56 talking to my friend on the phone.
31:59 Usually, you know, she is not awake,
32:01 she is not-- she is already sleeping
32:03 before, before 10 o'clock and it was 11:30 at night time.
32:08 If you have heard God's words before...
32:12 you know when He is talking to you.
32:14 I was 100 percent sure that God told me to go to ER.
32:20 I'm going to call you back.
32:23 I just told my husband to take me to ER
32:26 without having any pain of any kind.
32:29 I saw that she looked fine to me.
32:31 She didn't look sick or anything
32:33 so maybe inside of me there is some of the fact
32:37 think about maybe inside of me
32:38 I was kind of anxious at the same time
32:39 but then as I was looking her a while,
32:42 she seem kind of serious
32:44 but yet and she got little loud.
32:46 She said, take me to ER.
32:47 I know there has been a bunch of times
32:49 where we could have all easily just been like it's okay.
32:55 Just, you know, get some sleep or take something.
32:58 But for some reason He says that.
33:03 He said something we just thought,
33:04 all right, we got to go.
33:06 And we are driving and I'm telling my husband
33:08 don't stop on any yellow lights.
33:13 About a minute away from the hospital
33:15 I started getting this big pain.
33:18 Jerry, my husband took me into the ER room.
33:22 We tried to register ourselves there
33:25 and things were not working out fast enough for me
33:28 because my head just started to explode.
33:31 I told them to please give me a chair
33:33 because I just felt that I had to sit down
33:35 because its like my legs were weak
33:38 and I just fell really as if I was gonna pass out.
33:42 They brought me a chair and all of the sudden
33:43 I just told them I going to vomit.
33:45 So they got me this bucket in and after a while like crazy.
33:51 When they saw that I was throwing up
33:53 and this pain was just exploding my head
33:56 and they wheeled me into the emergency room
34:01 to put me through the machine for a CT scan.
34:04 I stayed quite about it.
34:06 I just didn't want to hear anything
34:09 bad that was gonna happen
34:10 and then I just was pacing back and forth
34:13 and not knowing what to do.
34:17 When they got me out of there,
34:18 then all the doctors and the nurses
34:21 they all got together to talk about what they found
34:25 and what they were planning to do.
34:27 You know, we went to
34:28 where you were at the room there
34:30 and you had so many things on you
34:31 and stuff that to tell your heart
34:33 and knowing that in the brain waves
34:35 and all that and I didn't want to ask
34:38 what was wrong with you.
34:39 I was afraid to ask I remember, I was afraid to ask.
34:42 Of course, I didn't want to hear bad news about you.
34:49 I remember that she told Jerry, this is serious.
34:55 We got a phone call from the emergency room
34:58 and I was informed by the doctor in call
35:01 that one of my patients had checked into the hospital
35:06 and then they told me the story.
35:08 She had an aneurysm that was rupturing
35:11 and she developed a subarachnoid bleeding
35:13 and chances of someone
35:15 surviving that is maybe one in a thousand.
35:18 And when it ruptures
35:20 the blood gets into your cerebrospinal fluid
35:24 and then you get permanent damage.
35:27 And once it starts bleeding,
35:29 you generally cannot save anybody.
35:31 But they were trying to decide
35:33 which way to take me to Florida hospital in Orlando South
35:37 and by ambulance or by helicopter.
35:41 To tell you the truth I mean, my fear of heights
35:44 and my fear of flying is really, really, really by.
35:48 And since I start to have such a big phobia of flying
35:53 I just asked why the helicopter.
35:57 And she said, oh, because the helicopter
35:59 only takes you in 47 minutes.
36:10 This peace that I had in my heart,
36:12 I mean, it was-- I was not concern about anything,
36:15 I was just relaxed
36:18 which I thought is like I'm shocked.
36:22 Then I just looked at the city of Orlando
36:25 and it looked so beautiful.
36:42 They wheeled me into the hospital
36:45 and from then on I don't recall anything else.
36:51 Aneurysms are like a blister on a blood vessel
36:54 or a bubble on a tire
36:56 and in particular they involve the arteries of the brain,
37:01 a gradual build up is not what typically occurs
37:04 when aneurysm raptures.
37:06 When aneurysm ruptures
37:07 it's just bang right out of the blue.
37:09 And what happens when aneurysm bleeds
37:12 is that the pressure in the head gets so high
37:16 that no blood goes to the brain
37:18 that usually results in death or permanent disability.
37:22 If the patient remains alive after the initial bleeding,
37:26 then they get the attention
37:28 and we diagnose and work them up.
37:30 So like in Gladys' case
37:32 her aneurysm had already ruptured
37:34 when it was discovered and so at that point
37:37 it has a very high chance of bleeding again.
37:40 She has a lot to gain by being evaluated and treated quickly.
37:44 I wasn't even all the way afraid yet.
37:47 I was more like trying to like comprehend what was going on
37:51 like I didn't understand what was going on.
37:54 This is meant to be the,
37:55 an artery of blood vessel in the brain
37:57 and here hanging off the back
37:59 is the bubble that shouldn't be there.
38:01 So it really does look like a bubble on a tire.
38:04 So with coiling
38:06 it's all treated from inside the blood vessel.
38:08 We get into the blood vessel down in the groin.
38:10 Here we drawn another picture with similar aneurysm
38:14 and now inside the blood vessel is a tube
38:17 and that's to represent a catheter.
38:20 We put that into the aneurysm
38:21 and then through that catheter we put in pieces of wire
38:24 that gradually fill up the aneurysm.
38:27 And the goal of the procedure like we said before
38:30 is to prevent the aneurysm from bleeding again.
38:33 And a way to do that is to put in as many coils as we can.
38:37 In general the risks of treating any aneurysm--
38:41 are the major risks are stroke or death.
38:44 After they told us the procedure
38:45 was gonna take place the next day
38:46 what they would have to do, well, we went back home
38:50 then I actually like felt, it hit me
38:52 like I started getting really depressed and stuff.
38:58 And my son and daughter were really there,
39:00 I know that what they were going through themselves.
39:01 You know, they were, they were silent,
39:04 they couldn't express anything,
39:06 but I know inside of them
39:07 they were afraid that something was gonna happen.
39:10 I kind of dwell on the same similar dots
39:12 over and over again just--
39:13 it's like, like a loser, you know.
39:25 Saturday I had no--
39:27 I have no recollections or anything that happened.
39:30 The next thing that I remember is Sunday morning Easter.
39:34 My husband was by my side, he was kissing my forehead
39:38 and I think that his kisses were the ones that woke me up.
39:41 The first time the Dr. Hellinger
39:44 walked into the room,
39:47 the first thing up to me he said his name was...
39:50 You are lucky to be alive.
39:52 You almost died.
39:54 But the thing is that
39:55 it was not only Dr. Hellinger to say about.
39:57 Every other doctor that came in also said the same thing.
40:01 It's like, wow.
40:06 You know, I was still in a shock for a while,
40:08 it took me a long time.
40:09 I could not believe what was happening to her.
40:11 Anytime a nurse or a doctor came into the room,
40:15 I was expecting something negative about her results
40:20 because she was always getting a lot of different tests.
40:23 And one of the nurses that came in,
40:24 she said, "Your wife is going to be here for a while.
40:29 It's going to be weeks, even months."
40:32 Sick patients and the majority of patients are sick,
40:35 meaning they come to us with neurological deficits.
40:38 It's not uncommon for patients
40:39 to be in the hospital for several weeks
40:42 to several months
40:43 and then go through a long rehabilitation process.
40:45 Thinking that she was going to be more than 30 days,
40:48 or maybe two months,
40:49 it was too much for me to even handle,
40:52 so I had to come home
40:55 and just because I didn't want to accept that she was there.
41:00 But the problem is when I came home,
41:02 and I went to the bedroom, you know, she's not there,
41:06 but knowing that she was not there
41:09 and I couldn't see that, I had to go to the family room
41:13 and then sleep in the family room,
41:14 turn the TV on, something, to get away from...
41:17 because I was in shock, really.
41:21 I just want to block it,
41:22 this is just a nightmare, this is a dream.
41:24 I want to wake up and find out that this was only a dream.
41:30 Sometimes I will blame myself
41:31 for the situation that happened to her
41:33 and thought that maybe I was not a good husband.
41:37 I was losing faith in God.
41:40 One day he tell me, he told me, I've always been with you.
41:50 You know, I was asking God,
41:51 please I don't want to see her...
41:53 There are so many days and weeks
41:56 because every time I go to ICU,
41:58 there are so many people, when I pass through,
42:01 that are going through difficult situations,
42:02 some are dying there.
42:04 You know, to me, it felt like just going there every day,
42:08 it felt like months going there.
42:10 It was so difficult, each day was so difficult.
42:12 But one thing I did was,
42:15 well, you know, God,
42:17 I just want to leave it up to you.
42:19 I'm not going to think ahead what's going to happen.
42:22 I am just going to think about now that she's alive,
42:25 and I'll believe that, you know,
42:27 you are going to work it out.
42:33 She was in ICU for about two weeks,
42:35 then she was transferred to a regular room.
42:40 And just as I came in, a doctor comes in
42:43 and he says, "You are leaving tomorrow."
42:47 And I said, "What, leaving tomorrow,
42:48 to another room or what?"
42:50 And he said, "Wait, you are going home."
42:53 And I asked the doctor,
42:55 "Wait a minute, you sure about this?
42:57 She's only been here like two weeks,
42:59 and it almost... and she's already leaving?
43:01 And the doctor goes in a humorous way
43:04 and saying, "Well, you want me to...
43:06 We can keep her longer if you want,
43:07 you know, for several months."
43:09 And I said, "It's okay, doctor. No."
43:11 How's everything, Gladys?
43:13 Pressure, how's your pressure doing now?
43:16 When the doctor, the cardiologist, Dr. Bajaj,
43:19 when he was going through the papers
43:21 and the papers were about this thick
43:24 and he was just looking and looking
43:26 and I was looking at his eyes, as if he was really shocked
43:31 and amazed what was going on.
43:33 Well, he was looking
43:35 and I was trying to see what was going on,
43:39 that if he saw something bad happened or something.
43:41 But this was all the results from the hospital.
43:44 So then he said, "Listen now, I'll be back.
43:49 I want to bring my staff, so they can look at this."
43:53 And a few seconds later he comes back with his staff.
43:56 He says, "She's a living miracle."
44:00 The chances of a patient
44:02 like this to be alert herself,
44:08 to realize that there's something terribly wrong,
44:11 showing up at the right time
44:14 and just when the aneurysm was rupturing could be diagnosed,
44:20 and evacuated,
44:21 and for all these things to work perfectly
44:25 and she not suffer any damage
44:28 and has come out alive is more than a miracle.
44:33 I believe God kept her awake for a reason
44:36 because if she would have gone to bed early,
44:40 she probably wouldn't have survived it.
44:42 This stage of mine, that I was there listening,
44:47 but not reacting, listening but not feeling,
44:51 is like "Wow, God, you are doing this because you love me
44:55 because you know if you let me go through,
44:57 if you allow me to react,
44:59 to all of these things that I'm hearing
45:00 and seeing the doctors."
45:02 They were like concerned,
45:03 it's like I don't think that I would have made it.
45:09 Me by nature, I'm anxious.
45:12 By nature, I'm trying to solve my own problems, you know.
45:18 Yes, I know.
45:24 By nature, I am a person I want to be in control.
45:28 Yes, I know.
45:32 I love my wife more than ever before.
45:34 You know, it's like it's amazing,
45:36 it's like we started dating again.
45:38 That's true.
45:40 You know, as, you know.
45:42 I don't see, call her like my wife,
45:44 it's like my girlfriend, you know.
45:47 And as a matter of fact, we did something great too.
45:51 We renewed our vows, and we had a ceremony.
45:54 We had a wedding
45:56 and all your brothers and sisters
45:58 were there, our friends.
46:00 They came from all over United States.
46:02 Different places they came,
46:03 you know, to share that moment with us,
46:05 and it was a celebration.
46:07 Not only we are together for 32 years,
46:10 but also God giving you life,
46:12 told me that celebration was for you.
46:16 Easter's on that day now has a very special day
46:18 for me, now twice special.
46:21 The resurrection of Jesus and at the same time,
46:23 I feel like I was resurrected too
46:25 because God had given me life one more time.
46:45 My parents noticed that
46:46 I wasn't really making eye contact with them anymore.
46:49 You know, how you smile at your baby
46:51 and you think your baby will smile back and respond.
46:54 I wasn't doing those things.
46:56 I was born into a very normal family.
46:59 I had an older brother. I was born a healthy baby.
47:02 One afternoon, after my parents
47:03 were giving someone a ride home from church,
47:07 we got into a very bad car accident.
47:09 I was thrown from my mother's arms,
47:11 my head hit the dashboard.
47:13 I had a very bad head injury and as a result,
47:17 I was diagnosed with Glaucoma and I lost my sight at 12.
47:22 My parents began to ask God for a miracle
47:26 and they took me to the pastor and had me anointed.
47:29 They fasted and as you can see, I'm still blind.
47:34 I believed that someone who praise
47:37 and asks for a miracle and if they didn't get it,
47:42 do we, that they were expecting,
47:47 you know, that's an opportunity for them
47:49 to be stretched...
47:51 so I began to consider my life
47:53 and you know, I said that I had an older brother.
47:57 He taught me all kinds of things.
48:00 You know, but there was a certain side of his life
48:02 that was not necessarily good either.
48:06 And unfortunately,
48:08 he got himself mixed up in the wrong company
48:12 and got himself killed at a very early age.
48:16 Had it not been for the Lord intervening,
48:20 I may have ended up in a very similar situation.
48:25 I believe our stories would probably be the same.
48:28 And so I look at my blindness
48:30 now as being a blessing, and not a curse.
48:35 You know, blindness for me was
48:37 definitely not a disability in my mind
48:40 but socially it definitely caused some problems,
48:44 until I found music.
48:46 After I found music, a lot of the awkwardness
48:49 that I dealt with socially, fell away.
48:52 And so, I decided, well, it just came to me
48:57 like "Wow, this the way I'm going to make my mark."
49:09 While I was in college,
49:10 I met a guy who wanted to invest in my career
49:15 and his mission was to turn me into a household name.
49:19 He wanted to break my out the box
49:21 and make me into the next TV wonder.
49:24 He didn't come from the University of Miami,
49:26 where he graduated from their music school.
49:30 He had played out in the world,
49:32 you know, he had written songs that Gladys Knight recorded.
49:35 He had done, he had, you know, been around a lot of people.
49:38 I met someone that was opening up a night club
49:42 on South Beach that was owned and operated by celebrities
49:47 and they would have these big celebrities
49:49 that would come in this club every,
49:51 you know, every night or so.
49:53 This is the kind of place that you know, Patti LaBelle,
49:57 Oprah Winfrey, Mike Tyson.
49:59 I had opportunity to meet Mike Tyson several times,
50:03 he would come in there.
50:04 A lot of high profile people would come in there
50:05 and I was the music.
50:14 I decided, well you know,
50:16 I am going to leave this secular scene
50:19 and do it for the Lord,
50:22 and you know, it really wasn't that easy
50:24 because you know,
50:25 nobody really into Christian market knew who I was,
50:29 and I had to figure out
50:30 again how I was going to make my mark,
50:33 'cause see at that point,
50:35 I still thought it was about me.
50:36 When I first met Neville,
50:38 one of the things that impressed me about him so much
50:41 and really made me want to help him was,
50:44 he was working like three jobs.
50:47 He was teaching like three different schools.
50:50 He would get up in the morning.
50:51 I think he had to leave it,
50:52 like get up like five in the morning
50:54 to catch public transportation to get to these schools
50:58 and wouldn't get home until I think, 7, 8, 9 o'clock,
51:02 maybe even later than that every night
51:04 and he was doing that as his full time work,
51:06 and then trying to do the ministry on the side.
51:09 You know, he wasn't trying
51:12 to accept governmental assistance.
51:14 He wasn't trying to take an easy way out,
51:17 and if anybody had a reason to give up, it was Neville, okay?
51:20 If you are blind, everything is 10 times harder.
51:23 So I took care of myself.
51:25 I did my own laundry. I cleaned my own apartment.
51:30 I had clothes organized in my closet.
51:39 "This is Neville."
51:41 I said Neville, what do you doing?
51:42 He said "Oh, I'm vacuuming."
51:44 Now, I'm sitting there in my mind picturing
51:46 how does a blind person vacuum?
51:48 Do they know what they have even gone over
51:50 but yet that spoke a lot to me.
51:52 Neville is living by himself in an apartment down South Florida
51:56 and yet he cared enough about basic things like that,
52:00 that he would be vacuuming to clean his apartment
52:04 before the weekend began.
52:11 When you are not playing in a club
52:12 and you can get a free complimentary meal,
52:15 you know, you don't have the money to stretch like that.
52:19 So I called my mother, I said,
52:20 "You know, Mom, how do you cook rice?"
52:22 So I did exactly what she said
52:24 and while I was like, "Wow, I have rice."
52:27 This is exactly how I learned to cook.
52:30 I'm going to put a little vegetable oil in here.
52:33 Man, I feel like I'm on a cooking channel, man.
52:36 His potato salad was, and I don't think
52:38 my grandmother would be watching this
52:39 but it's better than hers,
52:41 and I mean, he just almost like,
52:43 "Wow, this man can really, really cook."
52:47 I have made this dish for her several times.
52:51 Now she does all the cooking in the house.
52:52 I'm spoilt.
52:54 That's why I love Him
52:57 'Cause you can't find nobody like the God answer
53:01 Hopefully my wife didn't change around her seasonings.
53:04 That's why I praise Him
53:06 That's the curry right there.
53:09 That's why I praise Him
53:13 That's why He is my all and all
53:17 My King of kings, my Lord of lords
53:20 He is good
53:22 He is good He is good
53:25 Hallelujah
53:32 I'm going to make some creamy and dumplings as well.
53:39 When my son first met Neville,
53:41 he said "How can someone like you that can't see,
53:45 how can you cook and do all of these things?"
53:49 and Neville told him, "You see, Christopher,
53:52 you can do anything that you want to do."
53:55 He said "If you trust in God and you believe in yourself
54:00 and believe that you can do anything
54:02 that you put your mind to, you can do it."
54:06 And the sea turn to dry land
54:11 When all confidence gives away to fear
54:18 Who shall...
54:19 He takes it to a whole another level.
54:22 You can hear these other singers and their voices,
54:24 and do you say, "Man, they are really good.
54:26 And then Neville say, opens his mouth,
54:27 starting singing to himself, "whoa."
54:29 Are you faithful to all his comands
54:35 Are you one with Him
54:37 But he sang at the White House, he sang at Carnegie Hall.
54:41 There are not many people
54:42 that ever get to sing at Carnegie Hall,
54:44 and so then we go from those engagements
54:45 back to little tiny churches where there was,
54:48 you know, a handful of people there.
54:53 We were late for a flight one time at the airport
54:56 and we were rushing to get to it.
54:58 And we happen to see an airport worker,
55:00 flight attender or something walking along
55:02 and we ask her where the gate was,
55:04 she told us where it was, and we said thanks.
55:05 We took off run. She stopped us and she said.
55:09 "No, wait, wait. He can't go on the flight."
55:11 And we said "What do you mean?
55:12 We got tickets, we are late for the flight."
55:14 She said "He's been drinking, he can't go on the flight".
55:17 And I said, "He's not drunk, he's blind."
55:22 When I see Neville, I don't see a blind person.
55:24 I don't see someone with limitations.
55:27 I see a normal, beautiful person.
55:29 You know, I do believe that the greatest miracles
55:32 sometimes are not the most visible miracles.
55:36 Because I think a lot of people
55:38 who would probably be in Neville's shoes,
55:40 they would just shrink, they would just give up,
55:44 they would hold their hands up and say, "I can't take this."
55:47 But to be able to get up every day
55:49 and to say "Lord, I'm thankful for what I have.
55:53 I love my family.
55:55 I love what I'm doing for you,
55:56 even though there are challenges
55:58 and there are struggles.
55:59 I think that's the greatest miracle,
56:02 just to be able to know that what you're doing
56:05 effects so many people that are around you.
56:09 There's no anger at God.
56:12 There's no, you know,
56:13 'why me' attitude, feel sorry for myself.
56:18 God is able to reach anyone in any situation
56:24 no matter the circumstances,
56:26 and take a bad situation and make it good.
56:29 And sometimes that good situation doesn't always mean
56:33 that the person would be healed.
56:36 It's a miracle that there's always been a peace
56:41 and an acceptance of like, "I'm okay being blind.
56:46 It's okay." And he really means it.
56:50 Let me take the time to tell you
56:53 What I've seen
56:56 I've seen prayers being answered immediately
57:02 And there are times
57:04 When the waiting seems infinitely long
57:09 And weak and fainting hearts receive
57:12 Strength to be strong
57:15 That's a miracle
57:18 It's a miracle
57:22 They kind it up everyday
57:25 In a personal and special way
57:28 It's a miracle
57:30 I see it's a miracle
57:34 It's a kind that is too obvious for everyone to see
57:40 And the greatest miracle of all
57:45 Is happening to me
57:52 You know, the Bible says, "Every eye shall see Him",
57:56 that includes blind eyes too.
57:59 There aren't many things of which we can be sure
58:05 But let me give you have a dance
58:09 You can't ignore
58:13 I won't stand up reason or two my formal life of sin
58:18 But freedom came my way one day
58:22 And now I'm born again and that's a miracle
58:28 It's a miracle
58:31 They kind it up every day
58:34 In a personal and special way
58:37 It's a miracle
58:39 I see it's a miracle
58:44 It's a kind that is too obvious for everyone to see
58:50 And the greatest miracle of all
58:55 Is happening to me


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Revised 2015-09-28