Tuesday, May 12, 2009

One Amazing Miracle in Manitoba

Aimee Herd/David Henry (May 12, 2009)

"What happened that day at the intersection of the Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue was an authentic miracle… The laws of thermodynamics were momentarily superseded by a higher law. It had much more to do with the faith and prayers of a few ordinary people inviting God's intervening hand, in Jesus' name, to protect him on the road in a way that no one else can do…"

(Winnipeg, Manitoba)—If you think miracles documented in the New Testament don't really happen anymore, you'll want to read the following story. Phillip may not have been the only one to be "transported" by the Holy Spirit, as Minnesotan trucker Roger Henry can testify. Read this remarkable account—written by his brother David—of what happened as Roger approached an icy intersection in Winnipeg one wintery day, just months ago.

Roger Henry and his truck[January, 2009] Roger Henry, a seasoned trucker based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota has many years of driving experience on the icy roads of Minnesota and Canada. He works for a large international trucking firm. This particular day he was driving a B-Train. It's a seven-axle, twenty-six wheel, two-trailer monster weighing in at over 56,000 kg. (80,000 pounds) when fully loaded. (Photo: Roger Henry)

Roger had just driven his rig north from the Twin Cities and was now headed back home with a large return load. The pavement was dry that day, so he set his speed at the 100 km per hour limit and prepared to make the familiar trip down to the North Dakota border and on south to home.

Roger and his wife Joyce are Christians. As a matter of habit and conviction, they pray in the name of Jesus and simply ask God to protect him as he travels a route that in a split second can turn deadly. In fact, Sandy Atkinson, a Jewish Christian friend of the Henry's, prays every day specifically for Roger to be kept safe as he plies his potentially dangerous trade. This day he would cash in those prayers; he would need all the help he could get.

Manitoba 101, The Perimeter Highway, is well-engineered for safety. On some of its crossings it has yellow blinking lights that forewarn drivers of their safe passage through the next traffic light. It's either, a yellow blinking, 'no'—you must prepare to stop at the next light, or the switched off light indicating 'yes'—you are safe to proceed.

Roger had his rig humming in high gear and relaxed as much as is reasonable into the familiar routine. He was headed south on the west side of Winnipeg, when he approached the next intersection at Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue. He observed the yellow light was 'off', giving him the right-of-way through the intersection. He stayed in the right lane. Ominously, off to his right, his eyes locked on to a black four-door sedan traveling from the west at a high rate of speed that indicated someone wasn't paying attention. Roger quickly calculated that the driver could not possibly stop in time for the red light controlling the east-west traffic flow.

the intersectionThe sedan driver finally skidded to a stop, dead center in the middle of the right hand, southbound lane. Roger's loaded B-Train was hurtling through the intersection into the broadside of the black sedan at 100 km miles per hour. Roger had no time to maneuver his big rig into the left lane. He couldn't steer it into that lane without flipping it over or jack-knifing. (Photo: Intersection from satellite view)

There was no time to stop. Air brakes on a big rig are slower to respond than car brakes. It takes a moment of time to develop sufficient air pressure to even begin to slow the giant down. Roger did not have the luxury of those few seconds. Do the math. Study the physics. That sedan driver had to die.

Roger describes what happened as entering briefly into a state of suspended consciousness. He did not faint or pass out. In Roger's words, "My screen went blank." His hands were on the steering wheel but someone had control of his truck for about two seconds. He did not steer into the left lane. He couldn't. He could not veer to the right. It would have been like playing 'crack-the-whip' with a huge load of steel and freight. He could neither change directions nor vary his speed. It was impossible. The distance between his truck's front bumper and the side of the car was roughly twenty five yards. While the front tires were aligned straight ahead, the whole 82.5 feet of the truck were instantly moved sideways into the left lane. To get into the left lane by means of the steering wheel would have meant a flipped truck.

An engineer was asked to calculate the foot pounds of energy contained in the mass and velocity of that truck. He wrote:

"The linear or translational momentum of a particle (mass = truck here) is defined as the product of its mass x velocity (100 km/hr). That is 5,650 tons momentum, in metric tons. Since one metric ton is 1,000 kilogram, and 1 kg is 2.205 lbs, the same momentum is 12,458,000 lbs." -Joe Horvath, PhD.

So much energy going straight forward would not allow the truck to swerve into the left land if Roger had attempted it. He would have taken out the black sedan plus several other vehicles with the flipped tractor and two trailers. While Roger's screen went blank, the only explanation left us is that God moved the whole truck in its north/south alignment 7 meters over into the left lane. When Roger's 'screen came back on' he found himself 100 meters through the intersection in the left land and gradually heading for the right shoulder. But, he did not so much as touch the black sedan. No screeching sound of steel exploding on steel and glass. No fire. No smoke. Nothing. He came back to his normal senses on the south side of Saskatchewan Avenue. Most unusual of all, Roger had no sense of fear, no panic, no adrenaline rush, no rapid beating of his heart. He was aware of a profound sense of peace all about him; and in him. 

Roger quickly down shifted and pulled off to the right shoulder of the highway and got out of his truck. He stood there and looked back north at the crossing from 150 meters away. The black sedan was still there. It was parked right where Roger should have blown through it. All traffic had stopped. It takes something unusual to change the routine of drivers hurrying to work in bone-chilling weather. What they saw motivated them. About twenty witnesses were stopped. Three or four drivers got out of their cars and began to gather around the car to inspect it. The witnesses to this event were trying to make sense of what they had just seen. 

As Roger watched, the light changed and the driver in the black car drove slowly away to the east toward the city. After assessing what he had just lived through without any damage to either vehicle, Roger made his way back into the truck and sat there for a while collecting his thoughts. He is a down-to-earth, laid back, professional trucker with a good sense of humor. But that day, he saw the curtain pulled back for just a few seconds; he saw into another dimension.

Roger has searched for a word to explain what happened to him. He said that the best he can explain it is he was, "transported" in the sense of Phillip the Evangelist in the eighth chapter verses 39 and 40, of the Book of Acts in the Bible. Phillip was ministering to the Ethiopian Eunuch who had just been baptized in Gaza. At the completion of that ministry, he found himself the next moment transported to a location eighteen miles to the north along the Mediterranean shore and a new ministry assignment. Phillip was 'seized' or 'caught away' from Gaza and 'found himself' in Azotus. Roger was seized from the right lane where death was, and found himself in the left lane and a good distance ahead where safety was. The Greek New Testament verb is "Harpadzo", the same verb that is employed in the English concept of rapture or a 'catching away'. Roger experienced what we might call a mini-rapture. He and the other driver were in imminent danger. Roger was covered in prayer. He was caught away from or seized out of danger. To redirect, or reposition that much rolling energy in a such surgically precise fashion required a greater amount of power than the force in the vehicle's mass and velocity.

Webster's Dictionary defines a miracle as, "1. ...an event or effect that contradicts known scientific laws and is hence thought to be due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God." What happened that day at the intersection of the Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue was an authentic miracle. Roger is a good truck driver; a very good one. He has amassed over three million miles of truck driving without an accident. That is testimony to consistently good judgment in all kinds of situations. But what happened on that patch of pavement had nothing to do with his skill or ability. The laws of thermodynamics were momentarily superseded by a higher law. It had much more to do with the faith and prayers of a few ordinary people inviting God's intervening hand, in Jesus' name, to protect him on the road in a way that no one else can do. Some old-timers call it, 'being prayed up'. Their months and years of prayers had gone ahead of him. 

A lot of things pass for news that are no real news. And some things that are so astounding as to defy explanation go by and no one records it; no one tells the story. This true story is being told. There was a miracle in Winnipeg that day, on the Perimeter Highway. God did intervene; something holy, powerful and good happened on a cold Canadian winter's day. There is a person or persons who are alive right now who should not be. But they are. They might consider humbly giving thanks to Someone who, when asked in faith, does the impossible.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Man Adopts Wife's Two Aborted Children

Dan Wooding (May 9, 2009)

"I love Lisa, and what better way to show it? It's easy to say I love you. What better way to show you love someone than to prove it by actions. It never came to my mind that this had not been done before. These babies are a part of Lisa, so they are a part of me as well."

(Costa Mesa, California)—A California couple signed adoption papers last month, so the husband could adopt his wife's two previously aborted children and give them his last name. It may be the first such posthumous adoption of an aborted child. The documents were executed live on Rich Buhler's radio program Talk From the Heart on KBRT AM-740, which broadcasts to all of Southern California.

Stan Musil said he wanted to adopt his wife Lisa's children as a part of his love and support for her, as a part of her healing from the pain of the abortions, and to give them his last name for a memorial that is being constructed in Riverside, California to honor children whose lives have been lost to abortion.

Joining them for the signing was attorney Ron Stoddart of Nightlight Christian Adoptions who drew up the adoption papers. He is also a pioneer in the field of embryo adoptions.

Rich Buhler, Stan and Lisa, and Ron StoddartLisa, who is now 45 years old, said that at the age of 19 she was a hairdresser and living with her boyfriend in Southern California when she discovered she was pregnant. She said she was terrified. She felt she had no one to talk with about her pregnancy and was too frightened to admit it to anyone. When she was almost three months into her pregnancy she went to an abortion clinic in Inglewood, California and arranged for her baby's life to be ended. But instead of bringing the crisis to a close, it only opened the door to years of further and deeper difficulty. "I felt such agonizing pain in my heart that I tried to cover it by becoming involved in drugs, alcohol, partying, and a promiscuous lifestyle," Lisa told the radio audience.

"My life spiraled out of control and although I didn't realize it at the time, I was on a path toward destruction that would last for years."

Lisa later discovered that she was pregnant for a second time which was complicated by the fact that she also on her way to jail because of a drunk driving conviction.

"I had another, this time at the third month of my pregnancy. Lisa recounted. "This time it was a different man, a different father and I could not even say the word 'abortion.' I preferred to describe the pregnancies as 'terminated.'"

There were times when Lisa felt she could sense God calling her name. Her brother told her once that if she didn't quit the way she was living, she was going to die. "I just shrugged off those words and carried on," she said. "But deep inside—I knew."

Then came an evening in 1988 when Lisa's brother took her to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. The teacher that night was Greg Laurie who is the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside. Lisa went forward during the service and dedicated her life to Jesus Christ. That night her destructive path came to an end. In the years that followed, Lisa grew in her faith in Christ and also sought to deal with the pain of her destructive lifestyle, especially her two abortions.

"It wasn't instant and it wasn't easy, but I came to realize how much God loved me and that he also offered me forgiveness for what I had done. I can say that today I feel completely healed and God has allowed me to help many other women who are carrying the searing pain and loss of abortion."

After committing her life to Christ, Lisa was determined to do things right this time and to find a healthy relationship with the right man—a Christian man. He turned out to be Stan, an Elder at Harvest Christian Fellowship who was also the overseer of the singles ministry there. They met at a singles retreat and after a 13 month courtship Stan and Lisa married nearly 7 years ago.

Lisa is a part of a ministry in Riverside called White As Snow that helps women in crisis pregnancies as well as women and men who are dealing with the pain of abortion.

"There is such a huge void after an abortion," explains Lisa. "Once a mother realizes what has happened and that there was a living child in her womb and who would be alive today had it not been for the abortion, the pain is almost too much to bear."

It has become common for women who have experienced abortion or miscarriage to imagine whether their child was a boy or a girl and to give the baby a name. "Some of us have asked God to reveal that information to us so we can further acknowledge the personhood of the child and grieve the loss more concretely," added Lisa.

A cemetery plot at Pierce Brothers Crestlawn Memorial Park in Riverside is to be the site of a memorial to aborted children, a granite monument on which the names of the children will be engraved. "I was trying to decide what last name I should give to my two children," Lisa said, "When Stan told me that he wished he could adopt them so they would have his last name."

"I love Lisa, "Stan said, "And what better way to show it? It's easy to say I love you. What better way to show you love someone than to prove it by actions. It never came to my mind that this had not been done before. These babies are a part of Lisa, so they are a part of me as well."

Lisa mentioned Stan's desire to adopt during an interview on Rich Buhler's radio program on April 2 and that gave Buhler the idea of exploring whether it would be possible.

"I immediately called my friend Ron Stoddart," Buhler explained. "Ron is an expert on adoption and has also been a leader in arranging for the adoption of frozen embryos. Hundred of thousands of embryos have been created as a part of fertility treatments and Ron helps infertile couples to legally adopt them, implant them into the wife's womb, and bring them to birth."

Stoddart said that it wasn't possible to do an adoption in the eyes of the law because there was no birth certificate for the aborted children, no legal acknowledgement that they ever existed. But it would be possible for Stan and Lisa to a ceremonial adoption, to sign paperwork with each other that reflected their desire for the adoption to take place and their desire to honor the personhood of the two children Lisa had briefly parented. Before each other, before God, and before witnesses, they would be embracing the children as a part of their marriage.

So when the intended memorial is erected in Riverside, among the names will be Alicia Anne Musil and Vincent Matthew Musil.

Lisa said that abortion is such a lonely place to be that she feels blessed that her children are acknowledged and love by others, especially by Stan. "He's the man I never prayed for," said Lisa. "I could never have prayed for anyone as wonderful as him."

"We've had other couples express an interest in this ceremonial adoption," Lisa said. "Ron Stoddart has given permission for the adoption form to be freely distributed to anyone at his website at www.nightlight.org."

Source: ASSIST News

Friday, May 08, 2009

'Hand of Hope' Boy Has Passion for Life

'Hand of Hope' Boy Has Passion for Life
by Suzanne Hadley on 05/07/2009 at 8:30 AM

Do you remember the famous photograph of the baby reaching out of the womb and grasping the doctor's finger? That baby is now 9-year-old Samuel Armas.

The photo has been spread around the world and even cited during congressional debates on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, but for Samuel it has personal significance. According to Fox News:

"When I see that picture, the first thing I think of is how special and lucky I am to have God use me that way," Samuel told FOXNews.com. "I feel very thankful that I was in that picture."

On Aug. 19, 1999, photographer Michael Clancy shot the "Fetal Hand Grasp" — his picture of a 21-week-old fetus grasping a doctor's finger during innovative surgery to correct spina bifida. Nearly four months later, on Dec. 2, Samuel Armas was "born famous."

The photo sparked controversy when the photographer claimed he saw the baby reach out and grab the doctor's finger, while the doctor claimed the baby was too anesthetized to do so.

"I don't care, honestly," Julie Armas [Samuel's mother] said. "What I felt the picture showed is that this is a child engaging in some form of interaction. I'm a labor and delivery nurse, so I understand that Samuel was anesthetized to some degree.

"So if he reached out, I don't know. If Dr. Bruner reached out, I don't know. The fact of the matter is it's a child with a hand, with a life, and that's meaningful enough."

And Samuel is glad to be the "poster child" for life:

Samuel, now 9 and living in Villa Rica, Ga., said the photo likely gave countless "babies their right to live" and forced many others to debate their beliefs on abortion, something he's proud of.

"It's very important to me," Samuel said of the photograph. "A lot of babies would've lost their lives if that didn't happen."

Kids like Samuel and Lia encourage me. Children seem to step up instantly to defend other children. They don't even question it. We can learn something from them.