On a stormy wednesday in January, 1989 I (told from the first person by Don Piper) was pronounced
dead after being hit by a transport. An hour later I began to SING with a passerby who had insisted on praying for me even though the medical personnel at the scene of the crash told him I was long ago pronounced dead. He jumped and came running and shouting to the paramedics that I was alive and they assured him that they had checked me thouroughly and were waiting for an authority to come and sign for my body to be removed.
When he finally convinced someone to take him seriously, they did come over to my mangled body and were shocked to find a pulse where there had been none over an hour earlier. I went through 34 surgeries and many years of pain but I am so thankful that God gave me my life back, as physically painful as it''s been. Now that I''ve lost my wife, I know with certainty where she is because I was there and saw it with my own eyes on that rainy
wednesday in January 1989:
A brilliant loving light enveloped me, bright beyond compare and I FELT heaven. I saw a large crowd of people in front of an ornate gate. They rushed to greet me; my grandfather, exactly as I remembered him; my childhood friend; my great grandparents. My great grandmother was native american and was crippled as I remembered her. But now here in heaven, she was healthy. She smiled without wrinkles, without a humped back. Everyone looked radiant. No matter which direction I looked, I saw someone I had loved who had died. Everyone began moving forward and I with them. I became aware of an iridescence that was increasing and a spirit of holy awe set into me. I heard music. Myriads of sounds went through me and sounds of praise to God were continuous in a type of melody. I felt a pure sense of home and there was no realization in me of time or my life, only love and togetherness and music and praise. The light permeating my very being was the only home I felt existed at that moment. It was pure lingering happiness and celebration. I felt everyone beconing for me to continue and the ornate gate was just ahead of me. I felt as if I were about to enter it and I felt all those loved ones about me urging me through. And that''s the memory I have of that rainy wednesday in January 1989.
It took me years to recover and I was a terrible patient. I was depressed and I felt I didn''t want to live. I didn''t like people trying to visit me and bring me presents. I was beside myself with
depression and enormous physical pain. I wanted to go back to heaven and I didn''t tell anyone about my experience in heaven for a very long time. It felt too personal, too private. I couldn''t tell anyone. . Then one day in the company of a christian friend, the depression washed away from my spirit and I began telling everyone the experience that had changed my life forever. I am so thankful and blessed to have seen heaven and I want to shout from the rooftops all that I know.