OKC, The incredible feeling of safety is amazing. There are no real words to describe it but it sure makes a person want to give thanks.
David, let me know if you ever feel like sharing that story. I would love to hear it.
CoolChef, I've never ever done acid in my life. But I understand the skepticism. Michael was there and he didnt believe it, I dont really expect you to either...after all it happened way back in 1986 and you weren't there.
Hee hee George, I think we have all met some 'angels' like that in our lifetimes! I think they might be on probation or something... :blink:
I've posted this before here. Because it involved my whole family it has a special significance for all of us. I recently retold this to my two sisters, who I'd never given the details to and found that my younger sister had an experience she told me about that was somewhat similar, different circumstances entirely but the basic elements were very similar. (snooze alert! it's loooong....)
Anyhoo - 25th Anniversary for The Mom and I. We celebrated in Hawaii, two weeks. One on the Big Island, and one on Mauii. We tried snorkeling and found we really enjoyed it. The Mom's a strong swimmer as are the Boy and the Girl and having grown up little in Florida, they love the water. I've always been a little tweezed swimming, because I wear glasses and in the water I can't see much without them. But I got prescription lenses in my face mask and yow! It was like being born again. I really began to enjoy being in the water, seeing the fish, coral, all of that and within a couple days was starting to get the hang of it.
So we're at a public beach, a bay, not too many people but there's public parking, a Snack shop area, a path down to the beach and a large primo snorkeling area in this small bay. There's even a life guard dude. So we set up in a spot and hit the water. The rest of the family's out and about quickly and I'm still tentative but enjoying the water.
Down a ways to the left a few hundred feet the beach curves up into a cliff area and there's a kind of chicken wire fence, closing off a section that's all rocks, pretty slippery by the looks of them. At that area the sandy beach part is only 10 - 15 feet to the cliff wall, and then goes down to the rocky area fenced off.
So at one point Mom sees how I'm doing - fine, so she wants to take the kids up to the snack shop. I say fine, I'll meet them at our spot in a few. I paddle off, happy as a clam. I'm staying in just a few feet of water, and I end up kind of floating off down to the end and I look up, see I'm getting close to that rocky area and turn in and walk up, figuring to get out. There's no one down at that end of the beach, it's empty
and there's not much sand or beach. I step over a few rocks, not thinking they're slippery as I'm getting out of the water. Wrong. I slip completely off balance, and fall down on my left hand, catching myself from smacking down hard.
Unfortunately, I jammed the middle finger, left hand straight down into this rock when I fell and as I stood up looked at it and found - I'd knocked the finger out of it's socket, second joint. So my middle finger's popped out of the joint, bent completely back the wrong way; like a perfectly wrong right angle. I'm moderately shocked, try to wiggle it and it's jammed stuck. I can feel the tendons stretched back like rubber bands and my blood pressure is going whoooosh into my head as I tried to get my bearings.
Now - when I got out and fell and stood up - there was no one at that end of the beach. There were a few people in the water a few hundred feet down, and on the beach but I was alone. The whole get out-fall-get up-go ow! took just a few seconds. Then, suddenly there was a man standing in front of me, between myself and the cliff wall, standing there. He was about 6 foot, dark blond hair, kind of curly and long, wearing a colored t-shirt and swim trunks.
I was so in shock I didn't know what to say. He said "Are you alright?" I was speechless. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me straight on and kind of shook me - "Are you OKAY?" I held my hand up and said "NO!"
He looked at my hand and down the beach and pointed to the Life Guard stand. "We need to get to the Life Guard and get help. Come on!" and we went running down the beach. At this point I wasn't even thinking about who he was or where he came from, but I felt completely calm. I grabbed a towel at our spot and wrapped it around my hand - it wasn't bleeding at all, but it looked really weird and was starting to hurt like the dickens. I got my baseball cap - a purple and pink hat I'd that said "Lake Tahoe" on it and we went to the Life Guard.
Life Guard Dude said "whoa! That's nasty! Can't help you man, I could probably pull it back out but they won't let us do that anymore. But there's an emergency hospital about 20 minutes away, you gotta go there".
So the man's standing there and nodding and asks me where my family is.......I say up at the Snack shop - The Mom and the kids. He says he'll go get them and takes off running. I stand there talking to Dude Guy waiting, and he tells me I don't look so good and we sit down.
At the snack shop, Mom told me later a guy came running up into the crowd and stood right in front of them and yelled "Are you here with a man in a pink baseball cap?!" They look at each other like - uh oh. She says they are, he tells them I've had an accident, I'm okay but I'll need to get to a hospital to get checked out. He says "Come on!" and they go running down the path to the beach and he points to the Life Guard stand and says that's where I'm at.
Mom turns to him to ask him what's going on, and he's gone. One second - talking to her - next second - disappeared. She stopped for a second and looked around and then just kept on running down to find out what's going on.
Soooo, we meet up and I've got my hand wrapped and just tell her I messed my hand up and we head out. I look for the guy, she tells me quickly what happened and we can't find him so we make a beeline for the car and head for the emergency room.
Long story somewhat shorter - when we got there they said they couldn't accept my Medical insurance, Kaiser, I'd have to go another half hour into town. I hadn't let her or the kids see what it looked like, I didn't want to scare them. So I unwrapped the towel off my hand and said you gotta help me. By this time the finger was swollen up and just didn't look good. My wife - I hate to think about it - she closed her eyes and held my arm and the Admitting Nurse said "We'll see you" and took me back immediately to start x-rays.
The good new was - no fracture or breakage. The bad news - they iced it up and told me they'd start the procedure to "reset" the finger bone after I'd gotten a shot of some pain killers. Hahaha. A nurse sat me down and stood behind me and held my shoulders while the Doctor started fiddling around with some stuff seated in front of me. He said he wanted to check my reflexes and had me extend my other arm out. He held the popped finger in his hand and asked me if I could "feel that" and I said yeah.
He said "Here, grab it and pull" and tossed a towel out for me to grab. I grabbed at it and he yanked it and said "pull!" I did and at the same time he yanked the other hand, my middle finger hard and pulled it back out.
I blacked out for a second, the next thing I remember was the nurse holding me up and the Dr. saying "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I'm so sorry - that's the best way to do it - it has to be pulled back out. I'm really sorry".
So another x-ray and the bones look okay. They splint it and wrap it and tell me it'll be about 3-4 months before it's usable. Some other stuff. I get a prescription for some stuff and some pain killers and we're outta there.
Later we compared notes on exactly what happened on the beach and the guy who showed up to help. We decided he was an angel.
He didn't say much, was completely serious and focused completely on me and helping me. He appeared and disappeared, literally, in front of our eyes. His sole purpose seemed to be to get me through that period of time when I was disoriented and he was gone when everything was handled and the direction was set.
Through that I learned a lesson that became clearer over the next couple days as I considered what had happened. I was overwhelmed when the ramifications of that event hit me. I cried, I couldn't stop. I've remembered it since like rivers of tears, like I was throwing up tears. Finally I felt fine, peaceful, as if I'd been wrung out dry.
Why then, why me, why that way, why not other times and other people, I don't know. I believe this happens much more than we, all of us, are aware of at the times it happens. At other times it can be as if it's perceived out of the corner of your eye, and when you look directly it's gone. I am sure there are more instances like that one though. :)
background -- just like my name is a joke, my heavy revy is often ridiculous (last week, miraculously, I got the outside window of my office cleaned, after the risk manager told me I could not go out on the roof and clean it myself).
So ... back circa 199? post-twi and pre-trashnet-WayDale-Greasespot Cafe, after losing church-in-the-home, that I really loved ... I am early-morning running around (literally, morning routine, shorts and gym shoes running around), and there is this pew (church pew) on the sidewalk -- in this area, people would put on the sidewalk big items, old furniture, huge piles of garden waste, etc. -- on the sidewalk for the garbage man to pick up. And here in this residential area. Not a church around anywhere, there is this pew, up for grabs. I go home and get my little car (a Yugo -- you go. I'll stay here) -- and drive to where the pew was -- I couldn't have church-in-the-home I was used to, but I could have a pew-in-the-home.
Any way. This pew is really heavy -- old style heavy wood -- It's about 6:30 am, before the garbage trucks came around, I got no extra time because I got to get going to work, etc.
I run back home. Get the car, and these two guys, really nice, do the sudden appearance thing, speak kindly to me, put the pew in the car like it's a piece of cake, and do the sudden disappearance thing. Just so nice. My girlfriend had recently told me the story of her life-saving-policeman-angel-who-came-along-when-her-husband-was-dying-gave-her-confidence-to-raise-him-from-the-dead, and I certainly wanted to have an angel experience.
So this is my angel encounter. Barely believable. Certainly not apparently life-saving, but at time time of pre-Greasespot Cafe, pre Trashnet, and the thread of my life was unraveling. My angel encounter refreshed my heart that the Lord had not turned Himself away from me.
background -- just like my name is a joke, my heavy revy is often ridiculous (last week, miraculously, I got the outside window of my office cleaned, after the risk manager told me I could not go out on the roof and clean it myself).
So ... back circa 199? post-twi and pre-trashnet-WayDale-Greasespot Cafe, after losing church-in-the-home, that I really loved ... I am early-morning running around (literally, morning routine, shorts and gym shoes running around), and there is this pew (church pew) on the sidewalk -- in this area, people would put on the sidewalk big items, old furniture, huge piles of garden waste, etc. -- on the sidewalk for the garbage man to pick up. And here in this residential area. Not a church around anywhere, there is this pew, up for grabs. I go home and get my little car (a Yugo -- you go. I'll stay here) -- and drive to where the pew was -- I couldn't have church-in-the-home I was used to, but I could have a pew-in-the-home.
Any way. This pew is really heavy -- old style heavy wood -- It's about 6:30 am, before the garbage trucks came around, I got no extra time because I got to get going to work, etc.
I run back home. Get the car, and these two guys, really nice, do the sudden appearance thing, speak kindly to me, put the pew in the car like it's a piece of cake, and do the sudden disappearance thing. Just so nice. My girlfriend had recently told me the story of her life-saving-policeman-angel-who-came-along-when-her-husband-was-dying-gave-her-confidence-to-raise-him-from-the-dead, and I certainly wanted to have an angel experience.
So this is my angel encounter. Barely believable. Certainly not apparently life-saving, but at time time of pre-Greasespot Cafe, pre Trashnet, and the thread of my life was unraveling. My angel encounter refreshed my heart that the Lord had not turned Himself away from me.
That is really neat! But, how did you wash your outside window?
It was my interim year in Brooklyn, NY, 1977-78. It was winter and NYC got hit with one of the biggest blizzards in years. They let us go early from work (I worked in Manhattan). The snow was really coming down, I luckily managed to get on the last B train going to Brooklyn. I had my little pocket bible and had been reading that, thankful to be able to make it home. I wasn't from Brooklyn and knew my area, but its a very large borough and did not know the rest of it.
Suddenly, the loudspeaker comes on. They are stopping the train. No more trains at all, everything's becoming snowed in. Hmm. I get up to look at the map, with a bunch of other people. I'm somewhere in the middle of Brooklyn, have no clue where I am, have no idea how I'll get home and it looks like a very long walk ahead in the blizzard. Then, I feel a tap on my shoulder. This sweet little old man says to me, do you know where you are? I said no. He says, do you know how to get home? I said no. He says, I live in Bensonhurst, follow me (Bensonhurst was the section I also lived in). We left the subway, walked a few blocks and there was a bus. We got on. I think it was the last bus running. As I said, it was a couple of blocks away, I'm in a strange neighborhood, and I did not know the Brooklyn bus system. I never would have found it. We are almost the only people on it. As we are riding and I watch the snow come down, it dawned on me, this is an angel - whoa. I looked at him and said, may I ask you a question? You're going to think I'm crazy. He says, sure. I said, are you an angel? He looks at me, laughs and says, no, I'm just an old Jew, as he's laughing. Finally, he says, here's your stop. I thanked him and got off. I was on my block.
Now, this guy picks me out of a group of people, is from my neighborhood, Bensonhurst which all italian, and knows exactly where the last bus is that's running. I also know, angels appear in context with the situation. In other words, I think God sends them and they blend into the surroundings so as not to cause alarm. The city was stopped dead for almost a week and it took a few more for it to dig out. I really believe it was an angel that got me home.
So this is my angel encounter. Barely believable. Certainly not apparently life-saving, but at time time of pre-Greasespot Cafe, pre Trashnet, and the thread of my life was unraveling. My angel encounter refreshed my heart that the Lord had not turned Himself away from me.
There has been a time, or maybe two, in my own life when I thought, in hindsight, that I'd had a possible encounter with an angel. But there is no doubt in my mind that I am here on the Earth only because my father, may God rest his sweet soul, had one. I related this incident on the 9th Corps thread a few years ago, when Dad died, but here it is again.
My Dad fought in the Pacific theater of WWII, and was in the patrol which held the record for number of days behind enemy lines. Every man in his group but one was wounded, and that unwounded man had his rifle shot out of his hands, and had the heel of his boot shot off. But I digress.
It was very heavy fighting. You probably know that in times of war, soldiers "buddy up." A soldier teams up with a friend who will watch his back, and vice versa. One day, my father's buddy was killed in action. The very next day, Dad and the remaining patrol members found themselves pinned down by heavy enemy fire, and quickly running out of ammunition. What the Japanese lacked in supplies, they made up for in sheer numbers of people. They just kept coming. The American soldiers knew that this was the end for them. Dad looked up, and saw his buddy (who'd died in combat the day before) standing there, just standing straight up, in the firing zone. "Sam, looks like you're having a hard time of it," he said. He gestured behind some bushes. Dad crawled over there, and found a box of ammunition. How it got there, nobody knew or cared, but it was enough to stand off the rest of the attack. Dad never called this an angel encounter; he did not know what to call it. He also told me that the other guys never believed him about his buddy showing him where the ammo was, "but they sure believed the ammunition," he would chuckle.
Dad never met my Mom until a few years after the war. In retrospect, I'm kind of glad that he made it.
Anyway, that's the best angel story I know.
There were other times when Dad would "know" something that ended up saving his life, but this was the only time when the knowledge involved a supernatural being. Perhaps that's what it took to get him to crawl out of his semi-protected spot to go and look behind those bushes.
There have also been other incidents of my family members "knowing" things which they could not have learned through the five senses; it happened more to my folks and to my sister than to me (although a bit to me). I have wondered whether the ministry caused me to adopt a false spiritual pridefulness which hampered my access to the awareness that seems to run in the family. There have been times since my father's passing when I have felt a watchful, protective, loving presence. Yes, I know that Weirwille taught that this was devilish. Yeah, yeah. He taught a lot of stuff. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; is that how the saying goes?
Now, this guy picks me out of a group of people, is from my neighborhood, Bensonhurst which all italian, and knows exactly where the last bus is that's running.
Sunesis,
Never underestimate the power of sex appeal. You were a hot babe in those days (probably still are).
It's amazing to me in reading this thread (among others) how often and how strongly people base their beliefs on an explanation they've ascribed to a feeling they had. And how much they are willing to change the normal definitions of words (talk, hear, angel) when they do so. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
What I see from all of these beautiful stories is that God is willing and wants to help us in every aspect of our lives. The smallest of details are attended too. Like in Kit's case she didnt necessarily need to find a new church to help her through a tough time, a church pew would be more than sufficient for the job. DMiller and Sunesis simply needed to get home safely, Socks needed to get to a doctor for his finger and NiKa's dad needed some ammo.
I'm sure that we dont see Angels more often than we actually see them but it is very cool when they show themselves. Another thing that I noticed in the stories is that there was never a moment of hesitation at answering them or taking their direction. No-one asked "What the heck? or Who the heck are you?" or anything like that. DMiller was told to get back in his car and drive. He did. Sunesis wandered around Brooklyn with a complete stranger leading the way. NiKa's dad crawled out of a safe spot on the words of a dead man. Both Socks and the 'mom' followed the direction of a man who was there and then wasn't and Kit found a church pew in an unlikely spot and two unknown men helped her load it in the car. No-one questioned these 'people' except to ask them if they were angels.
It's really amazing how God gave us the standard five senses and an extra sixth one, as well as feelings and emotions to help us decipher and understand not only the world around us but the spiritual realm when it crosses into ours. I actually feel sorry for the folks that deny the reality that occurs all around them for whatever 'logical' reason that they use. They are really missing out on a lot of wonderful and amazing things.
As for that second one of DMiller's...that's just amazing! That kind of thing is just plain biblical to me, burning bush kinda stuff! Very cool!
Ya know Ham, since Lucifer was an angel and he obviously had dilusions of grandure and was just a tad narcissistic and a few other things...I do not doubt that some other Angels may be working through some strong feelings of their own. Just from the stories that are told in the Bible concerning both Angels and the fallen ones it is clear that God gave them emotions and feelings as well. It is clearly possible for them to be 'screwed up'. But I like to hope that the ones that stayed at home arent as screwed up as the ones that got cast down.
I have had a couple of things happen that could be angels... One I am pretty convinced was an angel, and two I am still trying to figure out.
First the one I am sure was an angel... I was at a very rowdy concert one night with some friends... we were on the floor, behind the mosh pits which were randomly breaking out all across the front of the stage. One of my friends and I decided that we were going to try and get closer to the stage, so off we went... in between two mosh pits which suddenly merged into one, with the two of us smack in the middle of it. We were immediately knocked to the floor with the wind knocked out of us. I thought for a second that we were going to either die or be seriously injured and I wasn't sure how I was going to explain that to my TC - especially considering that we were at a VERY non ministry function. (It's weird the things that go through your head sometimes...) Suddenly this HUGE guy who looked like Mr. Clean appeared out of nowhere. He had tribal tattoos that went up his arms, then up his neck onto his bald head. He picked us up off the floor, one over each shoulder (now, keep in mind, neither of us was a small, skinny girl), and walked out of the mosh pit which just seemed to part in front of him. He took us to the edge of the pit, put us down and said "Stay here." Then, before we could say thank you, he was gone... which was strange, because he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else around us. We never saw him again.
Second one happened to my mom right after I was born. Her grandmother had just passed away and they had been very close. My mom was unable to go to the funeral because she had just had me a couple of days before. While she was rocking me, her grandmother appeared next to her chair and told her that I was a very strong, good girl and that she was very proud of my mom.... I am not sure if this was an angel or not.
Third one has been happening to me recently... I am almost ready to have my first child. I have been waking up a lot at night because pregnant women have to pee all the time... Sometimes when I get up I see an old woman in our living room. She is extremely short with very white hair... I only see her for split second out of the corner of my eye, and then she is gone. At first I just thought I was still dreaming, half asleep, but I told my father in law about it one day. He asked me what she looked like and I described her to him. He said that it sounded just like his mother... I have seen her a couple of times since. I don't know what to think about this one... is it a dream? I know one thing for sure, this is the first time I have ever seen something of this nature that DIDN'T give me the heebie-jeebies - I just saw her, thought to myself "that was odd" and went back to sleep. Maybe my child's paternal great grandmother is watching over the birth of her great granchild... maybe I am just having those super vivid pregnancy dreams they talk about. I don't know.
Now, theoretically speaking, suppose one of them sent here got "stuck". Maybe God has a sense of humor or something.. I dunno..
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coolchef
sorry eyes but i did acid a few times too!
but who am i to doubt you?
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cheranne
Yes! I am sure of it.
It was also a hitch hiking experiance,but my friend and I had left The Way and we left no notes
just picked up and left with the clothes on our backs and my guitar( an Alvarez black smoke in color
it was a gift from my father)
We had been on the road for two days now from Phoniex and were headed for Florida but ended up
in California .
Our plan now was to go see her friend in San Diego,well....it was in the wee morning hours 3am or
so entering L.A. we could see the lights from far away,but our last driver keft us in the middle of
nowhere making it hard to get a ride(this was also during the days of the zodiak serial killer of course
we didn't know anything we never looked at the news or newspapers, or tv!)
So,,,here we are concrete highways and noone on the road ,from a distance we see a car,its a
lowrider (and being from san antonio I know that is trouble for two young girls)there are more than
four guys in this car and we just keep walking trying not to draw attention to ourselves,I had a cowboy
hat on and drew it low over my eyes as I carried my guitar.
I thought they might want the guitar and then leave us alone but they drove slow cruising along side
as we walked,we had no where to go and if we got in that car it would be over.
Trust me you just know these things (and I am of hispanic background so I am not saying this to be racist)
The suddenly out of Nowhere,no noise or anything an 18 wheeler pulls up quick and motions with his
hand "come on" (usally you can hear a truck coming down a road!)
We sprint to the truck and get in,I see a man Indian man,long hair, and indian jewelry on his hands.
I say Thanks!
He never says a word,but the kind eyes don't have too we both know what may have happened back
there.
The feeling of safety is unbelievable,and we drive on thru the dark away from L.A. and he leaves us
at a little town,which I think had like a greyhound bus station.
I'll never forget that.
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dmiller
"Have You Ever Met An Angel?"
Yes. Once that I know of. There were three there. I'll let it go at that. :)
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George Aar
I thought I did once.
But then she took the van and left town. Now I'm kinda doubting her divinity...
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Eyesopen
OKC, The incredible feeling of safety is amazing. There are no real words to describe it but it sure makes a person want to give thanks.
David, let me know if you ever feel like sharing that story. I would love to hear it.
CoolChef, I've never ever done acid in my life. But I understand the skepticism. Michael was there and he didnt believe it, I dont really expect you to either...after all it happened way back in 1986 and you weren't there.
Hee hee George, I think we have all met some 'angels' like that in our lifetimes! I think they might be on probation or something... :blink:
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cheranne
I was thinking Good angel or Bad angel,lets hear that too. I bet this thing would light up if it
was posted did you ever shell shock a demon! Oh yeah .
well ofcourse because in TWI thats
just a habit pattern we are trained automatically to do.
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waysider
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dmiller
Ya had to be there. It was in 1986 or 87 (I forget exactly now), but it was in the dead of winter.
I was getting divorced, and estranged from the house I used to live in. I was living in a Way house
across town, and Chr!s Gr@nlich was in charge of the area, back then in the same house.
I was coming home from work (11 pm or so) during a MAJOR snow storm. My pos wow-mobile
got stuck at an intersection of two roads because of the heavy snow, on the way home.
Dangerous. Even at that time of night, it was a *busy* intersection.
Out of nowhere --- 3 fellas ran out of the storm, one yelled at me to get in the car, and drive.
(I had been out of the car, trying to push it out of the snow I was mired in).
I got back in, took the steering wheel, and they pushed me out.
The driver side window was open, and I turned to wave thanks. But there wasn't a one of them there.
Neither had I seen the car (if they had one) behind me when I was stuck.
The minute I was unstuck, they disappeared.
My sanity, veracity, whatever might be called in question, but have at it. I was there. You weren't.
There was one other time, I did something very foolish, and I needed financial help to get me out of it.
Totally broken -- I asked God to help, cause I sure couldn't do it on my own.
I looked out the window of my dining room, and literally saw the name (of a friend of mine)
floating over my back yard in really big letters. Needless to say, I gave him a call,
and I got bailed out of the situation.
Some doubt. Others question. I prefer to believe. :)
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socks
I've posted this before here. Because it involved my whole family it has a special significance for all of us. I recently retold this to my two sisters, who I'd never given the details to and found that my younger sister had an experience she told me about that was somewhat similar, different circumstances entirely but the basic elements were very similar. (snooze alert! it's loooong....)
Anyhoo - 25th Anniversary for The Mom and I. We celebrated in Hawaii, two weeks. One on the Big Island, and one on Mauii. We tried snorkeling and found we really enjoyed it. The Mom's a strong swimmer as are the Boy and the Girl and having grown up little in Florida, they love the water. I've always been a little tweezed swimming, because I wear glasses and in the water I can't see much without them. But I got prescription lenses in my face mask and yow! It was like being born again. I really began to enjoy being in the water, seeing the fish, coral, all of that and within a couple days was starting to get the hang of it.
So we're at a public beach, a bay, not too many people but there's public parking, a Snack shop area, a path down to the beach and a large primo snorkeling area in this small bay. There's even a life guard dude. So we set up in a spot and hit the water. The rest of the family's out and about quickly and I'm still tentative but enjoying the water.
Down a ways to the left a few hundred feet the beach curves up into a cliff area and there's a kind of chicken wire fence, closing off a section that's all rocks, pretty slippery by the looks of them. At that area the sandy beach part is only 10 - 15 feet to the cliff wall, and then goes down to the rocky area fenced off.
So at one point Mom sees how I'm doing - fine, so she wants to take the kids up to the snack shop. I say fine, I'll meet them at our spot in a few. I paddle off, happy as a clam. I'm staying in just a few feet of water, and I end up kind of floating off down to the end and I look up, see I'm getting close to that rocky area and turn in and walk up, figuring to get out. There's no one down at that end of the beach, it's empty
and there's not much sand or beach. I step over a few rocks, not thinking they're slippery as I'm getting out of the water. Wrong. I slip completely off balance, and fall down on my left hand, catching myself from smacking down hard.
Unfortunately, I jammed the middle finger, left hand straight down into this rock when I fell and as I stood up looked at it and found - I'd knocked the finger out of it's socket, second joint. So my middle finger's popped out of the joint, bent completely back the wrong way; like a perfectly wrong right angle. I'm moderately shocked, try to wiggle it and it's jammed stuck. I can feel the tendons stretched back like rubber bands and my blood pressure is going whoooosh into my head as I tried to get my bearings.
Now - when I got out and fell and stood up - there was no one at that end of the beach. There were a few people in the water a few hundred feet down, and on the beach but I was alone. The whole get out-fall-get up-go ow! took just a few seconds. Then, suddenly there was a man standing in front of me, between myself and the cliff wall, standing there. He was about 6 foot, dark blond hair, kind of curly and long, wearing a colored t-shirt and swim trunks.
I was so in shock I didn't know what to say. He said "Are you alright?" I was speechless. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me straight on and kind of shook me - "Are you OKAY?" I held my hand up and said "NO!"
He looked at my hand and down the beach and pointed to the Life Guard stand. "We need to get to the Life Guard and get help. Come on!" and we went running down the beach. At this point I wasn't even thinking about who he was or where he came from, but I felt completely calm. I grabbed a towel at our spot and wrapped it around my hand - it wasn't bleeding at all, but it looked really weird and was starting to hurt like the dickens. I got my baseball cap - a purple and pink hat I'd that said "Lake Tahoe" on it and we went to the Life Guard.
Life Guard Dude said "whoa! That's nasty! Can't help you man, I could probably pull it back out but they won't let us do that anymore. But there's an emergency hospital about 20 minutes away, you gotta go there".
So the man's standing there and nodding and asks me where my family is.......I say up at the Snack shop - The Mom and the kids. He says he'll go get them and takes off running. I stand there talking to Dude Guy waiting, and he tells me I don't look so good and we sit down.
At the snack shop, Mom told me later a guy came running up into the crowd and stood right in front of them and yelled "Are you here with a man in a pink baseball cap?!" They look at each other like - uh oh. She says they are, he tells them I've had an accident, I'm okay but I'll need to get to a hospital to get checked out. He says "Come on!" and they go running down the path to the beach and he points to the Life Guard stand and says that's where I'm at.
Mom turns to him to ask him what's going on, and he's gone. One second - talking to her - next second - disappeared. She stopped for a second and looked around and then just kept on running down to find out what's going on.
Soooo, we meet up and I've got my hand wrapped and just tell her I messed my hand up and we head out. I look for the guy, she tells me quickly what happened and we can't find him so we make a beeline for the car and head for the emergency room.
Long story somewhat shorter - when we got there they said they couldn't accept my Medical insurance, Kaiser, I'd have to go another half hour into town. I hadn't let her or the kids see what it looked like, I didn't want to scare them. So I unwrapped the towel off my hand and said you gotta help me. By this time the finger was swollen up and just didn't look good. My wife - I hate to think about it - she closed her eyes and held my arm and the Admitting Nurse said "We'll see you" and took me back immediately to start x-rays.
The good new was - no fracture or breakage. The bad news - they iced it up and told me they'd start the procedure to "reset" the finger bone after I'd gotten a shot of some pain killers. Hahaha. A nurse sat me down and stood behind me and held my shoulders while the Doctor started fiddling around with some stuff seated in front of me. He said he wanted to check my reflexes and had me extend my other arm out. He held the popped finger in his hand and asked me if I could "feel that" and I said yeah.
He said "Here, grab it and pull" and tossed a towel out for me to grab. I grabbed at it and he yanked it and said "pull!" I did and at the same time he yanked the other hand, my middle finger hard and pulled it back out.
I blacked out for a second, the next thing I remember was the nurse holding me up and the Dr. saying "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I'm so sorry - that's the best way to do it - it has to be pulled back out. I'm really sorry".
So another x-ray and the bones look okay. They splint it and wrap it and tell me it'll be about 3-4 months before it's usable. Some other stuff. I get a prescription for some stuff and some pain killers and we're outta there.
Later we compared notes on exactly what happened on the beach and the guy who showed up to help. We decided he was an angel.
He didn't say much, was completely serious and focused completely on me and helping me. He appeared and disappeared, literally, in front of our eyes. His sole purpose seemed to be to get me through that period of time when I was disoriented and he was gone when everything was handled and the direction was set.
Through that I learned a lesson that became clearer over the next couple days as I considered what had happened. I was overwhelmed when the ramifications of that event hit me. I cried, I couldn't stop. I've remembered it since like rivers of tears, like I was throwing up tears. Finally I felt fine, peaceful, as if I'd been wrung out dry.
Why then, why me, why that way, why not other times and other people, I don't know. I believe this happens much more than we, all of us, are aware of at the times it happens. At other times it can be as if it's perceived out of the corner of your eye, and when you look directly it's gone. I am sure there are more instances like that one though. :)
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dmiller
Ya know -- I never did doubt GOD'S ABILITY TO DO,
despite the vehicle (twi) that originally taught that to me.
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Kit Sober
background -- just like my name is a joke, my heavy revy is often ridiculous (last week, miraculously, I got the outside window of my office cleaned, after the risk manager told me I could not go out on the roof and clean it myself).
So ... back circa 199? post-twi and pre-trashnet-WayDale-Greasespot Cafe, after losing church-in-the-home, that I really loved ... I am early-morning running around (literally, morning routine, shorts and gym shoes running around), and there is this pew (church pew) on the sidewalk -- in this area, people would put on the sidewalk big items, old furniture, huge piles of garden waste, etc. -- on the sidewalk for the garbage man to pick up. And here in this residential area. Not a church around anywhere, there is this pew, up for grabs. I go home and get my little car (a Yugo -- you go. I'll stay here) -- and drive to where the pew was -- I couldn't have church-in-the-home I was used to, but I could have a pew-in-the-home.
Any way. This pew is really heavy -- old style heavy wood -- It's about 6:30 am, before the garbage trucks came around, I got no extra time because I got to get going to work, etc.
I run back home. Get the car, and these two guys, really nice, do the sudden appearance thing, speak kindly to me, put the pew in the car like it's a piece of cake, and do the sudden disappearance thing. Just so nice. My girlfriend had recently told me the story of her life-saving-policeman-angel-who-came-along-when-her-husband-was-dying-gave-her-confidence-to-raise-him-from-the-dead, and I certainly wanted to have an angel experience.
So this is my angel encounter. Barely believable. Certainly not apparently life-saving, but at time time of pre-Greasespot Cafe, pre Trashnet, and the thread of my life was unraveling. My angel encounter refreshed my heart that the Lord had not turned Himself away from me.
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cheranne
That is really neat! But, how did you wash your outside window?
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Sunesis
It was my interim year in Brooklyn, NY, 1977-78. It was winter and NYC got hit with one of the biggest blizzards in years. They let us go early from work (I worked in Manhattan). The snow was really coming down, I luckily managed to get on the last B train going to Brooklyn. I had my little pocket bible and had been reading that, thankful to be able to make it home. I wasn't from Brooklyn and knew my area, but its a very large borough and did not know the rest of it.
Suddenly, the loudspeaker comes on. They are stopping the train. No more trains at all, everything's becoming snowed in. Hmm. I get up to look at the map, with a bunch of other people. I'm somewhere in the middle of Brooklyn, have no clue where I am, have no idea how I'll get home and it looks like a very long walk ahead in the blizzard. Then, I feel a tap on my shoulder. This sweet little old man says to me, do you know where you are? I said no. He says, do you know how to get home? I said no. He says, I live in Bensonhurst, follow me (Bensonhurst was the section I also lived in). We left the subway, walked a few blocks and there was a bus. We got on. I think it was the last bus running. As I said, it was a couple of blocks away, I'm in a strange neighborhood, and I did not know the Brooklyn bus system. I never would have found it. We are almost the only people on it. As we are riding and I watch the snow come down, it dawned on me, this is an angel - whoa. I looked at him and said, may I ask you a question? You're going to think I'm crazy. He says, sure. I said, are you an angel? He looks at me, laughs and says, no, I'm just an old Jew, as he's laughing. Finally, he says, here's your stop. I thanked him and got off. I was on my block.
Now, this guy picks me out of a group of people, is from my neighborhood, Bensonhurst which all italian, and knows exactly where the last bus is that's running. I also know, angels appear in context with the situation. In other words, I think God sends them and they blend into the surroundings so as not to cause alarm. The city was stopped dead for almost a week and it took a few more for it to dig out. I really believe it was an angel that got me home.
I have one more incident I'll share in a bit.
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waterbuffalo
Sweet.
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GrouchoMarxJr
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Ham
I met one once. Had a few "issues" though..
that's all I'll say..
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notinKansasanymore
There has been a time, or maybe two, in my own life when I thought, in hindsight, that I'd had a possible encounter with an angel. But there is no doubt in my mind that I am here on the Earth only because my father, may God rest his sweet soul, had one. I related this incident on the 9th Corps thread a few years ago, when Dad died, but here it is again.
My Dad fought in the Pacific theater of WWII, and was in the patrol which held the record for number of days behind enemy lines. Every man in his group but one was wounded, and that unwounded man had his rifle shot out of his hands, and had the heel of his boot shot off. But I digress.
It was very heavy fighting. You probably know that in times of war, soldiers "buddy up." A soldier teams up with a friend who will watch his back, and vice versa. One day, my father's buddy was killed in action. The very next day, Dad and the remaining patrol members found themselves pinned down by heavy enemy fire, and quickly running out of ammunition. What the Japanese lacked in supplies, they made up for in sheer numbers of people. They just kept coming. The American soldiers knew that this was the end for them. Dad looked up, and saw his buddy (who'd died in combat the day before) standing there, just standing straight up, in the firing zone. "Sam, looks like you're having a hard time of it," he said. He gestured behind some bushes. Dad crawled over there, and found a box of ammunition. How it got there, nobody knew or cared, but it was enough to stand off the rest of the attack. Dad never called this an angel encounter; he did not know what to call it. He also told me that the other guys never believed him about his buddy showing him where the ammo was, "but they sure believed the ammunition," he would chuckle.
Dad never met my Mom until a few years after the war. In retrospect, I'm kind of glad that he made it.
Anyway, that's the best angel story I know.
There were other times when Dad would "know" something that ended up saving his life, but this was the only time when the knowledge involved a supernatural being. Perhaps that's what it took to get him to crawl out of his semi-protected spot to go and look behind those bushes.
There have also been other incidents of my family members "knowing" things which they could not have learned through the five senses; it happened more to my folks and to my sister than to me (although a bit to me). I have wondered whether the ministry caused me to adopt a false spiritual pridefulness which hampered my access to the awareness that seems to run in the family. There have been times since my father's passing when I have felt a watchful, protective, loving presence. Yes, I know that Weirwille taught that this was devilish. Yeah, yeah. He taught a lot of stuff. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; is that how the saying goes?
love, niKa
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My3Cents
Sunesis,
Never underestimate the power of sex appeal. You were a hot babe in those days (probably still are).
It's amazing to me in reading this thread (among others) how often and how strongly people base their beliefs on an explanation they've ascribed to a feeling they had. And how much they are willing to change the normal definitions of words (talk, hear, angel) when they do so. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
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Eyesopen
What I see from all of these beautiful stories is that God is willing and wants to help us in every aspect of our lives. The smallest of details are attended too. Like in Kit's case she didnt necessarily need to find a new church to help her through a tough time, a church pew would be more than sufficient for the job. DMiller and Sunesis simply needed to get home safely, Socks needed to get to a doctor for his finger and NiKa's dad needed some ammo.
I'm sure that we dont see Angels more often than we actually see them but it is very cool when they show themselves. Another thing that I noticed in the stories is that there was never a moment of hesitation at answering them or taking their direction. No-one asked "What the heck? or Who the heck are you?" or anything like that. DMiller was told to get back in his car and drive. He did. Sunesis wandered around Brooklyn with a complete stranger leading the way. NiKa's dad crawled out of a safe spot on the words of a dead man. Both Socks and the 'mom' followed the direction of a man who was there and then wasn't and Kit found a church pew in an unlikely spot and two unknown men helped her load it in the car. No-one questioned these 'people' except to ask them if they were angels.
It's really amazing how God gave us the standard five senses and an extra sixth one, as well as feelings and emotions to help us decipher and understand not only the world around us but the spiritual realm when it crosses into ours. I actually feel sorry for the folks that deny the reality that occurs all around them for whatever 'logical' reason that they use. They are really missing out on a lot of wonderful and amazing things.
As for that second one of DMiller's...that's just amazing! That kind of thing is just plain biblical to me, burning bush kinda stuff! Very cool!
Perhaps Mr. Ham will grace us with his story now?
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Ham
angels are incarnated as human beings, or at least in their form, supposedly..
the only thing I'll say is, I think I met one, and they were really, really screwed up..
"issues" are an understatement..
that's all anybody will hear, unless the "angel" logs on gsc, and tells the tale..
I met someone here who after hearing some of this, said, "well, it could have been an angel. Some angels have issues they are working through, too.."
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Eyesopen
Ya know Ham, since Lucifer was an angel and he obviously had dilusions of grandure and was just a tad narcissistic and a few other things...I do not doubt that some other Angels may be working through some strong feelings of their own. Just from the stories that are told in the Bible concerning both Angels and the fallen ones it is clear that God gave them emotions and feelings as well. It is clearly possible for them to be 'screwed up'. But I like to hope that the ones that stayed at home arent as screwed up as the ones that got cast down.
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Ham
Now, theoretically speaking, suppose one of them sent here got "stuck". Maybe God has a sense of humor or something.. I dunno..
hmm.. possibility there..
maybe they have the capacity for self-loathing..
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Eyesopen
Now that is an interesting thought.
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JavaJane
I have had a couple of things happen that could be angels... One I am pretty convinced was an angel, and two I am still trying to figure out.
First the one I am sure was an angel... I was at a very rowdy concert one night with some friends... we were on the floor, behind the mosh pits which were randomly breaking out all across the front of the stage. One of my friends and I decided that we were going to try and get closer to the stage, so off we went... in between two mosh pits which suddenly merged into one, with the two of us smack in the middle of it. We were immediately knocked to the floor with the wind knocked out of us. I thought for a second that we were going to either die or be seriously injured and I wasn't sure how I was going to explain that to my TC - especially considering that we were at a VERY non ministry function. (It's weird the things that go through your head sometimes...) Suddenly this HUGE guy who looked like Mr. Clean appeared out of nowhere. He had tribal tattoos that went up his arms, then up his neck onto his bald head. He picked us up off the floor, one over each shoulder (now, keep in mind, neither of us was a small, skinny girl), and walked out of the mosh pit which just seemed to part in front of him. He took us to the edge of the pit, put us down and said "Stay here." Then, before we could say thank you, he was gone... which was strange, because he was head and shoulders taller than anyone else around us. We never saw him again.
Second one happened to my mom right after I was born. Her grandmother had just passed away and they had been very close. My mom was unable to go to the funeral because she had just had me a couple of days before. While she was rocking me, her grandmother appeared next to her chair and told her that I was a very strong, good girl and that she was very proud of my mom.... I am not sure if this was an angel or not.
Third one has been happening to me recently... I am almost ready to have my first child. I have been waking up a lot at night because pregnant women have to pee all the time... Sometimes when I get up I see an old woman in our living room. She is extremely short with very white hair... I only see her for split second out of the corner of my eye, and then she is gone. At first I just thought I was still dreaming, half asleep, but I told my father in law about it one day. He asked me what she looked like and I described her to him. He said that it sounded just like his mother... I have seen her a couple of times since. I don't know what to think about this one... is it a dream? I know one thing for sure, this is the first time I have ever seen something of this nature that DIDN'T give me the heebie-jeebies - I just saw her, thought to myself "that was odd" and went back to sleep. Maybe my child's paternal great grandmother is watching over the birth of her great granchild... maybe I am just having those super vivid pregnancy dreams they talk about. I don't know.
Ever seen "Dogma," Mr Ham??
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