Maybe a good way to begin is to think of how many times I survived without dying. To exist is a gift- if not a miracle. I think it is both because the hand of God has moved to protect me. These are some miracle short-stories.
The beginning. I only heard of this one.
When I was still a baby, lightning hit our house. We lived near the top of a hill in Columbia, SC (825 Arbutus). The crib was in my parent's room (to keep them from walking far). My mother told me she saw lightning go all around the crib and light it up- but it did not hurt me. Hearing this story made her feel (and sometimes me) that God had a plan for me.
The prophecy. I was baptized in my Nana's (Etta Fricks Bellotte) death bed in December 1957. She was a very godly woman who kept the faith and passed it on to all of her nine girls. This one is unfulfilled, but she said that Jesus, the Lord, would come back before I died. I don't know about that. But with the threats of nuclear war and the gospel having been spread to every nation (Matthew 24:14) and the nation of Israel miraculously restored (70AD to 1948), maybe I will live long enough to see it. I know that I will see Him face to face one day, and I WILL keep the faith of my baptism.
I have been in numerous wrecks and lots of close calls.
In high school Frank (not Franklin) Graham had a bunch of us piled in his car- and we were in a wreck on Trenholm Road (near the turn on Woodlake). We were piled in the middle. I was sitting on the center console. The emergency hand brake was right below me, and when we were hit head on, the emergency brake almost impaled me- rising up very swiftly. It didn't hurt me. I walked away with an aching back- and none were injured but the car was totaled.
One New Year's Eve in college I and two friends were driving in the mountain near Hendersonville. No, we weren't drinking anything, but it was between 12:30 and 1:00. We were getting on I-26East going toward South Carolina. A greyhound bus headed right toward us-head on- going the wrong way. We swerved at the very last second and it missed us and the car was fine. We were literally inches from death. I believe God protected us.
After college, when I was commuting from Seneca to work at Westminster (15 miles), there was ice on the highway. I hit a patch, completely spun around (maybe 6 times), going into the oncoming two lanes, and ended up in the center median. There were no cars coming the other direction for me to hit. Though the median was grass and mud, the car got out okay and I went onto work a bit shaken but not damaged at all. I prayed a lot before I spun out and especially while spinning, and then to get out of the median. God was with me- and you may not believe it- but I KNOW it.
I was visiting Richland Hospital (spring 2012?) to see a parishioner (forgot who) in my Toyota Corolla (a small car). I was third in line at the traffic light that was red. When it turned green, I was turning from Harden left onto Bull Street (near the Red Cross office). Someone ran the stoplight. Texting had just come out about six months before and he was texting while driving and did not see the light. I can remember when I was hit by his large Ford Explorer SUV, that I tried to step on the brakes as I was heading right toward a telephone pole. I also remember my brakes didn't work (later realized I was sailing through the air!). I barely missed the pole, and went right into the parking lot a the end of Harden. The car was hit on the passenger side strongly (going 45+ mph). But I was not injured, though once again, my back hurt. I walked away and drove my injured car home.
On Christmas Eve 1976, my brother- Mark and his wife Linda, were Christmas shopping in Columbia, SC. I was home from my first semester of college at Clemson. Linda was 8 months pregnant. They were driving down Beltline toward Forest Lake Drive when they were t-boned by a man going 55 mph. It turns out he was working for DSS and had his brakes tampered with (maybe mafia?). My sister-in-law broke her jaw and collar bone but did not lose the baby (my nephew Matt who worked in Christian ministry for Young Life for years). My brother, who had finished his doctoral studies and work for USC (only had his orals to go), hit his head hard on the steering wheel. There were no air bags back then. We didn't think he would make it as his brain bled and it was touch and go for two weeks. But he survived. I can remember the pastor of Eastminster where we attended, coming to our house after the Christmas Eve service- and praying with us. I was wrestling with whether I would be a psychologist or a minister. This was the point I decided to be a minister- because he came after an exhausting Christmas Eve- sat with us for hours at our house then the hospital. He brought hope.
CHILDREN: Here are a few child-survival stories.
1) My oldest daughter, Sarah. In April 1988, we had just had our second daughter Rebekah who had colic and was crying all of her waking hours for weeks. I was in the church-owned manse cooking french-fries in the kitchen while Kay was holding the crying baby in the living room. Sarah was at my feet in the kitchen playing. The landline church phone rang in the back (no cell phones back then). I went back to answer it, and heard a "vrooompf" and Kay screamed. I saw the living room lit up by the light of the fire. The grease had caught fire and the flames were going into the attic. I grabbed a hot pad and rushed the pan outside (singed all the hair on my right arm and my eyebrows). Came back and sprayed the fire with fire extinguisher and called 9-1-1. Sarah was still sitting in the kitchen through all of this on the linoleum floor. There was a circle around her. All the floor was black or brown with damage- but Sarah was not hurt. There was literally, clearly a circle around her on the floor. I can't help but think something special is in store for her.
2) My son, John. I was driving my wife home from a kidney stone lithotripsy in 1993. When we got to the door, the babysitter (Ann Cable- a wonderful church member), handed me John and told me to go back to the doctor's office. He had eaten some of his sister, Rebekah's, peanut butter sandwich. His face was as read as a tomato and was completely swollen. He was wheezing. We jumped in the car and drove downtown. On the way to the doctor's office, he passed out. I was praying hard the whole way. Called the doctor's office. They were ready with epinephrine and adrenalin. I drove up into a handicap space, rushed him in- they gave him a shot and within an hour he was back to his normal self. We think he was rushed to the ER six times under our care for peanut butter anaphylactic reaction. He had several other instances later. He is such a gentle soul. He is only 34 as I write this but has seen 34+ friends die (drunk driving wrecks, wrecks, drug overdoses).
2b- when John was about 9 (around 2000) he was having some friends over. He busted his hand through the glass door by accident and cut his wrist and his artery. Blood was everywhere. An ambulance came. They were able to stop the blood. John broke 36 different bones growing up. We took him to a specialist who ran numerous tests. The conclusion- he is very active (playing baseball, basketball, soccer, football).
2c. When John was in high school fall 2009 he was playing football and he was really good. He had been the starting quarterback for Chapin High School but another student came and John switched to defense (safety) and became second string quarterback. In practice it got near 100 and he was playing first string defense (against the first string offense) and second string offense as QB (against the second string defense). He was not getting a break. We got a call that we needed to take John to the hospital or urgent care. He was dehydrated and his muscles were literally shaking all over his body uncontrollably. We were very worried- as was the trainer- that he was going to go into cardiac arrest. We were all praying hard. but he got IVs and after several hours calmed down. The trainers name was Fred. He came. The coach - who later would lose his job for infidelity with a female high school student- never showed up. John was saved... again.
2d. There are some other amazing stories about John- who is an amazing human being. He had a dark period in his life. Not that he ever stopped believing in God- but he stopped following Him. He had several miracles from dark places that I will leave for him to remember and tell. But I do know we prayed for him. Specifically, when we went to Montreat and prayed for him at the Chapel of the Prodigal. There I believe, God spoke silently to our hearts to say he would be okay and come back to faith. Today we get to go to church with him almost every week. He leads a Bible study with his friends, and attends a couple of others. I am so proud of his turnaround but so grateful to God for this miracle for him-and also for us.
3. The miracle of marriage. That I was able to marry Kay is a miracle. She was pursued by so many others. She was the "Color Girl" for the United States Naval Academy in 1977 for dating the Valedictorian of the class and had her picture in every major newspaper in the United States. I have no idea how she could marry someone like me, but I am so grateful to God. She traded the riches of others to be married to a poor preacher. At times, we didn't know where our next meal would come from (those are some other miracle stories to come). My two daughters married amazing men who care for them. My son married a wonderful girl. My wife lived long enough to see them all graduate from high school, graduate from college, and get married. She (and I both), lived long enough to see and know five amazing grandchildren. I put marriage in here to go with survival... to survive a marriage and to survive in marriage together is a miracle.
4. The cancer miracle. We had been married 25 years. We had just gone to Italy to celebrate our 25th anniversary. But she was sick, coughing. They talked about asthma, flu, walking pneumonia. She switched doctors to Oscar Lovelace, an elder in our church. He did thorough blood work and two days after Christmas 12/27/2005 (came to our house 10:00 PM to tell us) he said to he she had CML- chronic myelogenous leukemia. He said her white blood cell count was higher than he had ever seen in anybody- and that they diagnosed it too late. He said he thought she would have three months to live. Sarah had just gotten engaged on Christmas to Ryan. He said we needed to "get our affairs in order." He said if we wanted to see Sarah get married we needed to move up the wedding. We all (including Dr. Lovelace) cried and prayed. The family stayed up all night praying. We went to Lexington Medical Center Oncology. She took interferon chemo- which totally knocked her down. For months she couldn't get off the sofa- sometimes to even lift her head. The Presbyterian Women brought us food and even cleaned our house. Kay survived her three months of interferon.
Then they put her on a new drug just approved- but not fully approved called "Gleevic." We had another church member, Robert Leitner, who died of CML and Gleevic helped but did not stop the disease. Kay had to have a certain chromosome for it to work fully- the "Philadelphia" chromosome. She did. Today February 2025, she is still alive. So some would say this is no miracle. But I would say that the coming of this new drug at just the right time to save Kay is a miracle through which God used the minds of researchers and physicians and assistants and FDA approvals to have it available at just the right time to help her.
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