Posted on 06/13/2009 6:22:53 AM PDT by joeclarke
Everybody had buddies in the 1960's, and some went to Nam, some did not return, some did well, and some, like myself and my high school buddy, Wayne Crumley, had let's say, extra trouble after coming back. I'm talking Joe Dirt trouble.
Wayne drove around in an expensive "hippie" van that had air-brushed naked ladies painted on the sides. Of course, the van was red - as red as my face is now for thinking of those days. He also owned a boat, and had a Pontiac GTO - while in High School. Even with all that, kids still made fun of his name, pronouncing it "Crum-ley," while deluding themselves with their false, Northern state pride.
He was pure hillbilly (nothing wrong with that) and his dad was president of the rubber union, so he was bequeathed one of the most highly prized jobs one could get at the rubber company - calendar operator, and so he was rich, for a high school kid. There were a few 60 year old guys at the plant who did not appreciate, so much, his fast advancement.
Anyway, we parted company when we went to Nam, for a while, but reunited after the war and even went down to his home state Tennessee to visit some of his hillbilly cousins (nothing wrong with that) and old Marine Corps friends of mine.
I had not heard from him for over twenty years, until about 6 years ago, someone told me old Wayne was up at the Cleveland VA hospital "waiting on a heart." Yes, it seems that Wayne's hard life of drunkenness, women, and driving drunk, took its toll, so much, that Wayne had to get a new ticker, or hillbilly's might say, "tacker."
I called Wayne up at the VA, and I must say he was never at all religious, but he asked me if he could tell me this "weird" story about how he got into the VA hospital. He was very apprehensive about retelling the story, thinking I may not believe it. He did not know how much of a beiliever I was and am. I have seen God do many strange and wonderful things, such as helping me with a 100% disability I inherited from Vietnam.
Wayne said he actually died - flatlined - on an emergency room table, but something happened. . . " Joe, I was on this gurney, the attending physicians said I had died, but I descended into a cold, dark, frightening place, where I had never felt so alone, scared, or forsaken. All around me were taunting, laughing demons terrorizing me with unspeakable words." Wayne then went on to tell me, " Joe, I started to cry out "Jesus is my savior, Jesus is my savior, Jesus is my savior" over and over again until I felt Someone swoop me out of that most terrible of places. I then noticed that I was on an emergency operating table where I heard the doctors and nurses telling me that after the flatlining, they heard me screaming." Wayne underwent a successful hear transplant at the Cleveland Veterans Hospital, thank the Lord. Wayne actually got two hearts - one, an actual pumper, the other one from God.
And, psychologists say that these sort of incidents are only "accidental communications between brain synapses." Uh-huh.
GB,jc
Wow. Thanks for that, Joe.
Thanks for sharing the good word of Wayne’s salvation. He did some divinely inspired mighty quick thinking to pull his ass out of the fire!
Wonders and miracles are God's specialty. Its a good thing too because I was too stupid and stubborn, and had my eyes closed so tightly, to be convinced by anything else.
Jesus is REAL!
This is why I read freerepublic.
Thanks
I'd lovingly remind that Saul was blinded on the road to Damascus when a light from heaven shined around him and he heard Jesus speak directly to him. If ever anyone had the opportunity for salvation without obedience it would have been Saul. Yet, "...he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. (Acts Chapter 9:6)
The stories of salvation in the book of the Acts of the Apostles reveal a pattern that was followed by all.
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