Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Buck Teeth and a Marathon

The material I had to work with for my first book with Rev. Gordon Williams (Like a Rushing Mighty Wind) was so rich with stories of miracles that it was difficult to choose one for the introduction.

We settled on the story of a little girl with buck teeth who asked Jesus for a miracle and received one. The Preface began...

  “'Do you want to see what Jesus did for me?'
    I looked down at the eleven-year-old freckled face smiling broadly up into my own.  The face looked vaguely familiar, and I began to remember praying for the child in the previous night’s prayer line.
    And then it hit me.  This little girl’s top lip had protruded badly with very pronounced buck teeth — and here she was, just one night later, with perfectly aligned, beautiful teeth!
    'He fixed them,' she announced with shy pride."

When we asked David Mainse, then the host of 100 Huntley Street to write the Foreword for the book, he requested confirmation of the remarkable miracle. At Gordon's direction, I wrote to Dr. Duvall, the little girl’s dentist, who was happy to comply. He replied, “I hereby verify the portion of Gordon Williams’ Preface to be correct regarding the changes in the girl’s dentition. You may use my name with this book if needed.”
 
Dr. Duvall went on to say that having witnessed the transformation in his young patient, he met with Gordon and shared that he, personally, had a bad back and had been in serious pain for many years.  Gordon suggested that the doctor should attend one of his meetings, and so he did — that night.  The doctor’s back was healed, and he has run the “Iron Man Marathon” every year since! 

Dr. Duval wrote,  “I have an interesting story for you.  During our lunch (with Gordon Williams) at the Old House Restaurant, I expressed my astonishment at faith healing. After considerable thought, I went ahead and asked Jesus for healing of my fifteen year lower back problem. That night, my back hurt like .... and after praying, there was no pain. The next morning, I arose from my bed carefully.  Again, no pain, although the lower back muscles were very tense.  Since I run 5–10 miles every day, I would come home hurting if I ran more than 1 hour per day.  I now run 25 miles with no pain, and I am entering a couple of marathon races.  Not only that, but I run relatively fast (for me).  How about that ... me — a member of the health profession, being healed by prayer!”

How about that indeed? :)


 

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