MIRACLES HAPPEN!
 

     Since then, a steady increase in unexplained phenomena has occurred worldwide. Millions of people can now claim personal experience of some miraculous' event:

~Radiant crosses of light, seen by tens of thousands from California to the Philippines, bring
  spontaneous healings and renewed hope for the future. (Greenville Sun, Virginian Pilot,
  Pasadena Star-News, Manila Bulletin, and others)

~An image resembling the `Star of David' glows in the window of a Pentecostal church in
Knoxville, Tennessee.

~Statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus are reported to cry' tears of human blood or olive oil,
  counseling observers to return to the spiritual path. (numerous sources)

~Rocking Madonna of Ballinspittle, Ireland - statue moves back and forth as you view it from the
  bottom of a small hill. (Fate magazine)

~In Nairobi, Kenya, a man appears `out of the blue' before 6,000 people at a prayer meeting.
Many in attendance are healed. He then leaves in an equally mysterious manner, promising to
return with a "bucketful of blessings". The story and photo are carried by news media around the
world.  (Kenya Times, BBC, CNN and newspapers worldwide)
 

~Newly-discovered wells of healing water, similar to the one at Lourdes, attract hundreds of
  thousands to Tlacote (Mexico), Nordenau (Germany) and Nadana (India). (Washington Post,
  Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News and others)

~ `Angels' regularly intervene to offer people emergency assistance or comfort. (numerous
    sources)

~A mysterious hitchhiker begs lifts from (usually) Christian couples, announces that Christ
  will return soon, and promptly vanishes from the back seat of the moving car.

~April 5, 1997: The Virgin Mary stopped traffic near Yakima, Washington,  by casting her image on a
  road sign.

 ~Vision of the Virgin in San Francisco on Church's gabled roof. (CNN, San Francisco Examiner)

 ~Christ's face materialized on a rock in Australia. (Daily Mail, UK)

  ~In Dokkum, Friesland (The Netherlands) a child was healed of whooping cough when dipped in
    the well of St. Bonifatius. Sixty healings since 1990. (Parish Priest St.Bonifatius Chapel). Benjamin
    Creme's Master says this was done by the Master Jesus
               .
  ~On the 13th of each month in the Mojave Desert, Southern California, hundreds flock to see
     sightings of Virgin Mary. (Bakersfield CA, and Pasadena Star News)

  ~In Ukranian Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, Michigan City, Indiana, a painting of Jesus on the cross is
    secreting gold colored oil from wounds and smells of balsam and flowers. (Associated Press)

  ~A statue of Jesus was not even smoke-stained, as a church in Kobe, Japan burned down
    completely around it. (TBS TV News, Japan 1994)

 ~A faded painting of St. Nikolai in a church in Kirovsh, Russia, 50 miles north of the Arctic Circle
   started brightening up and now looks like it is freshly painted.  (Associated Press 1994)

 ~Jesus appeared in a Catholic Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri on August 14, 1994 and healed three
   children of inoperable cancer. Two photos were taken by a doctor who witnessed Jesus before He
   disappeared. (Weekly World News 1994)

 ~Virgin Mary appeared on Dario Mendoza's car fender in Elsa, Texas, and on a cottonwood tree in
    Brownsville, Texas. (The Wall Street Journal 1994)

~ A dramatic story was told by Ann Cannady of Southern America of how the "blackest man"
rang her front door bell and was admitted by her husband. He called her by her name and said God had sent him to tell her that her cancer was healed. He had deep, rich blue eyes and his teeth were like bright lights when he spoke. Before he left he extended the palm of his glowing right hand towards her and she felt a light move through her whole body, cleansing it throughout.  Immediately afterwards she telephoned her doctor to tell him she had been healed. The doctors later confirmed the cure.

 ~An extraordinary story was told by 85-year-old Elisabeth Hortin from Plymouth in England: one
day she had been shopping in the supermarket because her home help could not come. As she was unloading her purchases from the supermarket trolley into her own she became aware that a "little old lady" was standing by her, waiting, as she thought, to use the emptied trolley. The old lady said no, she had come to take her home. Mrs. Hortin felt quite happy to accept the proffered help and even allowed her helper to look after her shopping while she herself went to the news agent, a thing she would never in the ordinary way have allowed a stranger to do, because she had other people's pensions in the trolley as well as her own. As she returned, she heard clearly in her head the words: "He will give His angels charge over you," and saw her helper transformed into a large, shining angel for a moment or two. The little old lady guided her gently to the car park, where an elderly "Victorian looking" gentleman was waiting to load the shopping into a car and drive all three to Mrs. Hortin's bungalow, without asking where she lived. He carried the shopping right into her kitchen, but when she turned to thank her helpers they were nowhere to be seen:  she was sure that God had sent an angel to help her when she really needed it.

 ~ Another fascinating occurrence was described by Ellie Baker, who went to visit her critically ill
husband in Germany. There she was allocated, as interpreter, a lady dressed "from head to foot in black leather" and with heavily made-up eyes, who sat with her for three days and three nights outside her husband's room. In spite of Ellie's constant prayers and meditations, her husband's condition did not improve. However, following a full hour of prayer at his bedside during which she called on the angels for help,  she opened her eyes and saw a 10-foot-high golden angel standing at the foot of the bed. Then her husband opened his eyes and spoke to her. She was so overcome that she left the room in tears. Outside was her 'interpreter' sitting with a harp in her hand, which she proceeded to play then and there. Thereafter her husband made what the doctors called a "miraculous recovery".

  ~In another case a doctor told of a woman whose back was crushed by a 5-ton block of stone
which pinned her to the ground. It took 40 men to remove the stone; the woman was rushed to the local clinic and was operated on but nevertheless ended as a paraplegic. Prayer and "God's healing power" cured her; she now walks and functions absolutely normally. The crushed vertebrae are sound and her back is straight. She has recovered full control of all bodily functions.

 ~Not only Christians who are having experiences of Jesus or God; many Muslims also see him.
People have visions and dreams and see Jesus. "Whole villages are visited by the "man in white
robes"; people see him and recognize him. They call him Aisa, the Muslim Arabic name for Jesus." The man in white is now known to many. ( Source: Evangelical Broadcasting Company, Holland )

 ~God can still heal if you pray to him to do so,"; said Pope John Paul II recently in his Sunday
angelus message, which turned into a call to solidarity with the sick, the old and children. According to
the Pope, "all of them are in danger of being regarded as a burden".

In Italy, this invitation from the Pope to pray for a miracle brings back into the public arena the
claimed miracle of the Madonna in Civitavecchia, a village near Rome, where a small icon brought
from Medjugorje weeps tears of blood.

A theological commission appointed by the Vatican has now accepted this as a miracle, according
to an unconfirmed report. The statue was first seen weeping tears of blood, which was found to be
human, in early 1995. The second anniversary of this miracle was attended by about 10,000 pilgrims. The local bishop surprised those present by blessing the occasion. He said that at least two people had been miraculously cured of cancer, one in Turin and the other in Toronto. In addition, political
extremists, previously dedicated to violence, had been converted to peace and Christianity. Civitavecchia is now attracting thousands of pilgrims.  ( Source : The Tablet, UK; El Pais, Spain; reported in Share International, April 1997 )

 ~In Uganda more than 400 people have been cured of AIDS and the HIV virus through prayer
since January 1994, according Omega a programme made by the Evangelical Broadcasting Company, in Holland. Uganda is one of the countries hardest hit by AIDS with some 40 per cent of the
population being infected. A whole generation will be wiped out; grandparents are taking over the role of parents to their grandchildren, their own children having fallen victim to AIDS.

In a church in Kampala (Uganda) people suffering from the disease were cured after prayer
meetings for them. When they were tested again they were found to be zero negative -- free of the virus.

 ~A now healthy looking young woman told of how she had been so ill with AIDS that the local
AIDS help organization turned her down and declined to give her a place because she was already 'too far gone'. The disease had reached such a stage that she had holes in her head into which she could poke her fingers;  most of her abdomen and breasts had been destroyed, and in fact she deteriorated to a phase where her entire body seemed to be disintegrating. Her skin had also been attacked but suddenly she noticed that her skin was beginning to renew itself spontaneously. She grew, as it were, a new skin four times and new flesh began to cover her previously almost bare bones. Throughout her illness she had prayed constantly and had continued to believe in God. Others prayed for her too and believed that God would cure her. She had to learn to walk again, just as if she had been a baby.

 ~A young girl, Anna Catherina, began suffering from headaches, stomach pains and a severe skin
rash. A doctor diagnosed AIDS and she was sent to the local AIDS clinic. But "because God was not
present in the clinic" she did not go there but went instead, although she was not religious, to the church and began praying hard. She was tested twice and both times she was found to be zero positive -- she had AIDS.  Although four subsequent tests proved that she was infected she continued to believe and pray. It came as no surprise to her then that the seventh and eighth test showed that she was zero negative -- totally cured of AIDS.

 An independent Dutch doctor, Elly Vooys, who went to Kampala with the camera crew said that
there is no medical explanation for such healing. The relevant documentation kept by the hospital
concerned showed that six tests indicated that the girl was suffering from AIDS, she was quite clearly
zero positive and that the subsequent two tests showed her to be zero negative. She was tested using the "Elisa-method" a well known test which has an accuracy rating of 99.9 per cent. Case documents
on Anna Catherina attest to the fact that she fully recovered from all AIDS related symptoms. For instance, she had previously suffered greatly from painful swelling all over her skin; both the swellings and the pain have completely vanished. Only here and there had faint scars remained.

The church in Kampala has documentary evidence from the hospital of more than 110 cases of
healing. There are about 300 more people who were also cured from AIDS or the HIV virus who do not have any documents or case histories to substantiate their claims. Apart from AIDS cases people were also cured of other diseases. According to Anna Catherina these patients include both believers and non-believers.  (Evangelical Broadcasting Company, Holland, 1995 )

 ~Until seven years ago, Jean Neill of Rugby, England, spent her days in a wheelchair, often
suffering almost intolerable pain. Her suffering began when she broke her back in a fall, after which she spent nearly four years, more or less permanently, in hospital, and underwent 10 unsuccessful
operations. To add to her misery she was involved in a road accident as a result of which she lost most of her sight and suffered three heart attacks.

Seven years ago, while on a waiting list for yet another operation, she attended a religious youth
gathering in Birmingham. Six weeks before the meeting she had two dreams. In the first she saw herself die on the operating table. In the second she saw herself in a large hall being prayed for by a tall man with a foreign accent. She also saw herself get up out of her wheelchair and run.

Six weeks later at the meeting in Birmingham, the evangelist came up to Jean shortly before the
meeting was about to end. Jean later learnt that the Holy Ghost had told him that she was to be the
greatest miracle of the evening and that he would see her walking. The evangelist prayed that the healing power of God would flow through her. Her eyes opened and she could see again. Her lungs filled with air. Her crippled hip became normal. Her pain disappeared along with her paralysis. She could stand erect and she could walk. Beside herself with joy she ran through the crowd gathered in the hall and embraced total strangers.

Her doctors were speechless with amazement and have no explanation of how someone who had
been in a wheelchair for 25 years could suddenly be healed. (Source: Evangelical Broadcasting Company, Holland, 1996 )
 

 ~Towards the end of the main Sunday Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost 1993, five members of
the congregation seated in different parts of the church began to 'speak in tongues'. This had never
happened before in the church and none of the individuals concerned were familiar with this experience. As far as is known all were regular members of the congregation. One of the men who 'spoke in tongues' in particular was very disturbed and upset by the totally involuntary nature of the experience. At the end of the service, each separately and without any contact with the other speakers was asked to write down the meaning of the words that had been 'placed in their mouths'. In all respects, they were identical apart from slight errors in spelling.

The text read as follows:

I AM equipping you,

I AM healing you,

I AM leading you, but

UNLESS you draw near to Me I cannot feed you.

UNLESS you come to Me, I cannot heal you.

UNLESS you empty yourself, I cannot fill you.

My people, there is still hardness in your hearts; hardness from anger, hardness caused by putting
yourself in My rightful place.

REPENT of this hardness.

TURN to Me again and live.

COME that I may renew you in body, mind and spirit.

COME to Me that I may heal you.

COME to Me that I may equip you that I may send you out by the Power of My Spirit to
RELEASE those bound by fear, to PROCLAIM forgiveness and to SHOW love to all people.

My children, I AM coming to you.
 
 

 ~On 12 April 1997 a fire raged through Turin Cathedral destroying the 300-year-old Guarini
Chapel which was built especially for the Sindone, the Shroud in which, tradition has it, the body of Jesus was buried.  The Turin Shroud itself was saved from the blaze by a fireman who, as if in trance, cut through four layers of bullet-proof glass to rescue the silver box containing the Shroud.

Fireman Mario Trematore, whose hands were bleeding where the skin had been torn away by the
strength of his grip, said afterwards: "God gave me the strength to break the glass." The Archbishop of
Turin examining the rescued Shroud said: "It is intact. It is a miracle." Miraculously surviving this third
fire in its mysterious existence without damage has only added to the prestige of the Shroud - especially since scientists from various fields of expertise have been finding increasing evidence to date the Shroud to around AD 30.

In 1988 four minuscule pieces of cloth were cut from the border of the Sindone for laboratory
tests to determine its age once and for all. The carbon dating method appeared to prove that the linen was made between AD 1260 and 1390. Soon after the publication of these findings, other scientists
denounced the results of the tests. Because of two earlier fires the chemical structure of the cloth had been substantially altered. In the 6th or 7th century a monk dropped a piece of burning incense on the Shroud and in December 1532 a fire in the chapel of the Dukes of Savoy in Chambery, France, damaged the border of the Shroud. It was this part of the cloth that was used for the dating. But experts of the Sedov laboratory in Moscow simulated the fire of 1532 and studied the effects on cloth that was known to have been made in the 1st or 2nd century AD. They concluded that carbon dating was useless for establishing the age of the Shroud.

The same conclusion was arrived at by two microbiologists from the University of Texas,
although for different reasons. Leoncio Garza Valdes and Steve Mattingly discovered a very thin layer of bacteria and fungi around the pieces of cloth taken from the Shroud. Inevitably, this 'bio layer' had influenced the results of the carbon dating method. Garza Valdes and Mattingly also discovered four types of bacteria in the fabric which are known to grow in a salty environment. The experts pointed out that in Palestine salt was used to bleach fabric and for the production of perfume and balm for the deceased. Towards the end of 1996 they finished their research, concluding: "We see no reason whatsoever why the Sindone could not be dated to the 1st century AD."

Better arguments came from traces of pollen of various types of flowers which can still be found
growing around Jerusalem, and from other types which only grow in what is now Turkey. This would
substantiate the tradition which holds that the Shroud was taken from Jerusalem to Turkey, where it surfaced around AD 1000 in Constantinople. But in February 1997, Shroud expert Professor Pier Luigi Baima Bollone found even more compelling evidence in the impression of an old coin, the lepton, on the eyes of the crucified man. Both coins were minted in Palestine in the year AD 29 under the authority of Pontius Pilate. This is consistent with the tradition then of placing a coin on the eyes of the deceased.  Although scientists are still at a loss as to the method by which a photographic image could have been transferred on to a piece of cloth in either the 1st or 14th century AD, all the recent findings
proved to be sufficient evidence for the Archbishop of Turin, the official guardian of the Shroud by
appointment of the Pope, to state explicitly for the first time: "I am convinced that the Sindone is the cloth in which the body of Jesus was wrapped after He died on the cross."  (Source: de Volkskrant, The Netherlands)

 ~Waiting for their chance for a miracle, a line of people often stretches for over a mile on a dusty road in the little town of Tlacote, Mexico. More than 10,000 a day sometimes come to visit Jesus Chahin's well and to take away a can or two of the now famous miracle water which is said to have cured everything from AIDS and cancer to obesity and high cholesterol. Although the state health director has tested the water and says that it is normal for this region and safe to drink, Jesus Chahin says that it weighs less than normal water. Chahin, a wealthy man, has been giving the water away since last May when he accidentally discovered its healing properties by observing its swift healing effect on a farm dog who lapped up some of it. He thinks its healing properties may be connected to the fact that it weighs less than normal water.

Those who hope for healing continue to arrive and wait, unconcerned about any scientific
explanations. Dominican nun Maria Guadalupe Aguilar drove 175 miles with Rev. Juan Crespo who suffers from prostate cancer, to see if the water can heal him. "For me", she says, "all of these things are God's miracles." (Source: Washington Post)

The word has spread, and since May 1991 millions of people have been to Tlacote and millions
more have drunk the water, seeking help for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, AIDS, etc. The ranch
owner, Mr. Chahin, keeps the registration files of every visitor, some of whom have traveled from as far as Europe and Russia. The daily line-up varies in size from 5,000 to 10,000 people.

It all started with a sick dog who recovered soon after drinking from a muddy puddle. A few
people then cautiously tried the water, and they too were healed. And then more came and were healed in the farm village of Tlacote near Mexico City. The local priest applied to the Mexican government to have the water pumped and filtered, but it refused to provide any funding...until he sent water to a nearby army hospital, where six hundred soldiers were cured.

 ~After the miraculous healing well was discovered in Mexico, two more sources of healing water
have been found. One is in Germany, 100 km east of Dusseldorf, the other is in the village of Nadana, 150 km north of Delhi, in India.

The German source is a spring of very pure water discovered in a cave in a disused slate mine at
Nordenau, district of Schmakenberg, which is a popular ski resort. The land belongs to Theo
Tommes, whose Hotel Tommes lies below the quarry. The water was discovered in January 1992 and now hundreds of people daily visit the cave, which is becoming Germany's Lourdes. Buses bring the old, sick and crippled, and the Hotel Tommes is packed.

Guido Brandenburg interviewed some of the pilgrims for the German newspaper Bild. An old
woman told him that after covering her blind eye with the water, she can now see; an ex-miner said his back was healed and he has thrown away his crutch. Another woman said: "I always had problems with high blood pressure and was afraid of collapsing. I went to the grotto with my pressure at 160 to 100. I came out with 130 to 100. Now the blood pressure is constant, a fact which my doctor cannot explain."

The Nordenau healings have even been scientifically investigated. A study conducted by Dr Hans
Jurgen Steinbruck, a GP from Frankfurt/Main, found that 30 per cent of the visitors to the Grotto
Brandholz in Nordenau were "totally healed" and 28 per cent reported "a clear improvement".

Dr Steinbruck conducted his study between September and December 1992 among 42 volunteers,
most of whom had chronic diseases (50 per cent suffered from rheumatism, 11 per cent from psychiatric or neurological illnesses). The study was carried out on a strictly medical basis by way of a clinical trial, and the percentage of subjects that benefited from the Nordenau water are considered to be very significant for these kinds of diseases.

 ~In Nadana village, about 150 km north of Delhi, India, water began gushing out of a deserted
tube well in September 1992. Some local villagers who bathed in the water reported that the "medicinal" and "magical" qualities of the well cured their skin diseases. Word quickly spread, and now a constant stream of people visits the village daily to gain the benefits of the water. A five-year-old polio victim was reportedly cured to a large extent after bathing there. Others report the curing of skin diseases. Most people who bathe in the water report physical improvements of some type. The owner of the well, Mr. Mamraj, one of the village leaders, was reportedly offered a large sum of money from people who wished to buy the well. He rejected the proposal, saying he wanted to use the well for the people, not for making money.