"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:3 - 5 NKJV)

I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, may He be glorified.

It was mid-September 1996 when a request was made of me by the Holy Spirit: "I want you to be more sensitive of Me, and yield to My directions." Like the average promise makers I agreed. Shortly after the Holy Spirit asked, "Would you commit yourself to a closer walk with your God by praying more?"

I immediately replied, "Yes." And on January 4, 1997 my wife and I attended the first Saturday morning prayer-meeting at my local church. The meeting was one of ministering to the group and hearing others as they ministered. As the meeting neared the end, I sensed an unusual awareness of the Holy Spirit. He said to me, "Eugene, sing the chorus "I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE."" I replied, "You know that I am not a singer and I am not going to embarrass myself." On the third request, He reminded me of the agreement I made to yield to Him. And so alone, I sang the chorus three times.

The prayer-meeting ended. As we greeted each other, one of the brothers said to me, "Eugene, I wanted to join you as you sang that chorus but the Spirit said to me, "That’s not for you."" I nodded my head and thanked him. Not understanding that I would be needing the God that heals a few hours later.

I am a police officer and reported for work that morning. At about 12:30 p.m. that afternoon I went to investigate a report of an arm robbery in progress. I entered the establishment and began surveying the interior. I looked around the front of the store noticing that there was a customer waiting to be served. I walked to the rear of the store to check and discovered that the store proprietor was being held at bay by a gunman, brandishing a .357 Python handgun. Upon seeing this, my immediate reaction was to question the Lord and I said, "Lord what am I to do?"

While thinking this the bandit got a glimpse of me and open fire on me. I return fire fatally wounding him. Realizing that I had taken a bullet I said. "Lord, where do I go?" Normally, when an officer is injured in the line of duty he/she would be directed to go the local government hospital. However, in this case I obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and went to the nearest private hospital.

As I was being transported to the hospital words from my grandmother came to mind, "Eugene when in trouble shout JESUS". I tried to shout but only a faint call for Jesus was uttered. However, when I got to the top of Collins Hill I was able to shout "JESUS". This was when I felt as if I was being cradled. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Okay Eugene, you just take short shallow breaths to give the doctors something to work with. Shortly after, I arrived at the hospital, jumped out of the patrol car and ran to the staircase of the emergency entrance. I felt faint. I whispered, "Lord, I can’t make it any further." At this time the story about the footprints in the sand came to mind. I collapsed but was supported by two officers who drove with me in the patrol car. Shortly after I regained consciousness and discovered that I was on an emergency stretcher. As I was being carried away I felt my uniform being cut away, leaving me only in my underwear (I now smile when I remember the words of my grandmother, "Don’t be caught ill with dirty or tacky underwear." That day I was wearing a brand new brief.) Immediately I heard the voice of a doctor, "What do we have here? What with these (indicating the briefs)?" Clip, Clip, briefs off.

Lord God why have thou forsaken me? In a few moments I was taken to the operating theater. Here I was administered anesthetics, and told to count from 10 down to one. However, I never lost consciousness. The Lord allowed me to watch the entire operation. My stomach was opened and my rib cage pried open with a large clamp. The first thing the doctor did was push his hand into my left side and turn my left kidney over to reveal a large hole. He said. "we can’t do any thing with this." He cut out the kidney and gave it to a nurse who behaved in a skirmished manner. The doctor instructed that she take a photo of the kidney. He then began to examine other organs. At this time my lungs were being filled with fluid to determine if there were leaks. I would say the examination went on for about thirty minutes. During this time the Lord took me to a place that I would describe as HELL and a place that I would describe as HEAVEN. While in the place that I described as HELL there was no fire and brimstones, but it was a place where it felt like time was progressing and not shortening. I heard the ticking sound as that of a grand clock. It was a complete torment. I knew that I had friends, family and loved ones, but I could not get to any of them. I was taken from that area and taken to the area that I described as HEAVEN. At first I noticed three crosses. I asked, "Lord , what are you doing to me?" I was quickly reminded about the HELL area and began just worshipping and praising the Lord. I worshipped and praised, worship and praised. I found myself again watching the operation. I realized that the doctor was at a lost and still examining my internal organs from the small intestine to the large. Then he repeated the process, asking "Where are you? Where are you? (speaking of the bullet)." One of the bullets had exited the lower left back. The other was not yet located.

I was again taken to the place I described as HEAVEN, there I continued to praise and worship. For a moment I looked up at the center Cross which at first depicted Christ crucified. However, I saw the (7)numbers "851" on the cross. I then continued to worship the Lord. As I continued I literally felt the (8)prayers of saints. I actually felt prayers coming up on my behalf. Then I felt the presence of the Lord above me and stood there as if He was listening to the prayers. I sensed He begun to ponder. At this time I began to search through my reservoir of the (9)Word. This was when I heard the Lord say, "Because you believe in me thou you were dead, yet shall you live."

Immediately, the doctor shouted, "I gotcha.", indicating that he had found the other bullet which had pierced my diaphragm, punctured the sac of fluid containing my heart. After locating the bullet, I was stitched. I don’t recall how long it took me to speak but I was unable to do so for a short time. I was able to write down what I wanted to communicate. Giving thanks to God Almighty.

Three days had passed since the operation and as I became fully aware of my surrounding I realized that I had seen my operation and was concerned about scars and the stitching. I wanted to look at the results but was afraid. Think about it, a "T" shaped stitching on my abdomen to lower chest, two hundred plus internal stitches and twelve tubes in my chest. I finally convinced myself that I needed to see the results. So I opened my dressing and could only respond, "Lord, what you allowed these people to do to me?" He responded, "Eugene a lot of people are going to come to this hospital to pray for you. Have no one pray for your healing for I (10)have healed you."

Everyone who came to my hospital room only prayed giving thanks for my life. Hence, I was told to take it one day at a time. On the seventh day as I lie in bed I noticed that my bed was vibrating I summoned the nurse and asked if my bed was above the generator room, then I showed her that the bed was vibrating. She said no, then recorded my vital signs. The following morning blood was taken from me, it was pink in color. My heart rate skyrocketed. This sparked a concern from the doctor who said that he wanted to take a blood test and a scan. He left shortly after. When he left the room I asked, "Lord (11)you promised me complete healing, why is my body behaving the way it is?" He responded, "Eugene, don’t worry about this, because of the trauma your body has gone through, your heart is working overtime to repair the damage." The brought another level of peace to me. I was taken to the scan room for tests and they ran another blood test. Later that afternoon the doctor came on visit and while rubbing his chin he reported, as if he was confused, "Eugene I checked the results of the blood test and the scan (which revealed an infection), and all I can say is that because of the trauma your body as been through your heart has been working overtime to repair the damage." Exact words spoken to me by the Lord. I simply smiled and said to myself, "you just figure that out."

(12)The report from my primary doctor stated that the first operation was done just to stabilize me About two other operations would be needed. I did not have another operation. He also predicted that it would take some twelve months to regain about 85% mobility and I would be in the hospital about two months. I spent only two week in the hospital. Three weeks after being discharged I started jogging and a month later I returned to the gym lifting the amount of weights that I did prior to my incident. I returned to active duty six months later. To date I have no once had the feeling of being sick or not healed.