Donovan Neal, the spiritual science fiction author, shares three amazing stories of his personal divine encounters.
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And so the church is located in Ann Arbor YMCA.
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It's see, you got this this small room probably good.
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Whole point twenty people. You got this heavyset black
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woman in. There's preaching to these
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college students and there's an old piano there.
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I mean it's just like, you know, it's just a room, you know, this
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is not a church. This is that kind of setting
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that I'm used to. So the ladies preaching and I'm
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listening, I'm listening, like whatever, you know, and
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eventually she has an alter call, you know, now I'm not
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going up. I'm there, primarily to placate
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my girlfriend and she looks at me and she says, young man.
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Would you I have I have a word for you.
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Would you come here? Sound like, oh, what are we
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doing now? So I go up, I go up to the
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front. She puts her hands on me like,
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oh my shoulders and she says to me.
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She says, son, you can run away from the Lord for a long, not
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running away. So you never run away.
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She said that you did searching and you can struggle and she
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began To tell me specifically certain things that have been
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going on in my life. So they give an example.
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When I found out about the worldwide Church of God is
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because I had gone to the library to Livonia Public
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Library and I sat down in front of microfiche machines and I
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researched the worldwide Church of God, I would search the
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founder and that's when I became disillusioned and came to
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convince that. Okay, this is not cool, you
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know, found some things out. She began to tell me that she
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was. You were in the library and you
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started researching this, this that me.
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And I'm like, how can you not? I don't know this woman.
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What is this? You know, she and then you had a
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friend and your friend tried to talk to you about God and you in
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his pastor and you wouldn't listen to unlike what?
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And then she said and your daddy, your Dad tried to talk to
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you and I'm like, oh, heck to the?
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No. So she's just identify and she's
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going down from the time that I was in high school.
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The specific things that I had been dealing with as far as the,
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the worldwide Church of God up until the present she said, so
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right now, he said you're in this in-between place.
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So you believe in God but just like you're not you're not sure
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about something and I'm here, they don't just let you go.
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I'm here on behalf of the Lord to tell you.
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You know, God is real. This is the you know, that about
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it out. And so I was so, Shocked and
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moved by what she was telling me because again the things that
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she was telling me we're specific things that no one
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knew. That's that's what it was.
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She was, she was like, it wasn't generalities.
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It was like, you know, you're at the library, you're doing this
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and you're doing and those are things.
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Like she didn't know that she didn't know me, you know, my
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girlfriend talk to her. It was like there's no way she
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can know this stuff and so I'm like, I didn't go back to that
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church a little while. Yeah, the process of that.
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The process that I was like, whoa, what is going on here?
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And so my mom had sent me to this private school and I
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remember again. So I'm in middle school now.
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So broccoli, the time that I had gotten saved and so I'm in this
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school and it hadn't had a chapel and there was nobody in
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the chapel I had somehow I have wandered into the chapel.
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There was nobody there. and I remember going into not just the
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chapel but for some reason I was drawn to the Altar and on the
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altar that was a sees, huge Bibles and all kind of ornaments
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that you would expect to see like in a church chapel, you
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know, the golden crosses or brass crosses Communion plates
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and things like that, you'd expect to see.
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And so I go into this back room and I'm just a curious kid and I
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swear to swear to Bob as my wife and say, I just felt this huge
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just wave of the slight this warmth, from his out of know.
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It was like this tingling warmth that almost like knock me out.
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You know? It was just amazing.
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I'm like, whoa, I feel like I was going to collapse on those
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and I would say pride and I attribute that to like having,
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you know, like a supernatural experience in the sense that I
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wasn't sick. I hadn't eaten, anything that
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wasn't an issue. It was just, you know, I think I
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had went to a place that was just really sacrifice Sanctified
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to God and, you know, I just stepped in like, wow, you know.
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Yeah. And I said it was nobody in
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there. Nothing was going on.
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I just immediately felt like I needed to back up, you know.
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Like I was in an area. Not only that I wasn't supposed
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to be on me, you know. I'm sneaking around at a chapel
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but it was more than that. Like I would, I had crossed a
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barrier that I wasn't supposed to be in and I just felt this
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immediate. It wasn't nauseous or anything
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like that, but it's almost made me like almost light-headed but
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not in a bad way. Just this is warm tingly like
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wool. You almost afford.
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Well, I think that's probably a better way to describe and
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that's probably like the first experience that I've kind of
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tribute to Supernatural the third experience that I had was
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when I was out of vandalizing. So now I'm in college on fire
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for the Lord but I got another experience that crazy. so, I'm
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on fire for the Lord and I am out witnessing on the Strip
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behind the Indianapolis 500 so it's me and a group.
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We have gone as a group as a team to evangelize on the strip
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and So, I am. Out on the Strip talking to
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people. And this gentleman comes up to
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me and he's clearly a need read. He's drunk on some level and
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some talk. I'm trying to talk about Christ
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to this person and I could tell us that like it's the devil.
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It's like I'm talking to somebody who can tell the person
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is like coming. And also here comes this.
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This distraction is interference that comes in and wants to now
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get involved in the mix. I'm like look at look at the The
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devil just work. So, I'm talking to the guy and
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now I'm having my mom was forced to deal with the drunk guy.
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And who are again, I could smell alcohol and this wanted breath,
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and I'm like, he's threatening me and everything like that and
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he ends up telling me. I'll kill you.
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I'll kill you. And now, I don't, I haven't met
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the guy. I'm not talking, I'm talking to
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this other guy, but I believe he was almost a demon-possessed.
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I won't go that far that far, but he's definitely be called
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demonized even influenced. It was more than just alcohol
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and so he comes up to me. He says, I don't like you.
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I don't like you, I don't like you at all.
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And and I'm looking at this guy and like, okay, you know, racial
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there's a lot of black people out here, know, something like
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this, more than that something's going on, you know, it's just,
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I'm talking about God, I don't like you.
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I don't like you, it takes out this knife.
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He said, I will cut you ujin. I don't kill you.
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You and I look at him, I don't know what came over me.
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And I just felt the spirit of God says but brother, I love
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you. And all of a sudden his whole
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demeanor just changed. It was just like watching just
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instantaneously he started crying.
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He's like you know what? I like you and he put his knife
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back in his pocket, and as I'm going down the strip he starts.
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He said to listen to this man. Listen to this, man.
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This man knows what he's talking about and I didn't know whether
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to be, you know, it It really it really kind of freaked me out on
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one says, because I'm like, okay God, thank you for having a gay
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guy, not shake me. But at the same time I'm like,
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okay I saw that as like a really miraculous act because this man
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was so contrary to like what I was preaching and everything
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like that and then he just like he just changed just like that.
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And and then and I was like, wondering, okay?
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It's like the like the book of Acts where you know, the guy was
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falling around Paul and said, hey these are the, these are the
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man and boy had to rebuke them. They covered it, right?
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But that was, that was, that was to be a supernatural head, but I
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think probably the last story that really impacted me the most
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again, was when I was on in college Molly versus Michigan
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campus. And I was working for Christian
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bookstore for Logos. Which does not exist anymore but
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they were on South University in Ann Arbor if you that area so
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I'm sitting in I'm at the cash register.
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And I'm just, I've been reading scripture so much.
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I just felt like full of Faith. This is a true story.
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I couldn't make this up if I wanted to and I'm like the
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reading scriptures about healing and I said God if you bring me
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some time to heal I will heal them right now and I swear to
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Bob less than 5 minutes later. Somebody came into the bookstore
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and they were in a wheelchair, okay.
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And they came up to my register, the person came up to my
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register and they will also Deaf.
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So they put a card on my vein and on the card.
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One of the things I'm Curtis is, can you help me?
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And I choked, I told each other. I didn't try to lay hands on the
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person if they like So bad should try to lay hands on the
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person but I saw them in that moment I was like, okay God
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heard me when I said you got to be careful to get what you ask
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for you. Okay.
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God is He doesn't play really, he really listens to you.
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So, the person leaves and I'm feeling all pad and I'm like, oh
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man, God, I'm so sorry. You know, I mess this up, I had
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an offer to all I had to do was just pray for the person, you
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know, that's all I had to do, you know?
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And then so I said, Lord if you give me another chance, And do
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you know again less than five minutes later.
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Another man came into the store, this man had a cane.
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Okay. One of those blind canes.
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Okay. And he was deaf and he put a
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card on my desk and he said do you have something for me?
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I choked again that it's anybody after that.
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Did you stop asking after that? So I did but So now we have
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danced years later. So I was working at a group home
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years ago and one of the young persons that I work with.
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I got from what I remember, I believe that they have run out
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in front of a run out in front of the group home onto the
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street and they got hit, I believe about truck.
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So they go to the hospital, the persons in a coma.
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And it just shows you know, God God never forgets.
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Dan, if you're willing, God will use you.
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And so I go to the hospital and families.
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All of their young person is not awake and I just said, hey can I
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can I pray for me? They say yes.
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So I pray for them that God will wake the person about their
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courses. So I messed up the first two
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tasks, Fake Bob. Fake Bob.