“Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Amos 4:12
At first, I thought the experience of surviving cancer was what I would write about, not about the ongoing near-death experiences I had leading up to my surgery.
Ultimately, I realized that going to the other side was as much a part of the story as my illness. The only people that knew I had seen Heaven were my family members caring for me. I told my wives there were four people I wanted to know about what I had seen. Beyond that, I thought this was an experience for my family and me. But things like this don’t stay quiet in a small town for long. Soon, I felt I should tell my story to those who asked, and it exploded from there—first among family, then friends, then people I was not even personally acquainted with, and then to my experience being talked about in church. I am kind of an introvert by nature, the quiet one in the room at social events.This new role was uncharted territory for me. Now, as this book is ready to be published, I see that telling the story of this experience is the reason I was allowed to stay here on Earth.
My purpose in telling this story is to testify that God lives. To testify that Jesus the Savior lives and that the time is here to prepare for His Second Coming. Preparing for this event starts with repenting and building a personal relationship with these divine beings. Through prayer and faith, we can discover the work that we each came to this earth to do. As we discover more of this work, we will realize that the first purpose of our existence is to prepare to meet our God.