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We listened to the speaker for nearly two hours. Then she asked if anyone wanted to have prayer. My back had been hurting so I said to my friend, “I am going to get prayer.” Before I tell you what happened next, let me back up to a week or so before.  

So, back at the Bible retreat, I went forward for prayer. The lady started praying for my back.  I felt areas of my upper back moving around, but there was no pain. Then, I experienced Jesus and His love in a very strong way pouring down all over me like a shower!  I started crying.  It was wonderful to feel such strong love for me! It was as if know one else was there but Jesus and me.  

I was suddenly awakened by a loud knock on the door and a call to get up! There was an emergency, for sure. People were gathering to pray for Arlene. She was having a heart attack. She was sitting on the couch in obvious distress. About six of us gathered around to lay hands on her and pray. As Steve was about to pray, his mom said desperately, "Call the ambulance!" Steve replied, "Mom, there isn't time."

In those days, paramedics were but a dream in someone's mind and portable defibrillation  machines, like you've seen on ER, were not yet invented. That year the defibrillation machine had just started being placed in hospitals and the only way to get there was by car or ambulance. The nearest hospital, North Memorial in Minneapolis, was 20 minutes away (only 15 today by checking Google Maps). An ambulance was usually about the same time away, so we were looking at about 40 minutes to get her to the hospital.

As I stood by the end of the couch I saw Arlene's complexion turning gray blue and she started to fall to her side on the couch. She was in serious trouble. Steve knew his mom's time to live was short unless God intervened. He began to pray. Never before had I heard such a prayer. The fervency, the faith, was unlike I'd ever heard in my short Christian experience. First he said, "Lord, I pray you give my mom faith!" Then he began his supplication to God to intervene and spare her life. The power of God was surely present, as after that prayer with the laying on of hands, I saw the life come back into that woman as blood began to flow and her face regained its color. She eventually sat up again and told what had happened to her through tears. She described how it felt like a Charlie horse in her heart (a great muscle pain) and then something broke loose and her heart began to flutter erratically. She said, "Stephen, when you prayed, I felt Jesus' hands reach in and take hold of my heart."

Arlene was very weak and someone helped her to bed. On Monday morning, Steve and I went to classes at the U of M. When he got home, Steve received a call from Mercy hospital, where his Mom had gone to be checked out. She was so weak she could barely drive, so Betty (Betty is my wife as of 8-14-10. She didn't have her license at that time), had helped her turn the steering wheel of the old 66 Ford wagon without power steering on the way to the hospital (what a beast!). Arlene was asking Steve to pray about whether she should stay or not.

Steve and I drove to Mercy Hospital late that afternoon. When we arrived, his mom was in a wheelchair in the ER. They had done an EKG on her heart and found that she had massive damage. They wanted to check her in immediately, but she had hesitated, waiting to talk with her son. Steve had prayed about the matter and did not think she should stay. Arlene felt the same way, so she proceeded to "check out," signing many release forms stating that the hospital had informed her of her dire circumstance and that they were free of any responsibility if she should die. We drove her home and she went immediately to bed.

That Wednesday we had a prayer meeting at the house. After praying awhile for many things, Steve went to his mom's bedroom to pray for her. God gave him a word for her and he said this as he stood at the foot of her bed, "Receive ye my healing!" She began to laugh! Not a little chuckle, but a big belly laugh. She went on for quite a while and the rest of us who were praying in the living room came into the bedroom to see what was happening. God had indeed touched her in a mighty way. Within two weeks, Arlene Brown was back to work at her job in the water department of the city of Minneapolis. Glory to God and His holy Son, Jesus!