A video report from the praise and worship conference held in the Republic of Georgia, with Institute for World Missions director Darin Burgess and  missionary-to-Georgia Brian Wolf

The week of December 8th found my wife, Felicia, in New Jersey, attending a business meeting. There were some sixty people in attendance. On the second day of the conference, an elderly lady, who was head supervisor of the group session, got up to turn in some reports. She had walked some twenty-five feet, turned in the papers, and suddenly fell down backwards on the floor.

Although the conference room was crowded with about twenty-five people, no one moved to help the woman, being stunned by the suddenness of the crisis. Felicia heard the “thud” and arose to see what the commotion was all about. There on the floor, lying motionless and pale was her friend. Felicia recalled on the phone to me that night, how the lady looked like she was dead. Instinctively, Felicia knelt down beside the woman, laid her hand upon her heart, and began to pray. Then, after a few moments, the woman opened her eyes and asked where she was. Felicia called for the bystanders to call 911 and after some time, the paramedics arrived. Felicia didn’t hear what had happened to her friend until a week later.

Felicia had been back in Mobile a couple of days when the phone rang. It was her friend from the conference. She told Felicia that she had been in the hospital for a week and that the doctors had ran a battery of tests on her. They could not find the source of her problem. They were baffled until, after several more days of tests the woman had another episode. Now they had the evidence and were sure of what had happened. They told the woman that they were sure that she had suffered SDS—or Sudden Death Syndrome. She asked what did that mean and they replied that her heart had stopped and that she had died that day. But they were quite baffled as to how she had come back to life. They told her people who suffer from this ailment do not come back to tell about it. They said they had no “medical explanation” as for her being alive! They continued to run more tests and installed an internal defibrillator. Finally, still baffled by their inability to explain the woman being alive, they came back for further questions. “Did anyone do CPR on you?" They asked. “What do you remember?” No one did CPR, she responded. “All I know is that I heard Felicia praying for me. I came to and saw her face and felt her hand upon my heart. Felicia just prayed for me.” “Well”, said the doctors, “there is a lot we do not know about or understand.” The lady has called several times and told Felicia, “We will always be connected now.”

The physicians were astonished. The woman was astonished at what the doctors had told her and Felicia was astonished at what the Lord had done. It was a true Christmas miracle. The power of God and the power of prayer bringing one that was dead back to life. No reporters. No cameras; just quiet prayer to the One who said He was the Resurrection and the Life. Emmanuel, God with us. Merry Christmas.