I was 26 years old, married with two young girls, and I worked in construction.  That morning I kissed my wife and 2 kids and turned to go to work.  At the door, I said to my wife, "Honey, there is something wrong with me."  Then I collapsed.

I discovered later that I had been miraculously stopped from being airlifted to Albany Medical Center.  If I had flown, I would have died in transit.  Glens Falls Hospital did an emergency cerebral clipping of an aneurysm and discovered two additional aneurysms.  I was in a coma for 2.5 weeks.

While I was in that coma, I had something very blessed happen to me.  I looked down a tunnel at a beautiful ray of white Light.  At that point, someone kept telling me, "Walk towards the Light."  I knew that I needed to go towards the Light, and I wasn't scared.

I came to a very peaceful, still water, and then I heard the water splash and a man walked up to me from my right side.  I knew that it was Jesus, and He said, "I love you, dear child.  I'm taking you back."  At that point He laid me in His arms and carried me back through the tunnel to a green field full of flowers.  After He set me down on my feet, He said, "I love you, dear child," gave me a hug, then we went our separate ways.

Right then I came out of the coma.  Even though I was temporarily blind without the use of my limbs, I felt that God had held me and carried me, reassuring me of His love for me then and in the time to come.

Therapy was very hard.  Before I recovered, I was told about another aneurysm deep within my brain.  I was told that if they operated immediately, I could die suddenly or become a vegetable.  When I became stronger, they operated.  During my recovery from that surgery, my wife told me that I was no longer welcome at home.  I became homeless.

Jesus helped me through those hard times.  I soon found a house, and began helping others at The Open Door.