Latest / The Christian Podcast Community / Raised from the dead: A miracle of God
Transcript
- 0:03Welcome to the Abundant Life Podcast, bringing.
- 0:06You encouragement and challenging believers to spiritual.
- 0:09Change and growth by applying biblical principles to everyday life.
- 0:13And now your hosts, Sasso Mendez and Ben Arellano.
- 0:19Welcome, everybody, to the Abundant Life Podcast.
- 0:21This is episode number 79.
- 0:22I'm here with my good friend in Faithless Sermon in the Faith, Sasso Mendez.
- 0:26Hey, Ben.
- 0:26What's going on?
- 0:27What's up, brother?
- 0:27You had a birthday here a little bit in 79.
- 0:29Oh, man.
- 0:30Well, 1979.
- 0:31I'm not 79.
- 0:32It was 19.
- 0:33You looked pretty good.
- 0:3379.
- 0:34Yeah.
- 0:35Oh, man.
- 0:35Oil valet you've been wearing every night before bed.
- 0:38What's the one that my wife wears?
- 0:39Cerave.
- 0:40Cerave.
- 0:40Cerave.
- 0:41I don't know.
- 0:42I don't know.
- 0:43One of those.
- 0:44I haven't heard of that one.
- 0:45Yeah.
- 0:46Anyway, so today we have two extra special guests with us.
- 0:50I'm so excited about this episode.
- 0:52We've.
- 0:52We've.
- 0:53We've been trying to get them on the podcast for.
- 0:55For quite some time, and the Lord just has not worked it out, but he.
- 0:58In God's providence, he worked it out today.
- 1:01It's just the perfect day.
- 1:02And we're going to talk more about that here in just a little bit.
- 1:04But I quickly just want to introduce Zach and Brooke.
- 1:06Welcome to the show, guys.
- 1:08Thank you.
- 1:08Welcome.
- 1:09So this is taco talk.
- 1:11So we're going to.
- 1:12We're going to jump into some food here.
- 1:13Sasso, I know you.
- 1:15You had some good grub last night, bro.
- 1:16So give us the.
- 1:18The deets.
- 1:19Well, if you don't know, this is Arizona restaurant week.
- 1:22And so my wife and I went to Dodo Bird, and the service wasn't spectacular, but the food was really good.
- 1:30The hamburger was amazing.
- 1:31I haven't had a hamburger in a couple weeks, so French fries as well.
- 1:35And then they had a butter cake.
- 1:36That was pretty phenomenal.
- 1:38And then I sprung for the shrimp.
- 1:40So Rebecca got the steak, I got the hamburger, and then we kind of split it.
- 1:43Okay.
- 1:44From there.
- 1:45And so we shared.
- 1:46But we didn't share our butter cake.
- 1:47We each had our own.
- 1:48Was that a.
- 1:49Was that a smash burger?
- 1:51I'm not sure what it was.
- 1:52It got smashed in my mouth, but I don't.
- 1:55I don't know.
- 1:55I don't know what it was.
- 1:57Smash burger, but it was really good.
- 1:59Sweet.
- 1:59It t.
- 1:59I hate to say this, but it tasted like a delicious quarter pounder from McDonald's.
- 2:04And I mean, I'm not big on McDonald's, but it was pretty phenomenal.
- 2:07Yeah, well, after not having It.
- 2:08For quite some time.
- 2:09Yeah, that.
- 2:10That's partially that.
- 2:11That, too.
- 2:11Yeah.
- 2:12Been trying to.
- 2:12And they had this cauliflower.
- 2:15Buffalo wild, you know, like buffalo wing.
- 2:17Cauliflower.
- 2:19Yeah.
- 2:20I didn't want it.
- 2:20And so Rebecca got it, and I got dumplings.
- 2:24I thought it was something else.
- 2:25I'm not big on dumplings.
- 2:26And I was disappointed with them, but she got the cauliflower.
- 2:30Buffalo, like the.
- 2:31It's like a wing.
- 2:32And it was pretty phenomenal.
- 2:35Oh, my goodness.
- 2:35It did not taste like a cauliflower.
- 2:37It tasted like a wing.
- 2:38And it had buffalo sauce, and.
- 2:40Yeah, it had some blue cheese on there.
- 2:43And I mean.
- 2:44Wow.
- 2:44Yeah, there was a.
- 2:45I mean, you sit really tight with people, so, I mean, you literally.
- 2:48You could touch the couples next to you.
- 2:50And we told the guy because he's trying to decipher what he wants, and we get the buff.
- 2:55Get the.
- 2:55He's like.
- 2:56He's like me, right?
- 2:57Cauliflower.
- 2:58All right.
- 2:59Get it.
- 2:59And he goes, well, if it's not good, I'm gonna blame you.
- 3:02And I said, well, if it's not good, we're done.
- 3:03And I don't care who you tell, because I won't.
- 3:05We won't be here.
- 3:06Well, this is the same guy that said.
- 3:07So there's a.
- 3:08There's a.
- 3:08There's a vegan place down the street here called the Loving Hut.
- 3:10And Sasso says there's nothing loving about that.
- 3:13Yeah, there's nothing loving about vegan food.
- 3:16Yeah.
- 3:16Oh, man.
- 3:17And so he had it, and he's like, yeah, this is.
- 3:19We still stayed in.
- 3:21This is pretty good.
- 3:22Okay.
- 3:22Okay.
- 3:23So if we go there, I don't know that I would ever substitute for wings, because there's no substitution, you know?
- 3:28Sure.
- 3:28Like, almost meat.
- 3:29Like, it's not meat, but it was pretty phenomenal.
- 3:34Okay.
- 3:34I wasn't.
- 3:35Had the crunch.
- 3:36Yeah.
- 3:36I mean, it's fried.
- 3:37Right.
- 3:37So you can fry anything, and it's pretty.
- 3:40I mean, you can fry my finger and not until I eat it, but, yeah, it was pretty phenomenal.
- 3:44Yeah.
- 3:44Chickens go extinct, man.
- 3:46That's next best.
- 3:46Yeah, Right, right, right.
- 3:48I'm flowering it up for sure with fried and buffalo sauce.
- 3:51Wow.
- 3:52Okay.
- 3:52Okay.
- 3:53So I've been wanting to go there.
- 3:54I mean, I think.
- 3:54I think I sent you reels about it.
- 3:55Oh, yeah.
- 3:56And then on Monday and Tuesday, it's all.
- 3:57You can eat steak for 20 bucks.
- 3:59Steak and fries.
- 4:01The steak wasn't, like, phenomenal.
- 4:03It was good.
- 4:03It just wasn't like.
- 4:04Yeah, knock your socks off.
- 4:06Steak 44 but for 20 bucks, I mean, yeah, I could probably have two steaks easy and then Wednesday, 50 cent wings.
- 4:13You know there's a.
- 4:14I saw that.
- 4:1550 cent I haven't heard.
- 4:16I've said 50 cent wings in a.
- 4:18Hot minute since the pre biden Economics, you know.
- 4:21Yeah, yeah.
- 4:22Not to be political here, but yeah.
- 4:24You know, inflation, prior inflation.
- 4:27So, so what do you guys, what do you guys like to.
- 4:29To eat?
- 4:30Like, is there a.
- 4:30You know,.
- 4:33I only have pretty much one thing that I love to eat in salads.
- 4:36I will have all different kinds of salads.
- 4:38Okay.
- 4:38It doesn't necessarily have to be just the same exact one.
- 4:41It'll be barbecue ranch, it'll be Thai, it'll be whatever with lettuce.
- 4:47I'll eat it and it's great.
- 4:48Yeah.
- 4:49Okay.
- 4:49Burger has lettuce.
- 4:50Yes.
- 4:52And you know what, when I go, when I go to In n out, I normally get the, the one that's protein style.
- 4:57Protein style, yes.
- 4:59I love that one.
- 4:59Yeah, I do too.
- 5:00But it's not by, I mean I'm forced to.
- 5:03It's not my first option.
- 5:04Yeah, I like it.
- 5:05I think it tastes good.
- 5:07Really consolidator over here for sure.
- 5:09For me, I ate anything.
- 5:10I just love food.
- 5:11Yesterday I went to Cheesecake Factory, which happens to be her favorite restaurant.
- 5:14Expensive menu there.
- 5:15Yeah, it was a big bill, had a lot of people there.
- 5:17We were celebrating her second life, right.
- 5:20The one year anniversary and her 19 year old little sister's birthday.
- 5:25So.
- 5:25Okay, went there, got some chicken piccata.
- 5:27Delicious and nutritious.
- 5:29Okay.
- 5:29Okay.
- 5:30You know what capers are?
- 5:31You ever hear of capers?
- 5:32No, I have no idea.
- 5:33Yeah, you know what capers are like little buds of a plant, right.
- 5:36And they're, they almost taste like mini grapes, green olives.
- 5:39And I remember being a really little kid at my buddy's cabin and his dad showed me these things in a fridge.
- 5:44I'm like, I'm not gonna try those.
- 5:45Those things are nasty, right?
- 5:46He's like, you gotta try one, man.
- 5:48So I try to ate the whole jar and I've been hooked on these.
- 5:50Things and he still eats the whole jar.
- 5:52I really do.
- 5:53I'll get a whole jar and I'll sit there and I'll eat them.
- 5:54So Got that yesterday.
- 5:56So good.
- 5:56Real good.
- 5:57Awesome, awesome.
- 5:58What'd you eat at Cheesecake Factory?
- 6:00That's like a 25 page menu there.
- 6:02Well, it is, it's like a novel.
- 6:04It takes about an hour and a half to figure out what you want.
- 6:06Yeah, exactly.
- 6:07And by the time you're ready to order, you want two meals because you're that hungry, right?
- 6:11So I did.
- 6:12I got the chicken.
- 6:13I didn't get the avocado egg rolls, which I normally do.
- 6:15That sounds good.
- 6:16We didn't get.
- 6:16Oh, they were amazing.
- 6:17And they have this plum sauce that's just.
- 6:20Oh, it's just great.
- 6:20Eat that with a spoon.
- 6:22Yeah.
- 6:22Yeah, they're good.
- 6:23Avocado egg rolls.
- 6:25Okay.
- 6:25I don't go there a lot, but I have been there.
- 6:27Their cheeseburger is pretty phenomenal.
- 6:29Yeah.
- 6:29Do you like cheeseburgers?
- 6:31I do.
- 6:32Yeah.
- 6:33Yeah.
- 6:34Wins.
- 6:34And wings.
- 6:35Yeah.
- 6:35Yeah.
- 6:36I mean, if it were the same price as a steak.
- 6:37I mean, the steak.
- 6:38I would get the steak.
- 6:39But, I mean, it's a.
- 6:41The steak's cousin, you know, that's.
- 6:43It's like the.
- 6:44The not so pretty twin, but a twin that's in your category that you can date, you know, that's gonna give you the time of day that.
- 6:49Okay.
- 6:49All right.
- 6:49Yeah.
- 6:50She's willing to go with me.
- 6:51The really pretty one.
- 6:52I mean, she doesn't give me time of day, but her twin sister not, you know, has a crooked eye, but she likes you.
- 6:58I can live with that.
- 6:59You know, I'm good.
- 7:01So.
- 7:01Yeah, that's the.
- 7:02That's the steak and burger.
- 7:03So the burger is a crooked analogy.
- 7:05Yeah.
- 7:06Well, if my wife doesn't listen to this episode.
- 7:09Yeah, for sure.
- 7:10Just talking about burgers.
- 7:12Yeah, exactly.
- 7:13You're like, babe, you're the steak.
- 7:14Yeah.
- 7:14You're the steak.
- 7:16You would.
- 7:17I couldn't afford.
- 7:18That's awesome.
- 7:18Yeah.
- 7:19Good stuff.
- 7:20I didn't go to Texas Roadhouse though, this week as well.
- 7:22Did you?
- 7:22I did.
- 7:23Got the Texas sirloin or.
- 7:25I forget Texas ribeye or Fort Worth Ribeye.
- 7:28Okay.
- 7:28Yeah, it's good.
- 7:29But I said no to the roles, which was very difficult.
- 7:32Ooh, the cinnamon butter.
- 7:33You said no to that.
- 7:34I'm not big on the cinnamon butter.
- 7:36But Ben knows.
- 7:37I asked him one time, because he was meeting me there if he could bring me some real butter.
- 7:40And so he did.
- 7:41He brought me some.
- 7:42I think it's some Kerrygold butter.
- 7:44That was.
- 7:44What is it?
- 7:45Just regular butter.
- 7:46Oh, that's Irish stuff, right?
- 7:47No, that's.
- 7:48What is it?
- 7:49What is it?
- 7:50Lando Lake.
- 7:51Oh, yeah.
- 7:53Olive oil and sea salt.
- 7:54Yeah, it was good.
- 7:55Good.
- 7:55Yeah.
- 7:56Just because, you know, the butter is like half margarine, half butter.
- 7:58And so I prefer not to eat.
- 8:00We go back and forth because.
- 8:01Because the rolls over at.
- 8:03At Chedd are pretty Good, too.
- 8:05Yeah, I think they're better.
- 8:07Cheddars are better, too.
- 8:08I agree.
- 8:08100 croissant.
- 8:09Well, it's like a honey.
- 8:10Honey butter or something.
- 8:11It's just so good on the croissants.
- 8:15Right?
- 8:16Don't they have cheese curds?
- 8:17Yeah, I've never had them.
- 8:19The first time we went there was when we went to Tennessee.
- 8:21Yeah, I remember that.
- 8:21And then they finally had them out here, and then we went.
- 8:24And I don't think it was very good our first time because it was just open.
- 8:27So I don't think they were, like,.
- 8:28Up to on it.
- 8:29They know.
- 8:30They were just figuring things out still.
- 8:32I'm sure it's great now, right, out here.
- 8:33Yeah.
- 8:33Well, we went recently.
- 8:34I did not have.
- 8:35My last experience was not great there, and I've had some pretty.
- 8:37I've had some pretty good experiences there.
- 8:38This last one was.
- 8:40Yeah, they overcooked my steak.
- 8:41I mean, the service was terrible.
- 8:42Did you eat half of it and send it back?
- 8:44No.
- 8:45No.
- 8:45Okay.
- 8:46He just finished it.
- 8:46Yeah.
- 8:47I mean, the waitress was never around, so I couldn't even tell her, like, even more.
- 8:50So you keep eating more and more just to make sure, you know, it's like, hey, I don't know.
- 8:54This is not good.
- 8:55Yeah.
- 8:55Yeah.
- 8:56So, yeah, it was not a great experience.
- 8:57So I don't know.
- 8:58Maybe not go back.
- 8:59I don't know.
- 8:59Maybe it was just a bad day.
- 9:00I don't know.
- 9:00But their roles are.
- 9:01Are phenomenal.
- 9:02They're.
- 9:02They're really good.
- 9:03That honey butter is just.
- 9:04And I do think they are better than Texas Roadhouse.
- 9:06But, yeah, we tried karaba.
- 9:07So we went to Carrabba's, what, about a week ago?
- 9:09And that was.
- 9:10That was pretty phenomenal.
- 9:11That bread's pretty good too.
- 9:12Yeah.
- 9:12What was that?
- 9:12What's that?
- 9:13I forget the name of that sauce, the one that you like, that pasta wheezy or.
- 9:17No, not the wheezy.
- 9:18That's what she got.
- 9:19Pasta caramba.
- 9:20Caramba.
- 9:21Or chicken parm or the olive vodka one or whatever.
- 9:23Oh, penny alla vodka.
- 9:25That was pretty bomb.
- 9:26Yeah, it's really good.
- 9:27Yeah.
- 9:27And then, you know, the bread with the oil and whatever, it's.
- 9:30It's bomb, dude.
- 9:31It's good.
- 9:31It was pretty good.
- 9:32Yeah.
- 9:32Pretty much when I go there, I'm high score on the blood sugar, the glucose monitor.
- 9:36Yeah, it's not good.
- 9:37Yeah.
- 9:38So bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
- 9:39It's not for winning.
- 9:41Yeah.
- 9:41It's an infamous.
- 9:43Yeah.
- 9:43Win.
- 9:44But, yeah, try to stay away from there.
- 9:46For sure.
- 9:46Yeah.
- 9:47It's good stuff, though.
- 9:48I mean, I enjoy it.
- 9:49There's Caesar salad too.
- 9:50You know, there's somebody in your family that loves Caesar salad.
- 9:52My wife loves Caesar.
- 9:53So.
- 9:53So you.
- 9:54So what's funny is you like all salads.
- 9:55She loves Caesar.
- 9:56That's awesome.
- 9:57Caesar salad.
- 9:58Yeah, with chicken.
- 10:00Just plain.
- 10:01Just playing a little parmesan.
- 10:02See, sometimes that chicken will mess you up.
- 10:05Yeah, it's like a hit or miss, depending on where you go.
- 10:07Okay, good.
- 10:09Sometimes it's like I should have just had it without chicken.
- 10:12Really?
- 10:12Chick Fil A, since it's always pretty good with chicken.
- 10:15Yes.
- 10:15I don't know that it's healthy for you.
- 10:17I don't like the grill.
- 10:17That was actually the last meal that I had before.
- 10:21Yeah, that was my last meal.
- 10:22Literally last meal.
- 10:24Because the grill looks kind of fake to me.
- 10:25It doesn't look like real.
- 10:27Like it's.
- 10:27Yeah.
- 10:28I don't even know what fast food, what's real, what's not.
- 10:30I don't know.
- 10:31It's chicken.
- 10:31Chicken McNuggets over at McDonald's.
- 10:34Is that me?
- 10:35It's like hot dogs.
- 10:37Yeah.
- 10:38Ground up hot dogs with breading.
- 10:39I don't know.
- 10:40I will say though, I did try the chicken and waffles with bacon at Chick Fil A.
- 10:44That.
- 10:45That was pretty.
- 10:46That was pretty good, dude.
- 10:47Like, I would.
- 10:47I would do it.
- 10:48Have syrup on it or.
- 10:49No, they give you syrup.
- 10:50Really?
- 10:50But I came home and you know me, I'm a syrups knob.
- 10:53So I.
- 10:53I like real syrup.
- 10:54You put your own syrup.
- 10:55So I wouldn't put my own service.
- 10:56That was good, dude.
- 10:57I guess it's like chicken and waffle, right?
- 10:59I mean, like, it is the original theme of it.
- 11:01I just.
- 11:02I prefer, you know, I like it separate.
- 11:03Like Lolo's, you know, they put the waffle and the chicken.
- 11:06I don't like it.
- 11:06Yeah, honey.
- 11:07I mean, syrup over my chicken.
- 11:09It was actually not kind of weird.
- 11:11It was pretty good, you know?
- 11:12It's pretty good.
- 11:12It's.
- 11:13It's kind of like.
- 11:13I don't know, you guys probably think I'm weird, but I do like French fries with like vanilla ice cream.
- 11:17So I'll go get like a.
- 11:18That is weird.
- 11:19Like a frosty.
- 11:19Like a Frosty with fries.
- 11:21I just did that a week ago.
- 11:22Wow.
- 11:23Yeah.
- 11:24I'm not weird.
- 11:24Here.
- 11:25Okay, cool.
- 11:26I like that.
- 11:28I dig on it.
- 11:29Especially if the fries are crunchy.
- 11:30A little more well done, you know, nice and salty.
- 11:32I like fries with salt.
- 11:33You gotta try it, bro.
- 11:34Well, I know now you know, I like salt on the fries, but yeah,.
- 11:37I like salt on everything.
- 11:38Oh, yeah, of course.
- 11:39I'll bring my own shaker.
- 11:40It's.
- 11:41I love salt.
- 11:43You're in good company.
- 11:44My body probably doesn't, but I love.
- 11:45It, you know, it's good for you.
- 11:48Yeah.
- 11:48You have like smoked salt, don't you?
- 11:50I do.
- 11:50And then I have some from Chipotle.
- 11:52They asked for a salt and they gave me like a six month supply.
- 11:55And so I just bring it to Buffalo Wild Wings.
- 11:57And I'm really sad because I looked at it.
- 12:00Yeah, really?
- 12:01I said, can I have some salt?
- 12:02And they gave me a whole container of salt and I'm like, like, I love salt.
- 12:06But like, wow.
- 12:07It was like Lot's wife in the little.
- 12:10That's how much they gave me.
- 12:10Was it like 20 bucks?
- 12:11Were you supposed to take it back?
- 12:13No, you know the.
- 12:14It's like a plastic.
- 12:15You know where they put the guacamole in?
- 12:17Yes.
- 12:17They gave me the guacamole cup full of salt and it's like good Roc salt.
- 12:22It's not like cheap granular.
- 12:24It's.
- 12:24It's good.
- 12:24Is that like 20 bucks?
- 12:26Because I mean, you asked for extra walk and it's like, I know.
- 12:28That's the only thing they didn't.
- 12:29That's why they charge so much.
- 12:30So they can give people, you know, enormous amounts of salt.
- 12:33You can charge me anything.
- 12:34Wow.
- 12:35I ask always for things after I paid because they don't want to ring up, you know what, just, here's a large drink.
- 12:40Oh, okay, thanks.
- 12:41You know, I already have a system.
- 12:44Or when they're serving you steak, I like to talk, engage conversation because then their hand doesn't pay attention and they just give a little bit more because, you know, they don't give you very much.
- 12:55I actually asked for it the other day at Chipotle and say, hey man, can I get a little bit more just because, you know, a little more carnitas on there.
- 12:59He's like, yeah, sure, why not?
- 13:01I just asked.
- 13:01And these double up your pricing.
- 13:03Oh, you got double steak.
- 13:04Like I did not.
- 13:05Well, it looks like it.
- 13:06Well, I don't know what it looks like.
- 13:07I didn't get double state.
- 13:08This is a normal person portion.
- 13:10Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 13:11Good stuff.
- 13:12Yep.
- 13:13All you want to get into it, we jump in.
- 13:15Jump in.
- 13:15We'll be here before we lose the listeners.
- 13:17Yeah, they're still here.
- 13:18Yeah.
- 13:19So today we've got.
- 13:21Sasa is going to read Word of the day, which is miraculous.
- 13:25Out of the Webster's 1828.
- 13:27And we've got a couple of actually here.
- 13:29And yeah, we're going to jump into a.
- 13:31An awesome story here.
- 13:32Can't wait.
- 13:33All right, we'll start with the term miraculous from the 1828.
- 13:36And you'll know it's 1820 by the reference it uses.
- 13:401828 reference performed supernaturally or by a power beyond the ordinary agency of natural laws affected by the direct agency of.
- 13:48And the.
- 13:49It's capital A almighty power referring to God and not by natural causes as the miraculous healing of the sick are raising the dead by Christ.
- 14:00Cool.
- 14:01And did you have the.
- 14:02I do not have the verses.
- 14:03Get the verses up.
- 14:04I, I can pull it up here.
- 14:05Give me just a second.
- 14:07Sorry about that.
- 14:08No worries.
- 14:09So we're going to do Psalm 7326.
- 14:17So Psalms 23:76.
- 14:18Oh, sorry.
- 14:1973:26.
- 14:21My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
- 14:27And then I believe we have Matthew.
- 14:30I think it's 1926 as well.
- 14:34And that is.
- 14:35And looking at them, Jesus said to them, with people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
- 14:42And so today we're going to share a story.
- 14:44And this is a tremendous story.
- 14:45So just to give a little bit of a backstory, my wife and I started going to Calvary Community Church here about a year ago.
- 14:53And we were, I don't want to say introduced, but we, we took note of Brooke.
- 15:01She, she's part of the worship team there.
- 15:03She has a beautiful voice and she, she would sing for, for the worship team.
- 15:08And so a little, a little time passed, I guess, when we were pretending and we, we ended up getting this horrible message from one of our pastors that something very traumatic had happened to Brooke.
- 15:23And so that was our first introduction to Brooke.
- 15:25I didn't know Zach at the time, but, but I know at that time my wife and I were, I mean, we definitely prayed and it was just a thing that was.
- 15:34Was horrific in our church at that time.
- 15:37It was definitely a trial that our church went through.
- 15:40And so today I'm here to say that everything worked out to God's glory.
- 15:48We read the word miraculous.
- 15:50And this is going to be a story about a miracle.
- 15:53And I'm excited to hear what Zach and Brooke are going to share today.
- 15:58They're going to share their story about how Brooke died.
- 16:02And she's here today, living and breathing one.
- 16:07And this is the cool part.
- 16:08Eating salads.
- 16:09Yeah, eating salads.
- 16:11And here's the cool part, this happened a year ago today.
- 16:14So today is the one year anniversary where Brooke died and was brought back to life.
- 16:20So, guys, the floor is yours.
- 16:23However, you guys would like to share your story.
- 16:25Zach, I know I'm sure you've got something to, you know, share.
- 16:29Brooke, I know you have some, some thoughts, so you guys go ahead and share.
- 16:32I can start it because obviously I have the perspective of like right before and then everything else afterwards is Zach.
- 16:41Yeah, but I was just watching TV with my.
- 16:48My brother and my daughter and had just eaten my brother.
- 16:52We literally were watching, which is even weirder, a documentary called Died Suddenly, which is just a.
- 16:59That's just a side note.
- 17:00It's very the.
- 17:01I think of all these little things that were included that it's just like, that's just good to think about it, you know?
- 17:08But yeah, so my brother left.
- 17:11I had told my daughter I.
- 17:14We had eaten, and I was like, man, my stomach doesn't feel very good.
- 17:16I'm gonna go and lay down now, you know, and she was like, okay, mom, I love you.
- 17:20I'm like, I love you to, you know, so go in the room.
- 17:23So that's one thing that God protected my daughter from.
- 17:26So that it wasn't, you know, I.
- 17:28I made sure to go to bed, you know, but get into the room.
- 17:34Fans are blazing.
- 17:36Zach is asleep, TV's on, but I'm about to shut the TV off.
- 17:41You know, I know that he wears earplugs.
- 17:43Like he can't really hear already.
- 17:44He's kind of got.
- 17:46He's kind of hard of hearing.
- 17:48So there's just all those little pieces, you know.
- 17:51But I was feeling like I normally do after I eat, and I always have stomach issues, but I went to lay down and turned the TV off.
- 18:01And the moment that I went to lay back, my heart just started to.
- 18:08And it was out of control.
- 18:11And I immediately was like, oh, my gosh.
- 18:13I have about 10 seconds.
- 18:15I know that something is terribly wrong.
- 18:17Either it's gonna stop.
- 18:18Like, I didn't even wanna move, barely.
- 18:21And I just thought, I have to wake up Zach.
- 18:24I have to wake him up.
- 18:25Like, he has to.
- 18:26If he's awake, then it's like there's that piece of.
- 18:29Like something's next.
- 18:30Something can happen next, you know?
- 18:32Cause if I would not have woken him up, I don't know if I would be here right now.
- 18:37But I immediately just started hitting him.
- 18:40And I'm like, babe, babe, you know?
- 18:42And I just pretty much tried to do that a couple Times.
- 18:45And then I just.
- 18:46I thought he woke up.
- 18:48And then I went and I kind of curled into a little.
- 18:51A little shell of a ball, and I just said, jesus, please save me.
- 18:55And that's all I remember.
- 18:57And I remember even when I said, jesus, please save me, there was literally.
- 19:02I felt like I was like.
- 19:05It was like melting into just peace.
- 19:07It really was not scary.
- 19:09I wasn't in any pain.
- 19:11I wasn't.
- 19:11It wasn't.
- 19:12I wasn't afraid.
- 19:13It was just knowing that, like, I just had to act and do what I needed to do to get him up.
- 19:20But I did not fear.
- 19:22I was not afraid.
- 19:24And then, literally, I woke up days later, and I have just a peaceful quiet was not part of the trauma that my poor family had to endure.
- 19:38But that's pretty much where my story, you know, like, from what I can remember.
- 19:44And then Zach wakes up.
- 19:47Yeah.
- 19:47So I'm gonna do my best to articulate what happened over the next four days.
- 19:51Right.
- 19:51There's a lot of detail.
- 19:52I'm sure it's gonna squirrel kind of left and right a little bit.
- 19:55Right.
- 19:55But we're just gonna let the good Lord lead.
- 19:57First parts, kind of that intense emotional part, you know?
- 20:00So take a deep breath.
- 20:01Get a drink of water real quick.
- 20:05So.
- 20:07September 27, 1:14am I'm out cold, right?
- 20:11About three hours before she came in the room and went to sleep.
- 20:15I have a really, you know, crazy job.
- 20:17Very demanding.
- 20:18Barely slept all week long.
- 20:20Took magnesium to try to sleep that night.
- 20:22Had earplugs in, two box fans, main fan going, I'm out cold.
- 20:26Right?
- 20:27Here's where it started with me.
- 20:29Faintly, very faintly, I heard, babe, babe.
- 20:34It's all I heard, right.
- 20:36Normally, if I hear that at all, I'm thinking I'm just sprawled out on her side of the bed, you know, just move over a little bit.
- 20:41Everything's gonna be good.
- 20:42Yeah, that's usually what I do.
- 20:43And I ignore it, right?
- 20:44Not this time.
- 20:46I said, babe, babe.
- 20:50And something just prompted me.
- 20:51Something we know, God, right?
- 20:53Prompted me to just keep saying her name and saying it louder, you know?
- 20:57So, babe, babe, babe.
- 20:59She doesn't respond again.
- 21:00I yell, babe.
- 21:01She doesn't respond.
- 21:02I leap up out of bed.
- 21:04I turned the light on on her ceiling fan.
- 21:08And what I saw next was probably one of the most horrific things, you know, I never want to see it again in my entire life.
- 21:18I've got the person the Lord has given me here on Earth that I absolutely love the most.
- 21:24And I see her curled back, her Eyes completely rolled back in her head, her hands like this, her tongue kind of like this.
- 21:33Her face is almost kind of white at this point, right?
- 21:37And it almost looked like she was having a seizure.
- 21:40So that's everything that I saw immediately when I looked at her, right?
- 21:43When I flip on the lights, right, I go, babe.
- 21:46And I cry out to Jesus.
- 21:48I cry out to Jesus at the top of my lungs with everything that was with me in me, right?
- 21:53Jesus, help.
- 21:55So our two youngest daughters ran into the room, Chloe and Veda.
- 22:00And they go, daddy, what's happening?
- 22:02And I said, go pray right now.
- 22:04I need to call 91 1.
- 22:06So this is all within 20 seconds, right?
- 22:10So I go to grab my phone and I call 911.
- 22:15Now I gotta rewind a little bit because this is how God works, right?
- 22:19And I gotta.
- 22:20God has to be glorified in this.
- 22:23It's important to capture the details of what he did, not just in this moment, but everything leading up to this, right?
- 22:28He's outside of time.
- 22:29He knows everything.
- 22:29He's got a plan and a purpose for everything.
- 22:31And he could have done anything with Brooke that he wanted.
- 22:33And I'm thankful that she's here today.
- 22:36About five weeks earlier or so, her brother was actually driving with a girl.
- 22:41And I'm going to keep this kind of very high level.
- 22:44I'll just say this girl, he knows her, but she kind of stands for, I would say everything, maybe that he is kind of against per se in this world and almost like an enemy type, you know, feeling a
- 22:58relationship while she goes on cardiac arrest in his car as they're driving, right?
- 23:02And here's this girl that stands for everything against what he stands for.
- 23:08And, you know, he had sworn up until that point, basically, if I ever meet somebody that you know is like this or does this or whatever, right?
- 23:15I'm just gonna basically nix them out of my life, right?
- 23:18Pretty much.
- 23:18I hope they die, right?
- 23:20It's.
- 23:20But I won't get into details about what it is, right?
- 23:23But there's a point to it.
- 23:25In that moment, he made a conscious decision.
- 23:27And his enemy right there, he loved his enemy.
- 23:32So he did CPR on her, did chest compressions until paramedics arrived.
- 23:37And ultimately the girl lived, they said, because he did chest compressions on her the entire time, right?
- 23:43It's what saved her life.
- 23:47Well, he comes over to our house, right?
- 23:48And it's maybe two weeks before this happens to Brooke.
- 23:50And he's telling us about, you know, everything that occurred.
- 23:54And I've never had Any CPR training, anything, right?
- 23:58And I'm asking him details about it, what's happened.
- 24:01And so, sure enough, within that two week period, I'm like, you know, I work literally in a college of nursing and healthcare professions, but I'm like the business guy, right?
- 24:10Not a clinician whatsoever.
- 24:12And so I just so happen to pull up YouTube, right?
- 24:14How do you do CPR?
- 24:16Really crazy.
- 24:17Within that two weeks, right?
- 24:18And I'm like, just in case it ever happens.
- 24:20So now let me kind of fast forward again.
- 24:22I call 911.
- 24:24I will tell you if that did not occur.
- 24:27When I grew up, my stepmom had epilepsy, right?
- 24:30So I'm used to seeing somebody have seizures.
- 24:32And when somebody's having a seizure, the first thing you do is flip them on their side so they don't choke on their tongue, right?
- 24:38If I would have done that to her, she would have died.
- 24:40There's no way that she would be here right now.
- 24:41But the Moment I dial 91 1, immediately to the forefront of my mind comes a thought.
- 24:46You will have to do chest compressions on her right away, right?
- 24:49So glory to God, number one, right?
- 24:51Number two, actually.
- 24:52First for waking me up, number two for all of that happening.
- 24:55Then I get 911 on the phone and they had me check if she's breathing.
- 25:00I'm like, no, she's not breathing.
- 25:01You know, it looks like she's almost gasping for last breaths right now.
- 25:04And they said, sir, you're going to need to begin chest compressions right away.
- 25:07Immediately I go into action.
- 25:09Never doing this before, right?
- 25:11And this is all God, right?
- 25:13So Now I've got 911 on the phone right here.
- 25:16I've got.
- 25:17I'm doing counts of 30, doing chest compressions.
- 25:19I'm yelling to Brooke to just wake up.
- 25:22And I am screaming out to God the whole time, God help.
- 25:26God help.
- 25:26Jesus help.
- 25:27I'm telling you, the people at 911, they probably.
- 25:29This guy's nuts, you know, does he think God's actually going to help him in this?
- 25:32Yes, I do.
- 25:33And that's why I called him.
- 25:34And he did help.
- 25:35So glory to God, right now, the.
- 25:39The hardest part of all that I watched Brooke die in front of my eyes.
- 25:46Die, Take her very last breath.
- 25:48Gone, just like silence.
- 25:54And I'm yelling at 911, get them here.
- 25:57Get them here.
- 25:57You know, Lord, please help.
- 25:59Please wake her up.
- 26:01So next thing I know, I hear a knock on the bedroom door.
- 26:06And it's a paramedics.
- 26:07They were there.
- 26:07I have no idea how much time.
- 26:08Actually went by right within 116 when they.
- 26:13They dispatched.
- 26:14And then they got there by 122.
- 26:16122.
- 26:17And it was 114 when I called.
- 26:18Right.
- 26:19And I probably died at 119.
- 26:20Yeah, you probably did.
- 26:22That's a whole nother story.
- 26:23Yeah.
- 26:24So they.
- 26:25They rush into the room.
- 26:26They make me leave the room, right?
- 26:27I go into the room across from ours, which is Chloe's room, and all three of our daughters are in their page, Chloe and Veda.
- 26:34And I kneel down with them, and I just say, let's pray, you know?
- 26:39And we just start praying and praying.
- 26:42And Paige, I'm so proud of her oldest daughter is.
- 26:45I'm losing it, man.
- 26:46Like, the girls to this day, they say, daddy, I've never seen you like that.
- 26:50You know, our entire life, we've never seen you like that, you know, which was probably good because they got to see me in my most desperate time, crying out to the Lord for help right before anybody else.
- 27:03But Paige stayed so calm for her little sisters, and I was just so proud of her, you know?
- 27:09And just again, it's all how God worked everything together.
- 27:11So we get down, we pray, and then, sure enough, a paramedic comes out, and he pulls me out of the room, and he makes me shut the door with our daughters behind the room and Brooks in another room.
- 27:19The door is shut.
- 27:20I'm in the hallway with him, and he said, sir, he said, I need you to keep that door shut.
- 27:25We're going to wheel your wife out.
- 27:26Like, wait, what?
- 27:27What do you mean?
- 27:30And he said, sir, you need to close that door.
- 27:33Your daughters can't see this.
- 27:34We're gonna bring your wife out now.
- 27:37So I shut the door, and then he shuts the door and goes back in the room with Brooke.
- 27:41And I'm in the hallway by myself.
- 27:44And instantly the thoughts going through my head are, wow, he's telling me my wife just died, right?
- 27:49And I remember in that moment, sorry about these emotions, you know, being in the hallway and just crying out to the Lord from.
- 28:01My inner man is saying, lord, I don't understand.
- 28:04I don't understand.
- 28:05And I'll tell you why.
- 28:06We, in the early years of our marriage, like, we went through so much, and the Lord has brought us so far, you know, to where marriage is just flourishing.
- 28:13And I.
- 28:14Internally, it's like, you know, when he promises you something, right?
- 28:18I'm like, lord, I thought you promised us that we grow old together, you know, and have this kind of Beautiful ending, per se.
- 28:24Just what he promised me.
- 28:25And in that moment, right when I said, I don't understand her, just trust me, trust me.
- 28:29Don't lean on your own understanding.
- 28:32So I just took a deep breath and I waited.
- 28:35And the paramedics came out.
- 28:36They took Brooke out of the room.
- 28:38And she had this ventilator thing on her.
- 28:40All of them were rushing.
- 28:41They wouldn't let me come with her.
- 28:42They're like, we need to go now.
- 28:44You need to meet us there.
- 28:45We can't wait for you.
- 28:46One of them stayed behind.
- 28:47And I'm like, dude, please tell me what's going on.
- 28:49He's like, we can't tell you.
- 28:50You know, we can't.
- 28:51We can't tell you this stuff.
- 28:52You know, it has to be a doctor, basically, right?
- 28:55So I tell him what I do, you know, for a living.
- 28:57And so I think the guy had a little bit more compassion and understanding, and he said, look, I'm going to tell you this much.
- 29:03Your wife's heart was beating enough that we had to try and shock her four times.
- 29:10And every single attempt was unsuccessful.
- 29:12And she's not breathing on her own right now.
- 29:14So with anybody with a medical background, you know, well, her heart's completely stopped.
- 29:18Then that means that she's completely not breathing on her own.
- 29:20And he's literally telling me right now that my wife is dead.
- 29:22And if there's any life that you have, it's.
- 29:24It's artificial right now, right?
- 29:26From artificial life support.
- 29:29So they get her to the hospital.
- 29:31Now I throw on some clothes, I get in the car, and I fly to the hospital.
- 29:38And I think I called one person first, my mom.
- 29:41And then just everybody started to get called from there, you know, from other people.
- 29:44I get to the hospital and I go back.
- 29:48They take me to this, like, consoling room, right?
- 29:51Where it's got, like, all these.
- 29:54Basically, it's like, for people whose loved ones just died, right?
- 29:57And I'm in there by myself, and I'm just praying and like, lord, no, please, please, I know you could do anything, you know, anything.
- 30:07So please perform a miracle.
- 30:08Please bring Brooke back to life while a nurse comes back.
- 30:11And again, he's not telling me anything at first.
- 30:13And he's like, sir, you just really gotta wait for the doctors.
- 30:15And again I tell him, you know, like, this is what I do, you know?
- 30:19And please just tell me something.
- 30:21He said, okay, I'll tell you this.
- 30:24Somehow your wife's heart just started.
- 30:25Like, we got a very small beat again.
- 30:27She's up in CT right now.
- 30:29And that's all I could tell you right now.
- 30:31And they're going to bring you back and tell you more information soon.
- 30:33Boom.
- 30:33Okay?
- 30:34That's where we're at now.
- 30:36We go, they take me back.
- 30:39The Lazarus effect, right?
- 30:41So this is just.
- 30:43It's so crazy, man, the way all this worked.
- 30:45We go, we're in the er, right?
- 30:47In the trauma unit.
- 30:48We go to the, you know, the trauma room that she's in, and for about three or four hours, actually, I'll back up.
- 30:55I talked to the nurse who was there first, and the nurse said, look, she's like, I don't know how to explain this to you, but your wife shouldn't be here at all right now.
- 31:03She's like, I'm not telling you that things look good, right?
- 31:06But I am telling you that she shouldn't be here.
- 31:09They try to shock your wife's heart four times.
- 31:11Her heart was stopped.
- 31:12Get it, get this, right?
- 31:14Her heart was stopped completely, for at least 31 minutes.
- 31:20Clinically dead.
- 31:21Imagine that somebody's dead on the floor, completely dead.
- 31:24You go out, you get lunch, come back 31 minutes later, right?
- 31:27That's her.
- 31:27She's dead for 31 minutes.
- 31:29The moment she hit the bed in that trauma unit, she had return of spontaneous circulation.
- 31:36And I said, well, how rare is that?
- 31:38She said, well, you don't get it.
- 31:39It's not just rare.
- 31:40It doesn't happen.
- 31:41We've never seen it happen.
- 31:42I've never seen it happen.
- 31:45So I'm just immediately thankful.
- 31:47Right there.
- 31:48I want to read you something.
- 31:48This is just mind blowing.
- 31:49This is why I have my phone up here.
- 31:51This will maybe kind of give you some context, right, Because Brooks heart stopped, right?
- 31:55But you got to imagine when your heart stops.
- 31:57What else stops?
- 31:59Oxygen doesn't get, you know, pumped to your major organs in your body with your brain.
- 32:03Exactly.
- 32:03Your brain being your most critical organ, right?
- 32:07So just a quick little Google, right?
- 32:11The human brain can go without oxygen for about four minutes before permanent brain damage begins to occur.
- 32:17Zero to 10 seconds, you lose in consciousness, remaining oxygen is all used up.
- 32:21One minute, brain cells begin to die in activity, slows down.
- 32:25Three minutes, neurons suffer heavy injury and lasting harm becomes likely.
- 32:31Four to six minutes.
- 32:33Severe permanent brain damage is very likely and survival risks rise.
- 32:39Ten minutes or more, deep coma or irreversible brain death usually happens, right?
- 32:46And again, hers was stopped for 31 minutes at least.
- 32:50You see her sitting here right now, fully recovered, which we're going to get into some more detail, but I had just randomly, you know, just googled this, right?
- 32:58You know, how rare is it for this to happen to somebody, you know, and actually recover?
- 33:02Fully recovering after a cardiac arrest, where the heart has stopped for 31 minutes is exceptionally rare, with the likelihood of leaving the hospital without major brain damage dropping to less than 1%.
- 33:16While the heart can sometimes successfully be restarted after prolonged periods, the brain is highly sensitive to oxygen deprivation.
- 33:24Irreversible damage usually begins within four to six minutes without blood flow.
- 33:29I'm Rebecca Mendez with Lamplight Ministries, where I serve the Lord by loving others.
- 33:34Through biblical counseling and workshops.
- 33:37Every day we're reminded of our fallen world through disappointment, grief, fear, despair.
- 33:44We need a savior.
- 33:46And in Jesus Christ, we have that Savior.
- 33:49He came to rescue us, offering his spirit to guide us and his word to comfort, correct and lead us.
- 33:56If you're a follower of Christ, eager to grow in him, I'd be honored to walk this journey with you through one on one biblical counseling.
- 34:05Together we'll explore God's word, find encouragement, and pursue faithful obedience to our Savior.
- 34:12Please Visit me at lamplightministries.com to book your appointment today.
- 34:19So why do I say that?
- 34:22So for about three or four hours after she goes into the trauma unit, she's having these like sporadic convulsions.
- 34:28Again, it almost looked like she was having full on like a grand mal seizure, right?
- 34:32They're pumping her full of meds, maxed her out on seizure meds.
- 34:36They couldn't get it to stop, right?
- 34:38So they get the entire ICU team to come down, and the head of the ICU comes down and the room is packed full of people.
- 34:46And so he just, room gets silent and he's kind of addressing me even though everybody else is in the room, right?
- 34:54And he said, you know, sir, he's like, I, I wish I could tell you that those are seizures, but they're not seizures.
- 35:02He said, you know, you're.
- 35:03Even though you did chest compressions on your wife that whole time, you got to understand for somebody's heart to be stopped for at least 31 minutes, it's critically detrimental.
- 35:11Like, even if you're doing chest compressions for your brain to survive anything after that, I mean, it's almost next to impossible, right?
- 35:20And then I'm like, okay, so just what does this mean?
- 35:22Right?
- 35:22What's the next step?
- 35:23That's what I asked him.
- 35:25And he grabs me on the shoulder and looks at me and he said, just.
- 35:33He said, sir, if I had to be blunt with you, your wife's not gonna make it past 72 hours, let me tell you.
- 35:40I did not know what it felt like to actually have your heart fully shattered within you until that very moment.
- 35:48It was like time stopped.
- 35:51Everything got silent, and I probably.
- 35:53I just cried out like a whale, right?
- 35:56And then this is what was really cool.
- 35:58This whole room just packed full of medical professionals, right?
- 36:01Brooke's mom, Anna, walks over to me, grabs me by the shoulders and looks at me in the eye and says, son, do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and savior and that he could do anything?
- 36:10And he said, absolutely.
- 36:12And she said, then anytime, any doubt comes up, just reject it.
- 36:16Hold on to faith.
- 36:17Keep bringing it before the Lord, knowing he can do everything, right?
- 36:20He can do anything, but just have faith.
- 36:21Have faith, you know?
- 36:24So I did, by the grace of God.
- 36:28And so now I'm going to kind of fast forward things a little bit, because this is everything we've now just been told, right?
- 36:35First she was dead, then she's alive.
- 36:36Then we're told that she's not gonna live, right?
- 36:40And then.
- 36:41And then if there's this slim miracle that she does live, there's no way that she's gonna have any brain activity whatsoever.
- 36:46So then we get up to the icu, they get an expert cardiologist to that hospital, and another whole team of people are in there.
- 36:54And they found out the core issue is that her left ventricle in her heart had completely stopped working when it started to randomly flutter again, right.
- 37:0230 minutes later, like.
- 37:04Like that.
- 37:04Like, that's what my heart was literally like.
- 37:08They, Mike, we have a rep that helped, a clinical rep.
- 37:13And she's like, I literally saw your heart and on the.
- 37:16On the scan, and it was.
- 37:17It was just barely.
- 37:19Is that what you felt when it was doing that?
- 37:21Whatever that was?
- 37:22I think even after I had a little bit more movement, I think it was that.
- 37:26It was a harder.
- 37:27Like.
- 37:28But that was like, nothing.
- 37:30Nothing.
- 37:30It was literally just doing this.
- 37:32It was, like, barely.
- 37:33So it wasn't pumping?
- 37:34Quivering.
- 37:35No, it was doing nothing.
- 37:36Yeah, it was not pumping.
- 37:38That's it.
- 37:38That's it.
- 37:39So what that does, right, it creates an ejection fraction.
- 37:43And so what that means is that, you know, your heart pulls blood and it pushes right.
- 37:48Oxygenated blood back out to your body.
- 37:50And so without your left ventricle working, it can't push your blood out to your body.
- 37:55Hers is just quivering.
- 37:56So she's just being sustained right now by full life support, right?
- 37:59So they said, look, okay, here's our plan of Action.
- 38:03Before we even think about her brain, we got to see if we could even fix her heart, right?
- 38:07If we could fix her heart, then we can think about her brain.
- 38:10But that's where we're at right now.
- 38:11We need to get her in a helicopter and we need to fly her to another hospital that specializes in this kind of surgery because we don't have the equipment or the surgeons here to do it.
- 38:20So sure enough, within an hour, a helicopter's there, she's en route in the sky.
- 38:25I'm just, I'm flying, you know, in my car to try to meet them there.
- 38:29And we get to the.
- 38:31This is the second hospital now that we're at.
- 38:34And by the time I got there, it's crazy, they had already performed the first heart surgery and they put in her what's called an impella device.
- 38:42And it's almost.
- 38:43It's cool.
- 38:44We just got to fly out to their headquarters in Boston.
- 38:47That's a whole nother story.
- 38:48Story to give her testimony, right?
- 38:51And got to see all about the device anyway.
- 38:53Very, very small little device.
- 38:55Very, very powerful unit though.
- 38:57And they insert it up through her femoral artery, goes into her heart and it basically allows the heart to rest and it will push blood into your body so your heart chambers can just rest, right.
- 39:09And recover and recover.
- 39:11So they put that in her.
- 39:12As soon as I get to that hospital, the cardiovascular surgeon comes out and I'm sitting down with him and almost having a.
- 39:19Just a one on one like this.
- 39:20But there's a whole lot of people around me, right?
- 39:21All the family just got there and everything.
- 39:23And so he said the surgery was successful, but we don't know for sure if this is going to work or not because we don't know exactly what's wrong with her heart.
- 39:30You know, we know it stopped, but it could be one of two different things.
- 39:35Was it like myocarditis or stress cardiomyopathy?
- 39:39Right.
- 39:40And he basically said, if it's a myocarditis, it's not good.
- 39:45Like a third of people, it gets worse.
- 39:46Third of people stay the same.
- 39:47Third of people get better.
- 39:48If it's the other one, you know, that's what we want.
- 39:51Usually you could be looking at a full recovery, at least for the heart, hopefully.
- 39:55So I'm like, awesome, good.
- 39:57Got that in there.
- 39:58I'm not kidding you, man.
- 39:59This is so crazy.
- 40:00It's almost.
- 40:01I'll just pause and tell you this.
- 40:03The way God worked this out, it was almost as if something would happen and it was detrimental and Then he would put a stepping stone out there, and he'd have to take the stepping stone of faith and completely
- 40:12trust him.
- 40:13And he'd come through with a miracle, and there'd be all this good news, and then immediately, boom, there'd be something detrimental to get it.
- 40:18Like, lord, what is going on?
- 40:20You know, this is an absolute roller coaster.
- 40:23But I can see he was doing it for his glory, right?
- 40:26So that.
- 40:26So that no man could receive any credit for any of this, that all credit would be given to God because he deserves all of it.
- 40:35And so.
- 40:37So I go right up to the floor.
- 40:40I'm supposed to be able to go right back into the room, right?
- 40:42Obviously, she's under a coma, right?
- 40:44She's in a sedated coma, induced coma.
- 40:48And before I can even walk back into the icu, a nurse is running at me with paperwork, and she says, you need to sign this immediately.
- 40:57It's for a blood trail transfusion.
- 40:58Like, what?
- 40:59And they're like, we got her up there and just like, there.
- 41:02She's bleeding like crazy.
- 41:03We just need you to sign this.
- 41:04We just will tell you what's going on later.
- 41:06I'm like, oh, no.
- 41:07So I sign it and she runs back, and then I'm just like, my heart's breaking again, you know, And I'm just left here just praying to the Lord.
- 41:15And so anyway, what had happened there, like, because it's your femoral artery, right?
- 41:21It's one of your biggest arteries.
- 41:23It wasn't sealed all the way.
- 41:25And so she had blood pooling up underneath her, I guess, in the bed, and they couldn't see it.
- 41:29So she had almost 2 liters of blood that she was just sitting in.
- 41:32Right.
- 41:32Well, get this.
- 41:33I guess they didn't need to do a blood transfusion then, right?
- 41:36They said she was just at the point of where, you know, she hadn't lost enough blood.
- 41:41And I get to go and I see her.
- 41:43She's completely white, like a ghost, right?
- 41:45And anyway, that's where that journey was up until that point.
- 41:48And that was basically like.
- 41:49Like day one, right?
- 41:50Insane.
- 41:52They would not let me stay there that night, which was heartbreaking.
- 41:57But I also understand why, you know, I also had our daughters at home.
- 42:00I need to go back, give them reassurance and everything, too.
- 42:04Well, that's the first day.
- 42:07Day two comes about, and it was really wild.
- 42:11They said, she's for sure going to be under a full sedated coma, you know, for at least, least like three or four days before they even try to Take her out of it to see how she responds.
- 42:20I don't know what prompted them to do this, but the next day they did what's called a sedation vacation where they, you know, they temporarily dropped a sedation to see how she responds.
- 42:29So they did that.
- 42:31And I start talking to her and I see her just start to move a little bit, you know, and so then I started to tell her a little bit about what was happening and I could see her move
- 42:42a little bit more.
- 42:43So I'm like, brooke's in there.
- 42:44I know she's in there and I know that she can hear me, you know, and probably one, two minutes later they're like, dude, we got to put her right back on sedation.
- 42:50She can't be out of this right now.
- 42:51You know, we just needed to test it and see how she would react.
- 42:56So, yeah, anyway, she goes back, it's, you know, under sedation, there goes another day.
- 43:01Now I remember praying, I think on it was, it was Sunday because it happened Saturday and this was Sunday, day two.
- 43:08And I asked the Lord, I said, lord, please perform a miracle, right?
- 43:14And I got to back up and tell you at this point again, everybody's telling me like, she's not going to live.
- 43:18She's going to be completely brain dead.
- 43:20If she has any brain activity whatsoever after all this happens, the road to recovery is going to be tremendous.
- 43:25Like, you really need to prepare yourself, sir, you know, And I'm just like not accepting it, you know, because I've already, I've seen not just what happened to her, but what the Lord has done to preserve her up
- 43:36until this point.
- 43:37You know, firsthand, I know it's God.
- 43:40So I have every reason to believe that he's doing something and he's going to finish what he started here, right?
- 43:44So I prayed and I said, lord, please by Tuesday perform a miracle four days later, have a rejection fraction in her heart go back up to 50%.
- 43:54So it was down to 5%.
- 43:55Your normal is like 60, 65% or so, right?
- 43:58And it would be just mirage, miraculous for it to bounce to that within a couple days.
- 44:03And then also let her be extubated so the, you know, the air tubes being pulled out, right.
- 44:08She's pulled out of the sedated or the induced coma.
- 44:12And when she's pulled out of it, Lord, please let her recognize me and know who I am and restore her brain function.
- 44:19It's just nuts.
- 44:20I'm going to tell you by Tuesday.
- 44:21God did all of that and more.
- 44:25But we're still on Sunday right now.
- 44:26Right.
- 44:27So that's the prayer that I prayed on Sunday.
- 44:29What day was it when it actually all happened?
- 44:31Was it like Saturday?
- 44:31Saturday.
- 44:32Saturday.
- 44:34So like we're pretty much within the first 24 hours.
- 44:37I've just passed that.
- 44:38Yeah.
- 44:39So all that's packed into 24 hours so far.
- 44:41Right?
- 44:41That's a lot.
- 44:42That's a roller coaster for one hour.
- 44:44Oh, my goodness.
- 44:44Dude.
- 44:45One day more than I probably experienced in my entire life.
- 44:48How are your daughters doing at this point?
- 44:51As of today or at that point?
- 44:53No, at that point in.
- 44:54Yeah.
- 44:55Okay.
- 44:56So they did not know all of the detail yet.
- 44:59Right.
- 45:00So I try to shield them from a little bit of it.
- 45:02You know, I didn't tell them the doctor said, you know, your mom's going to die within 72 hours.
- 45:06Right.
- 45:07Rather I said, this is everything that happened.
- 45:09We don't know for sure what's going to transpire next, but we're going to do is we're going to pray and we're going to trust in God and we're going to know that he could do everything.
- 45:17And it's cool that you asked that because our middle daughter Chloe, at this point, you know, had started to come up with those questions of why do we believe what we believe when there are all these other religions
- 45:26out there, you know, all of this.
- 45:28Right.
- 45:28And we raised her up in the Lord and.
- 45:31And it was so cool because out of this entire experience, at the end of it, Chloe said, dad, I don't understand how anybody can't believe in God.
- 45:41Wow.
- 45:41You know, after you see something like this, right?
- 45:45Gives you chills, right?
- 45:46Yeah, yeah.
- 45:47So super thankful.
- 45:48So I pray that prayer, you know, on Sunday and they're okay.
- 45:52We had a lot of family and friends, church, everybody so thankful.
- 45:56Thank you, everyone.
- 45:57To thousands, maybe millions of people throughout the world that were praying, offering us practical support.
- 46:02Right.
- 46:03I mean, everybody was there for our family.
- 46:05We're so thankful to our brothers and sisters in Jesus and we couldn't have done it without you, you know.
- 46:11So then Monday comes about and they said they.
- 46:16They checked her ejection fraction and it jumped from 5 to 30%, I believe.
- 46:24Yes, 30%.
- 46:26And they did another small sedation vacation on Monday and Brooke was a little bit more responsive.
- 46:33The all the medical team is doubtful.
- 46:35But I know Brooke, right?
- 46:36I know her.
- 46:39So now get this crazy.
- 46:40It's just like everything happened all at once.
- 46:42Tuesday comes about the.
- 46:45A couple texts come in and they do a scan of her heart and they're like what the heck?
- 46:49Her ejection fractions at 50%.
- 46:5150%, right.
- 46:53And so then they call in the.
- 46:56The entire medical team, right?
- 46:58So now it's on you.
- 46:59Like the medical team is.
- 47:01The whole room's filled with doctors, surgeons, nurses, whoever.
- 47:05It's spilling out into the hallway and they're just flabbergasted already, what they're seeing, right?
- 47:09So rejection fraction return of 50%.
- 47:12The main surgeon in there said, you know what, I think that we could pull out this impella device today and who knows, potentially we could take her off of the sedation.
- 47:21Right.
- 47:22And extubate her today too.
- 47:24Way, way faster than they thought this would ever gonna happen.
- 47:26Right.
- 47:27I mean, so.
- 47:29So at this point, are they tested the brain function at all or they were just focused on the heart right now?
- 47:34Yeah.
- 47:34So there was two issues that were.
- 47:36Yeah, but one was primary over the other.
- 47:38Yeah, dude, they're like certain.
- 47:39I mean, there's certain she's brain dead at this point, right?
- 47:42They're.
- 47:42They're literally reassuring me every step of the way when I would tell them, yeah, but, but they're like, sir, you gotta really prepare yourself, you know,.
- 47:51And.
- 47:51They were doing it out of love.
- 47:52And it's what they're supposed to do, right?
- 47:54Because typically that's what you see happen.
- 47:56They're supposed to prepare you.
- 47:57So anyway, they take the impeller device out, it was successful.
- 48:01They get her up to the room and they were letting her recover for a little bit.
- 48:04And.
- 48:06And then they had, oh, dude, I gotta rewind one day.
- 48:11This is where I said I was gonna score because I can't miss this.
- 48:13No, no, it's fine.
- 48:14This is important.
- 48:15That's good.
- 48:16This is important.
- 48:16It was Monday's sedation vacation, so Monday when I got there, right?
- 48:22They wouldn't let me in before 8am and I asked him to wait to do it, you know, until I got there.
- 48:26Well, they did it right before I walked in the room.
- 48:29And so Brooke was just in a blank stare at the wall.
- 48:32And I guess they weren't responding to anybody there, right?
- 48:35None of the nurses, doctors.
- 48:36I walk in the room and I see her eyes open and I go, babe, your eyes are open.
- 48:40And she literally goes and looks right at me.
- 48:44And they were just in shock.
- 48:46You know, all these medical professionals are like, oh, she's responding to him.
- 48:49She's responding.
- 48:50And they're like, sir, keep talking to her.
- 48:51So I go up and, you know, I grab her hand and she's looking at me and tears start to kind of Come down her eyes.
- 48:58And I said, babe, if you want to know what happened, squeeze my hand.
- 49:02Squeeze my hand.
- 49:03She squeezed my hand, right?
- 49:06Mind blowing, right?
- 49:07So I tell her very, very high level.
- 49:09And the nurse is trying to get her to squeeze her other other hand and all these.
- 49:13She's not responding to other people.
- 49:15Well, I go over, she squeezes my other hand.
- 49:17Then her mom walks in the room, says something.
- 49:20Brooke looks directly at her mom, responds to her, too.
- 49:22We got her to wiggle her toes, right?
- 49:24Got her to start to move around.
- 49:25And the medical team is right.
- 49:27This is just.
- 49:27They're blown away, right?
- 49:29This is on Monday, before that Tuesday stuff happened, right?
- 49:31So it was like stepping stone after stepping stone of miracle.
- 49:34Well, Tuesday comes about right now.
- 49:37They.
- 49:37They remove the impella and let's see here, they give it a couple hours and then they excavator, they take out the breathing tube and.
- 49:50And I'm still there at that time.
- 49:51They let me stay late that night, but they still wouldn't let me stay overnight, Right.
- 49:56It's a rare thing in the ICU unless the patient you're with is probably going to die, like that night or in the next day or two.
- 50:01And they're like, certain of it, right?
- 50:03That's usually the only time they'll let you stay.
- 50:07Well, they took her off of the sedation and she started to respond.
- 50:11She could barely talk at all.
- 50:12But you know for sure that she was there, right?
- 50:16She could whisper little things.
- 50:18I remember asking her a question that first night.
- 50:20I'm like, what's the name of the program that you use for worship to enter in all the songs?
- 50:25She's like, pro presenter.
- 50:30I'm like, my Brookie's there.
- 50:33Wow.
- 50:34So really, really crazy.
- 50:37So now this is where it gets awesome, right?
- 50:41I had to leave that night, every other night from there for it.
- 50:43I got to stay with her, but I got there the next morning and this is when, you know, they had every medical team come up.
- 50:51So there were several that worked on her throughout this time, right.
- 50:53But everybody came up all at once to see what.
- 50:56What was going on and figure out the plan of treatment from this point forward.
- 50:58And it was really packed and all of them were so blown away, right.
- 51:02The room got completely silent.
- 51:03They couldn't figure out how all this just transpired.
- 51:06In four days, this device is out of her heart.
- 51:08Her heart is now functioning.
- 51:10How she has brain activity and it looks like she's rapidly recovering almost hour after hour, right?
- 51:17How they didn't think she was going to survive at all.
- 51:19But now they pulled the breathing together tubes out and she's living on her own life support by God, right?
- 51:26And so here's what's cool in that moment.
- 51:30And again, it's all because of, it's glorifying God.
- 51:33You know, I just said, listen, and the whole room got silent and everybody looked at me and I said, this is what I've been trying to tell you, you know, for the last four days I've been trying to
- 51:44tell you what the Lord has done.
- 51:46And you know, you're telling me that it's impossible, that she's going to make it, that, that she's going to live, that she's going to recover.
- 51:51But I've seen miracle after miracle after miracle and I prayed these very specific things and everything has happened on this very day.
- 51:59And I started to quote the very things and everybody was looking at me so intently and it was cool because in that moment I got to witness something, right?
- 52:07All these medical professionals.
- 52:09And it's almost like I saw three buckets of people.
- 52:11One bucket.
- 52:11You saw these people just smiling and beaming and you knew that they knew the Lord and they saw what happened and they knew it.
- 52:17Two, you saw, you know, maybe people that had sort of a relationship with him, but they weren't sure.
- 52:22And this just like strengthened their faith, right?
- 52:25And then those people who don't have a relationship with Jesus, who are completely secular, right, Just absolute flesh, you know, have no true hope whatsoever.
- 52:35And they just saw something that transcended their understanding.
- 52:39Miraculous.
- 52:40Yeah, right?
- 52:42And they told me it's impossible.
- 52:44So, you know, like miraculous, right?
- 52:47And so it was cool because I got to just say to them right there, you know, I'm like, look, if any of you ever had someone in your life and you feel like you're in a situation where something
- 52:54is absolutely impossible and beyond, you call out to Jesus because he is there, he is real, he hears you and he will answer you, you know, and so I just thought that was really, really awesome, you know, of
- 53:07however God did that.
- 53:08And so Tuesday, you know, Tuesday goes by, we're into Wednesday, right?
- 53:13That's what occurred Wednesday morning.
- 53:16Wednesday she started to be able to talk a little bit more, but not very much, right?
- 53:22Thursday comes around and it was like a thousand fold improvement.
- 53:27I mean, just crazy, dude, Thursday comes around and get this.
- 53:31So they had the head pt, right?
- 53:34Physical therapists come in and they're like, we're just going to try to get you to just maybe just stand up, you know, move a little bit Thinking that she's never going to be able to walk again, Brooke gets
- 53:45up and she walks 180ft with this, like, you know, with an assisted device.
- 53:50Just.
- 53:50They're just like, what, dude?
- 53:52What is happening right now?
- 53:54Crazy.
- 53:54Right now at this point, we're in Thursday and they're talking about, okay, we didn't expect all of this, but we're seeing that she might actually make it and recover.
- 54:07But we still think it's going to be a really, really long road to recovery.
- 54:10Because on Thursday she's starting to talk, but they're not sure that she's fully there, right?
- 54:16And she can't really move fully, fully around.
- 54:18She can move, right?
- 54:19But they're still doubtful.
- 54:20So they're talking about, hey, when we end up getting her out of here, we're not sure when that's going to be, but we're going to need her in an acute care rehab facility, which is like an in house.
- 54:29You live in there.
- 54:30And she's probably gonna have to be in there for a long time trying to learn how to do things again, if she can even relearn how to do it right.
- 54:38Thursday to Friday, dude.
- 54:41God.
- 54:42So Friday the PT comes back in the room and they're like, okay, we want to try this again.
- 54:49Well, Friday it's like Brooke could talk just like this.
- 54:53It's like her voice had recovered.
- 54:54She was to at least be able to speak, right?
- 54:56She was able to have full on conversations.
- 54:59She was fully cognitively there.
- 55:02I mean, fully cognitively.
- 55:03Just like right here, right now, right?
- 55:05So they get her up and not only does she walk a little bit, she starts doing laps around the hospital.
- 55:10I'm next to her on my phone.
- 55:12I got eye of the tiger plan.
- 55:15Hey, Rocky over here.
- 55:18Got my own Rocky right here, you know.
- 55:21And so she does multiple laughs around the hospital.
- 55:23We get back into the room and a case manager comes in with a few other people and they're trying to create this plan.
- 55:30But the surgeon comes in and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- 55:33He's like, this is not what she needs.
- 55:35He said, from everything that I've seen, he said, she does not need to be in a rehab facility.
- 55:39Like this is, this is an absolute miracle for this to happen already for her to be able to do this.
- 55:44What she needs, needs is to be back at home in her routine recovering, right?
- 55:49She doesn't need any physical therapy whatsoever.
- 55:52Just mind blowing.
- 55:53I actually don't know if this is ever.
- 55:54I think I've heard of One other case of this happening, right, where somebody's like fully, fully recovered, you know, with no therapy whatsoever.
- 56:03And again, all.
- 56:04All glory to God.
- 56:05So we're done.
- 56:07A six day, six day period, dude.
- 56:09Six day period.
- 56:09Six day period.
- 56:10And if I'm giving too much detail, you know, let me know.
- 56:12I just, you know, we're kind of coming towards the end of it.
- 56:16I just think it's really important, you know, to paint all these little specific things that God did, you know, along the way.
- 56:23And so Friday they.
- 56:26Another surgeon comes in and what is it?
- 56:29Electrophysiologist.
- 56:30Correct.
- 56:31A different type of cardiovascular surgeon.
- 56:33And they put in a.
- 56:36An aicd, automatic implantable something.
- 56:40Defibrillator.
- 56:40Right?
- 56:41Cardioverter defibrillator.
- 56:43So what it is, is it's a pacemaker and defibrillator combo, right?
- 56:49Your heart stops, your defibrillator kicks in and it shocks your heart, right?
- 56:54The pacemaker, if it goes out of a range, it kind of, you know, pace my heart.
- 56:58She needs a defibrillator right now, but the pacemaker is there just in case, okay?
- 57:04And so she has that put in and she gets back and it was like she was fully alert, almost like she had like no anesthesia in her whatsoever.
- 57:13Dude, I'm telling you, it was crazy, man.
- 57:15It was almost like, I swear, like God had this full, full aura over you.
- 57:20Oh, now, it was a squirrel moment to give some exceeding glory to God.
- 57:26Cuz I love Brook so much and, you know, right?
- 57:30You got your stuff.
- 57:31Spouses who you love, you never want to see them in any pain whatsoever.
- 57:36Seeing her in all that pain.
- 57:37That first day, I remember when I had to go home and I was actually, I think I was just crying my eyes out by myself in my bathroom to the Lord.
- 57:49And I'm just like, lord, please, please heal her, restore her.
- 57:54But while you're doing it, maybe if you would be willing to take her out of her body and don't let her feel any of that pain.
- 58:00And when you heal her and restore, then bring her back into her body.
- 58:03Right?
- 58:05Well, I think it was actually, man.
- 58:09Was it Monday morning or was it Sunday night?
- 58:11I think it might have been Sunday night.
- 58:13Yeah, the next night.
- 58:14And Paul and Anna, her mom and her stepdad are behind me and we're all in the.
- 58:19The ICU room and I remember they're going to make me leave, and I have my head on Brooke's arm and I'm talking to her.
- 58:27And I remember just in my head, like, I just pictured her just smiling and I just remember telling the Lord, lord, I wish I could just take all this from her, you know?
- 58:40And I'm like, babe, I love you.
- 58:43And just.
- 58:43It was crazy in that moment, it was like God sent her spirit surging back into her body.
- 58:50I'm telling you, in that moment, I felt it because my head was on her arm, but her parents saw it.
- 58:58So Brooke leapt up and then hit the bed back down, like, right in that moment.
- 59:04Right.
- 59:04Like it was God putting her spirit in her body again.
- 59:06So I believe that he also answered that prayer.
- 59:09You know, her mom had a dream vision, maybe one of those nights where her mom couldn't see all the same things that Brooke was seeing, but basically.
- 59:19Basically, like walking her through heaven.
- 59:22Pretty much.
- 59:22That's it.
- 59:23Yeah.
- 59:23Like, Brooke was in heaven and she was describing heaven, and it was very vivid to her mom, but her mom couldn't see everything that Brooke was saying, you know?
- 59:30But, like, she was certain Brooke was there, you know, and she also knew everything was going to be okay at the same time.
- 59:36So I believe that the Lord had her there in spirit while her body was here, and he was healing her body so she didn't have to experience that pain and agony.
- 59:44For that, I'm super, super grateful.
- 59:46Yeah.
- 59:46And it's just really neat because when my mom talks about that, she expresses, you know, like, when I woke up, like, I knew that it wasn't even, like, I knew you were going to be okay and everything was
- 59:59going to be fine.
- 59:59It was just the clarity of I knew that my daughter was going to be with Jesus.
- 1:00:05Like, and that's what I think was really precious is just like, it wasn't even about if my daughter was going to get to be here at all.
- 1:00:11You know, it's just more of, like, I know that no matter if he takes her or not, like, she's gonna be with.
- 1:00:16She's gonna be with Jesus, because.
- 1:00:18So, yeah, she told me that night she surrendered to the Lord when she put her head on the bed.
- 1:00:23She was in a hotel that night by the.
- 1:00:25The hospital said she laid her bed, head on the bed, like, still was pretty much fully awake.
- 1:00:31Yeah.
- 1:00:31Just said, lord, I surrendered to you, whatever you want, you know?
- 1:00:34And then that just.
- 1:00:35He just started to see her, or.
- 1:00:36I'm sorry, she started to see her, you know, in that vision or that dream from that point forward.
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- 1:01:24Anyway, I didn't want to miss that piece because I.
- 1:01:27It was really profound what happened.
- 1:01:29And her mom and her stepdad were shocked.
- 1:01:31Well, we're, you know, we're fast forwarding to Friday now, and she has this AICD put in, and she dramatically recovers.
- 1:01:37And they have us staying there for one more day.
- 1:01:39They put her down in the step down unit on Saturday.
- 1:01:41And then they said, look, we don't really know how to explain this.
- 1:01:46Right?
- 1:01:47We don't really, you know, this is just beyond us.
- 1:01:50But you're at a place of where we could discharge you today.
- 1:01:53Wow.
- 1:01:54And you can either go home or.
- 1:01:55They wanted us to go to a third hospital because Brookhead.
- 1:01:58A lot of gastrointestinal bleeding through one part of it.
- 1:02:01Yeah, they might have nicked you.
- 1:02:02Yeah, they might have nicked you a little bit.
- 1:02:04But she did.
- 1:02:05And thank God I signed that paperwork, right?
- 1:02:08I missed this piece a couple of the nights Brooke had to have multiple blood transfusions because of the blood loss she was losing from her GI tract.
- 1:02:16Right.
- 1:02:17And because all that paperwork was signed, she was able to get all of that, you know, when she needed it, when they wouldn't let me be up there.
- 1:02:23So I missed that part.
- 1:02:24Right.
- 1:02:24That's a.
- 1:02:24It's an important piece, too.
- 1:02:27Well, we go to the other hospital, and they could never find what this bleed was.
- 1:02:32They're like, whatever this bleed was, we've scoped you.
- 1:02:35They're like, it must have just healed up.
- 1:02:38We can't figure it out, you know, so 11 days, 11 days later, right?
- 1:02:42Three different hospitals, two different heart surgeries were discharged, and we bring her back home.
- 1:02:50And, man, one of the best days of my entire life.
- 1:02:57And I want to give you something.
- 1:03:00I actually forgot that I had this in my pocket.
- 1:03:03So, you know, we celebrated, right.
- 1:03:06The one year yesterday, even though it's officially today.
- 1:03:09And Burke just made a joke.
- 1:03:11Hey, did you get me anything?
- 1:03:12You know, and.
- 1:03:13And I.
- 1:03:14I have something for it, but I was waiting for today.
- 1:03:17I was thinking for a long time, babe, what Could I get you.
- 1:03:20You know, that's not cliche.
- 1:03:22At first, I was thinking about jewelry, something like that.
- 1:03:24I'm like, it's got to be something more meaningful, more powerful.
- 1:03:27It could be simple, but it has to mean something.
- 1:03:29And so, you know, we all know what an Ebenezer Right is.
- 1:03:33Not Ebenezer Scrooge, but I raised my Ebenezer right.
- 1:03:37So, you know, throughout Scripture, when the Lord had provided miraculously.
- 1:03:43Right.
- 1:03:44Provide us for his people, whatever it was, many times they would raise an altar or an Ebenezer so that when they would pass by, they would remember the things that the Lord had done right in the past, and
- 1:03:54they would never forget to bring him glory.
- 1:03:56And so that it would continue to strengthen their faith going forward, knowing that he was there with them then and he will always be with them.
- 1:04:05So I got you something that I hope you don't think it's stupid, but I think it's like an Ebenezer.
- 1:04:12And so I'm going to show it to you, then I'm going to explain it.
- 1:04:19So the simplicity in it is.
- 1:04:23It's a keychain.
- 1:04:24Okay.
- 1:04:25But the message in all of it is extremely powerful.
- 1:04:29So first, I don't know if you can even get that on there or not, but there is a laser engraving of the very first time that me, Paige, Chloe, and Veda got to be back together with Brooke in
- 1:04:44the hospital room when they brought her out.
- 1:04:46Oh, it's a photo.
- 1:04:47It is a photo.
- 1:04:48The first photo that all five of us got to have again together when Brooke was brought back to life.
- 1:04:52If God didn't do what he did, we would never, ever have gotten to have that photo.
- 1:04:58And then on the back is a calendar, and it's at the top, it says September 2025.
- 1:05:07And then it has a heart around the 27th.
- 1:05:10Right.
- 1:05:10September 27th.
- 1:05:12Because that's the day your heart stopped, and that's the day that the Lord brought you back to life.
- 1:05:18And then over the past year, relentlessly, Brooke has said, you know, most people say, yolo.
- 1:05:25You only live once.
- 1:05:27She's like, not for me.
- 1:05:29She's like, for me, the Lord made it yolt.
- 1:05:32You only live twice.
- 1:05:34So I got another little tag that says yolt on there.
- 1:05:37That's awesome.
- 1:05:38And so here's the deal.
- 1:05:40It seems simple, but it's got to be an Ebenezer.
- 1:05:43Yeah.
- 1:05:43Every time.
- 1:05:44Here's what I thought.
- 1:05:45Every time you grab your keys.
- 1:05:46Yeah.
- 1:05:47Every time you're about to go out into the unknown.
- 1:05:50What you don't Know what God already knows and has a plan for.
- 1:05:53Anytime you're stressed, anytime, right, you're grabbing your keys just to go.
- 1:05:58Let this be a reminder that the Lord has always been there for you, that he has you here for a purpose, because if your time was up, he would have you home with Him.
- 1:06:08Right.
- 1:06:09I'm so thankful, selfishly, that his time for you isn't up and you're here with us right now because I love you and I don't know what I would do without you, you know?
- 1:06:16But let this be a reminder to give praise to the Lord and to find strength in the confidence that comes from trusting in him, knowing that the good work that he started in you, he will be faithful to
- 1:06:28bring it to completion, the day of Jesus Christ.
- 1:06:30So I love it.
- 1:06:33Thank you very much.
- 1:06:35Live on.
- 1:06:35Live on the podcast.
- 1:06:37Yeah.
- 1:06:37Wow, that's amazing.
- 1:06:38We all get experience it.
- 1:06:39So.
- 1:06:40So now a year later, I mean.
- 1:06:42I mean, obviously something like this, it's.
- 1:06:46It impacts you.
- 1:06:47Oh, it changes you.
- 1:06:48So.
- 1:06:48So tell me a little bit about, like, what.
- 1:06:51What's different now?
- 1:06:53Yes.
- 1:06:54Before, the routine of life was on, just in full swing.
- 1:07:02Always the schedules, the routines, just going, going, going, going, going all the time.
- 1:07:09And anything that would come in that could mess that up, it was like a detour, like, and it would just, like, I have one more thing, you know, and not really living, but just like coasting through everything, you
- 1:07:25know, even.
- 1:07:26Like, even through my worship, even through service.
- 1:07:29You know, there's just certain things where it's like, you just get in that headspace where you're just going through the motions.
- 1:07:35And the Lord just showed me how important it is to be present.
- 1:07:42And he literally stripped me from all of that.
- 1:07:45Like, I was.
- 1:07:46I am not able to have the schedule that I tried to have before.
- 1:07:50Like, things are just not.
- 1:07:52They don't really matter.
- 1:07:54There's certain things that are just not important.
- 1:07:56And like, the things that we, you know, put in our household, it just to be like a.
- 1:08:04Like bedtime.
- 1:08:05Bedtime was strict at 8 o'.
- 1:08:06Clock.
- 1:08:06It was just.
- 1:08:06I had to do it at this time.
- 1:08:08And I'm fighting them for an hour and a half just getting them in their room.
- 1:08:11But now it's like, I just go to bed, you know, it's like.
- 1:08:16And it's.
- 1:08:17It's so neat, though, because I know that my kids, they see the difference in just how things are.
- 1:08:25And just for me, I am able to just.
- 1:08:30Every single moment is a.
- 1:08:31Is a moment well lived.
- 1:08:33I mean, literally, like, the Things that we take for granted and the things that just pass us by in our normal everyday routines.
- 1:08:42You know, we were talking about this yesterday and just going.
- 1:08:46Kind of going through, like, all the things that were milestones this past year, you know, that it's like, my gosh,.
- 1:08:52I was able to be here for.
- 1:08:53For Thanksgiving and for Christmas and for.
- 1:08:57Chloe's birthday and then, like, New Year's.
- 1:09:00And I think when New Year's hit, that was kind of like that moment where I was in the living room where God, like, showed me, like, this is going to happen all the time.
- 1:09:12Like, he's going to give you these moments where you're just.
- 1:09:14You see, like, what it is to be alive and to be present.
- 1:09:19And it's just so cool because we're, like, counting down, you know, counting down through the.
- 1:09:25The timer.
- 1:09:2510, 9.
- 1:09:26We got beta and Chloe and Paige and Zach and, like, and Paige's boyfriend.
- 1:09:31And we're all just sitting there around the tv, just like.
- 1:09:33And I'm just sitting there like, oh, my gosh.
- 1:09:36Like, even just this moment of just would be so different, you know, Everything would be so different for them, you know?
- 1:09:44I mean, I wouldn't be there to even get to witness and experience all these things that.
- 1:09:48How many.
- 1:09:49How many New years have you been through?
- 1:09:50I mean, it's all.
- 1:09:51It's just another year, you know?
- 1:09:53But something about that just.
- 1:09:56The Lord just showed me that this is going to be something that you recognize a lot.
- 1:10:01You're going to see these things all the time.
- 1:10:04And I do.
- 1:10:06I do every single morning when I braid my daughter's hair, every single morning.
- 1:10:11And as I'm sitting there braiding, it's like I'll just.
- 1:10:15Sometimes I'll just weep because it's like, man, these little things, like, I get to do this for her, you know, And I.
- 1:10:22She wouldn't.
- 1:10:23I wouldn't be here to do this for her every morning.
- 1:10:25And, like, so just the smallest things that God will just bring life to, that maybe at a time was just part of the.
- 1:10:32Just routine and schedule, and I wasn't even present for it.
- 1:10:36I can't help but be present for all the moments now.
- 1:10:39And so, yeah, that's like the biggest thing.
- 1:10:41Like, God has just helped me to be present in everything and to slow down.
- 1:10:47Just.
- 1:10:47I mean, I sit, I rest.
- 1:10:49I just let life happen around me, you know, and just get to be a part of it while I'm in.
- 1:10:55The middle of it and let them.
- 1:10:56Come to me and just get to be around, like, Just.
- 1:10:59It's just so much different then because I just wouldn't even sit.
- 1:11:03I would just be going and getting.
- 1:11:05Do this done, and I got to do this now.
- 1:11:07I got to do this.
- 1:11:08And now I'm just like, I don't have.
- 1:11:09I'm not going to do anything.
- 1:11:10I'm going to sit here.
- 1:11:11What do you.
- 1:11:12What do you like?
- 1:11:13I'm more available.
- 1:11:14I'm just available.
- 1:11:14And I'm present for all the moments now.
- 1:11:17And it's amazing, actually.
- 1:11:19Like, I'm thankful for it because I think I have a perspective that, you know, everybody wishes that they, you know, it's.
- 1:11:27Everybody hopes to have a perspective like that sometimes.
- 1:11:30It's very overwhelming, but I'm so incredibly thankful for it because even this.
- 1:11:35The most mundane moments, like, the Lord just continues to just, like, show me how thankful and what an honor it is to just be in just every little tedious detail of your life.
- 1:11:47So.
- 1:11:48Because he's sitting there just, like, putting it all together, and so it's.
- 1:11:51It's just amazing.
- 1:11:52I just.
- 1:11:53I love it.
- 1:11:53Yeah.
- 1:11:54So good.
- 1:11:55Yeah.
- 1:11:55That's.
- 1:11:56I mean, he's truly sovereign.
- 1:11:58I mean, he obviously, like you said, he's.
- 1:12:00He has a purpose.
- 1:12:01I mean, if otherwise, you be with him right now.
- 1:12:04So there's.
- 1:12:05So you're.
- 1:12:05You're still here for a purpose.
- 1:12:07And that's amazing.
- 1:12:07That's truly amazing.
- 1:12:08How about you, Zach?
- 1:12:09Zach, I know you.
- 1:12:10You.
- 1:12:10That was traumatic for you, bro.
- 1:12:12Like, I can't imagine, as a husband, I can't imagine what you went through.
- 1:12:15And obviously that's, I'm sure, changed you as well.
- 1:12:19How has that impacted you?
- 1:12:21I'd say surrender.
- 1:12:23Presence and love are the three keys.
- 1:12:26I'd say surrender in this sense, surrendering to the moment, knowing that the control you think you have, you don't really have.
- 1:12:37God's in control, right?
- 1:12:40And like I said, he could do whatever he wants.
- 1:12:42The hard part is trusting that whatever he chooses to.
- 1:12:46To do, right?
- 1:12:46It's for good.
- 1:12:47It's for his purpose, for his glory, right?
- 1:12:49And to accept it.
- 1:12:50And I think I've had a kind of wrestle over the past year.
- 1:12:54When I think back through it, if something like this ever happened again, and it's like, what do you have to do?
- 1:12:58You have no choice but to surrender and accept what God's bringing to you.
- 1:13:01I had to accept that either the Lord could take her or the Lord could preserve her life and keep her here with us.
- 1:13:08And so I think that's one big thing because, you know, we can get really anxious when we think that control is up to us because we're scrambling, trying to make something happen.
- 1:13:21But when we find ourselves in surrender, trusting that the Lord's will will prevail, you know, and his will is good, we receive that peace that surpasses understanding.
- 1:13:30And so I find myself in.
- 1:13:32Not that the circumstances have all changed in life, right?
- 1:13:35But maybe the lens that I see, see it through, has changed.
- 1:13:38Learning a lens of surrender, presence, like she said, I would echo that one.
- 1:13:43I'm still learning it.
- 1:13:44I think that she's learned it a lot more.
- 1:13:46But just being present in the moment, you know, up until that happened, my mind would, like, always be in the future or in the past.
- 1:13:55Never.
- 1:13:55Yeah, right.
- 1:13:56So, dude, it is a battle, man.
- 1:13:58And it's funny because I heard this saying a long time ago, you know, living in the future is anxiety.
- 1:14:03Living in the past is depression or bondage.
- 1:14:05Living in the presence is peace.
- 1:14:07It's a present.
- 1:14:07It's prent.
- 1:14:08It's all that we have right now, you know, so to be present is a gift, and it's all that we have.
- 1:14:13We're living in eternity right now.
- 1:14:16And so being present in learning to whatever happens, not future trip, like, ah, I got to do this.
- 1:14:23I got to take care of this.
- 1:14:24No, I can't do that.
- 1:14:25Which is all I used to do.
- 1:14:27So you guys want to watch movie?
- 1:14:28You guys want to sit down?
- 1:14:29You want to play a game, whatever, let's just do it, you know, And I just let the stuff go and.
- 1:14:36And I'd say the last one, you know, that, like, love, obviously that love is there for sure, but I think seeing it in a different way, understanding the fragility of life from a different perspective.
- 1:14:49That night that it happened, I remember I was so tired, right?
- 1:14:54And I could hear Brooke and Paige on the other side of the house laughing, having a good time.
- 1:14:58And I was like, I'm not going.
- 1:14:59To go bother them.
- 1:14:59I'm just going to go to sleep, you know?
- 1:15:01So I didn't say good night to her that night.
- 1:15:04And I was thinking about that, obviously before she was even, like, fully recovered, you know?
- 1:15:10And one thing that I've really tried to be intentional about is, you know, just saying good night no matter what, you know, giving.
- 1:15:17Giving her a kiss, telling her I love her.
- 1:15:21I think life happens no matter what to everybody, right?
- 1:15:24Life is hard, right?
- 1:15:26Jesus said, right?
- 1:15:27In this world you will have, you know, many troubles would take care for.
- 1:15:30I've overcome the world, right?
- 1:15:33And we know that we're in this human flesh.
- 1:15:35So, you know, like, in marriage, obviously, there could be conflict and everything at times, it's just the inevitable.
- 1:15:42Right.
- 1:15:43But here's how your perspective changes when that conflict.
- 1:15:46Conflict arises so quickly.
- 1:15:49The Lord helps my mind to remember.
- 1:15:51Man, I'm thankful to have this little bit of conflict right now because I might not have it at all.
- 1:15:57And then my brain shifts to.
- 1:15:59This is something so small and stupid in our ability to just wrap arms around each other and embrace each other and, you know, reconnect that intimate connection expeditiously has been pretty profound since this happened.
- 1:16:13So I would say those three things.
- 1:16:15Surrender, presence, and love.
- 1:16:17Wow.
- 1:16:19What would you say?
- 1:16:19And this.
- 1:16:20We'll.
- 1:16:20We'll wrap up here.
- 1:16:22But what would you say?
- 1:16:23I mean, Brook, you've been given a second chance at life, and there's some that don't get that second chance.
- 1:16:30And.
- 1:16:30And just like you mentioned, Zach, right now, there is the fragility of life.
- 1:16:34Right?
- 1:16:35I mean, we're.
- 1:16:36We're all hanging out by a thread.
- 1:16:37We're delusional if we think we're in control.
- 1:16:39And the Lord could take us out at any moment without any notice.
- 1:16:42I mean, my.
- 1:16:43This breath I'm breathing could be my last.
- 1:16:45What would you say to somebody maybe right now who's maybe on the fence or riding the fence, you know, with, you know, being in the world or, you know, not.
- 1:16:54Not quite right, with their.
- 1:16:55With their relationship with Christ or maybe to the unbeliever, somebody who doesn't quite believe just yet.
- 1:17:01Like, what would you say to that person?
- 1:17:03I mean, based on your experience and how you've been given this second chance?
- 1:17:08Oh, that, like, even, like, what Chloe said is just like, how could you not believe?
- 1:17:14Because I can.
- 1:17:16I get so excited about telling the story and getting to tell the testimony because I see the whole spectrum of, like, all the stuff that happened prior to so being able to just share what God did and how
- 1:17:32he just loves us so detailed and so perfectly that.
- 1:17:39That he loved me so much that he put everything in place just as it was so that I could be saved.
- 1:17:44Like, there's nothing.
- 1:17:45I can't deny that it's unbelievable.
- 1:17:49So just being able to share the story in itself and express that with my whole heart, because I know it's true.
- 1:17:57And Jesus loves you.
- 1:18:01I mean, and you're.
- 1:18:02You're.
- 1:18:02You're.
- 1:18:03Have purpose and you're special.
- 1:18:04I mean, you're important.
- 1:18:06You're not just a little speck that, you know, isn't love.
- 1:18:09Like, he absolutely Loves each and every one of us uniquely and well and perfect to, you know, to our lives.
- 1:18:18Like it's.
- 1:18:21Yeah.
- 1:18:21That you're important, you know, and you're important to God and He loves you so.
- 1:18:25Good.
- 1:18:26Yeah, you know, that's, that's great, babe.
- 1:18:28You know, for the unbeliever, I think, I think I'd say, you know, there was a time in my life where I wasn't sure what I believed and I wasn't sure, you know, if I knew really what the truth
- 1:18:39was.
- 1:18:40And I would just share with them the whole testimony of my entire experience, not just what happened here.
- 1:18:45Right.
- 1:18:46This would feed into it.
- 1:18:47Right.
- 1:18:47But you know, first I called, you know, on a God that I wasn't even sure if he existed.
- 1:18:52And I asked him to show me the truth, if he was real.
- 1:18:55Right.
- 1:18:56He led me to Jesus to utterly convince me in a way that only he could do because he knows me, he made me.
- 1:19:02And I'm telling you, he convinced me in a worldly sense, right.
- 1:19:06Like if you would think of me in a fleshly worldly sense.
- 1:19:09Well, I'm like that guy that has all that logic that needs science based stuff, right?
- 1:19:14You know, empirical evidence.
- 1:19:15Empirical evidence, yeah.
- 1:19:16I went to school, have like three degrees, right?
- 1:19:18Like very like, you know, almost like Paul, you know, kind of talks about in that sense, you know, but knowing, like you said, you know, in all humility and humbleness, like you come to learn we can never actually
- 1:19:29have the eyes of our open unless God does it.
- 1:19:32Right.
- 1:19:33And so I would say, look, if you don't know and you want to know the truth and you believe and you know that there is something more than this, do what I did, just call out to God by
- 1:19:43yourself, on your own time, even if you're not sure, just ask him to show you the truth.
- 1:19:47And I'm confident that he will show you the truth.
- 1:19:49Like he showed me the truth in whatever way that he wants you to convince you because he knows you and he made you and he knows what you need.
- 1:19:56And then I can come through, right.
- 1:19:57And share some of the testimony, the things that he's done throughout life.
- 1:20:01And then you asked a second question.
- 1:20:02What would you say to maybe the person who's maybe not raw cause walking right.
- 1:20:07Per se with the Lord, right.
- 1:20:09But they know the Lord well.
- 1:20:11I've been in many of those seasons of life myself, right?
- 1:20:15So here's the encouragement that I would give that we can't start the work that God started us on our own, right.
- 1:20:23In Galatians, it says, I think, Galatians 3, right?
- 1:20:25What began by the spirit won't finish by works.
- 1:20:27Will it not finish by the spirit, Right?
- 1:20:29I think that's galatians, you know, three.
- 1:20:32And I believe in Romans 7, Paul talks about the wrestling match between the inner and the outer man, right?
- 1:20:38And he says, I'm going to paraphrase, but the very things I want to do, I don't do.
- 1:20:41The very things I don't want to do, I do that.
- 1:20:43Therefore, it is no longer I that do them, but sin which exists within me, that is in my flesh.
- 1:20:48Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of this death, right?
- 1:20:52Thanks be to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- 1:20:56So I would say to that person, if you know the Lord, I think in the deepest core, you know, that you don't really want to be doing those things, right?
- 1:21:04And I think that there are some things that you can actively work on and you could trim out of your life, and there are other things you're going to find yourself trying to do over and over again, and
- 1:21:13you're going to find you can't trim them out on your own.
- 1:21:16So I encourage you with this, to ask God to help you with that, because he will ask him.
- 1:21:22Lord, this is what I'm struggling with.
- 1:21:24I know it's not good.
- 1:21:25I know I don't want it there.
- 1:21:26I know it's inhibiting our relationship, though you never leave me nor forsake me.
- 1:21:30Right?
- 1:21:31Maybe our fellowship, our intimacy, you know, with one another.
- 1:21:34So, Lord, I ask that you do something that I cannot as the great physician, that you change the desire of my heart from the deepest part of me, so I no longer desire this, so that all that remains
- 1:21:46is my desire for you.
- 1:21:48That's my prayer for myself with the Lord, and it's not fully there to fruition yet, but that's my encouragement to everybody and anybody in that situation is just, Lord, finish the work that you started in me.
- 1:21:59Finish every purpose that you put me here for before you take me from this planet and you take me home with you.
- 1:22:04And Lord, make me pleasing to you.
- 1:22:06And on that day that I stand before you, let me hear you say, all because of your grace and what you did.
- 1:22:12Well done, my good and faithful servant.
- 1:22:15The joy of your master.
- 1:22:16Amen.
- 1:22:17Wow.
- 1:22:18Well, that's a good place to, to, to wrap up.
- 1:22:21I, I, I just want to thank you guys for, for just coming on the show and, and just what just amazing.
- 1:22:27God's timing, just doing it today.
- 1:22:29And just.
- 1:22:30It's just a powerful story.
- 1:22:32And for just.
- 1:22:33Just like Zach mentioned, if.
- 1:22:35If you're just not sure, if you're.
- 1:22:37If you're not quite a believer, cry out to God.
- 1:22:40That's kind of my testimony.
- 1:22:43I wasn't a believer.
- 1:22:44I didn't know what I quite believed.
- 1:22:45And I did that exact prayer.
- 1:22:47I just said, God, if you're out there, if you're real, can you show me?
- 1:22:51And he did.
- 1:22:51About two weeks later, I started a Bible study, and it wasn't long after that where a gentleman led me to the Lord.
- 1:22:57And so it was that exact prayer.
- 1:22:59So I encourage anybody who just isn't quite there yet.
- 1:23:03Just, if you don't even know how to pray, just ask God.
- 1:23:06Ask God to show him him.
- 1:23:07And he will.
- 1:23:08He will show up.
- 1:23:09He will show up.
- 1:23:11So thank you guys so much for your testimony.
- 1:23:13It was.
- 1:23:13It's.
- 1:23:14It's amazing.
- 1:23:14I'm so glad you're here still.
- 1:23:16Thank you.
- 1:23:16And thank you.
- 1:23:17Thank you.
- 1:23:18Yeah.
- 1:23:18Yeah.
- 1:23:20And I'm thankful for your guys's story today.
- 1:23:22If this story has been a blessing to you guys, would you guys do me a favor and hit that subscribe button on YouTube?
- 1:23:27We're on Instagram.
- 1:23:28We're also on Facebook as well.
- 1:23:30Give us a follow.
- 1:23:32You can find us at Abundant Life fm.
- 1:23:34We have all of our show notes there.
- 1:23:35Go we.
- 1:23:36We have all of our episodes there.
- 1:23:38And we just thank you guys for.
- 1:23:40For being faithful, for listening.
- 1:23:42We'd ask that you guys pray for us, and we'll see you guys in the next episode.
- 1:23:47Number 80.
- 1:23:47Number 80.
- 1:23:49All right, guys.
- 1:23:49Bye for now.
- 1:23:50See ya.
- 1:23:53Thank you for listening to the Abundant Life podcast.
- 1:23:56We pray you were blessed by today's episode.
- 1:23:59Please visit us online at abundantlife F.
- 1:24:03Until next time.
- 1:24:04May God bless you.