Coincidence? God-incidence!  At Springville First United Methodist Church, people often share personal stories of how God has worked in their lives.  To add your story to this website, email it to the Web Ministry Team.

"I guess I'm still supposed to be here!"  In the hospital, doctors only gave me three hours to live.  I heard Rev. Derk talk many times about the power of prayer.  I am living proof that the power of prayer is more powerful than medicine!  The team of five kidney specialists weren't able to help.  There was another specialist, a Dr. Cunningham, but it wasn't even his day to be in the hospital.  For some reason, he was called in for another case and just happened to be there in the hospital.  I remember hearing him paged over and over until he came to supervise my case.  He gave the instructions and ordered the medications, including four pints of fresh blood and getting me ready for dialysis.  When it was clear I was going to make it, he told me God must have plans for me.   Romans 14:8  If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

"A Place for my Mother"  After our father died, my brother and I asked our mother where she wanted to live.  "Why right here!" she said, although at 85 she had limited mobility and we knew she would need help to remain in the isolated country house she had shared with Dad.  We set up a support system, but she was lonely.  After two months, she ended up in the hospital, very depressed and with some medical problems.  In the emergency room she announced that she was never going back to the house she and Dad had lived in!  My brother, who lives 3000 miles away in Hawaii, and I, who live 300 miles away, looked at each other.  How could we find a place for Mother on such short notice when we weren't even familiar with the area? 
      Behind the curtain in the next booth at the emergency room was an elderly woman whose sister said something about "private home", and then a younger woman who was obviously a caretaker came in.  I went around the curtain and told them that we would be looking for a place for my mother, but since we were from out of town, we didn't know where to start.  The caretaker said that she had a friend with a licensed home, and gave me the phone number.  I went outside the hospital and called on my cell phone.  "Judy" was home, sounded very nice, and had an opening right then in her licensed family-care facility, at a price we could afford!  I visited, then took my brother to visit, and when we told Mother about it she said "I knew there must be a place for me!"  The warmth and loving care Mother has experienced there has helped her through the grief process and taken a huge load off our family because we know Mother is well cared for.  It is close enough to her old home that friends and her nieces can visit.
     Was it coincidence that brought someone who knew of a suitable home with an affordable opening into the next booth at the emergency room?  Was it coincidence that she not only knew the phone number, but that connection was made so easily?  I don't think so.  Read Luke 11:9-12