This incident occurred down the street from me in Spring Valley and I’m just now learning about it. It’s hard to believe that in 2022 I was living my life carefree, delivering food, working out, going for walks, completely unaware of what was transpiring in my neighborhood. I’m beyond shaken by this.
I had a severe lung infection as a child about 5 years old when it started and was not expected to grow into adolescence as scar tissue didn't grow and the doctors anticipated my lungs to rupture between healthy tissue and scar tissue as I grew up. My mother took me to every doctor she could to save me and they all did what they could but it was wait and see what would happen as I grew. In-between doctor visits my mother took me to any faith healer she could find. We went to see Billy Graham, Kathryn Khulman, Kirpal Singh, psychics, snake handling churches in Kentucky, mystics but no healings prevailed. One day she heard of Rev Jim Jones in Indiana. We were in Ohio and it wasn't far so my mom packed up the station wagon and off we went to see Rev Jim at his church. This was about 1960
It was a nice neighborhood church with many black and asian members of the congregation. Everyone was friendly and welcoming. Reverend Jim Jones was handsome and so dedicated to his congregation. We started attending every Sunday for his services. Local people did not appreciate the mix of black and whites in church and often before I got to the car my father already went to the parking lot to wipe the racial slurs written in soap or paraffin on the congregation's cars there. Later on church members would campus the parking lot to avoid the attacks. Reverend Jim did much good work for civil rights which were such an issue in the USA at that time. He stood up for equal rights for all races which caused many complaints against him and the congregation at the time.
One day after church service as we were all leaving Rev Jim came up behind me and placed his arms around my shoulders and pulled me towards him. I got my healing. He did this two Sundays in a row. My next visit to the doctor all of the scars in my lungs vanished and totally replaced by healthy perfect tissue. 65 years later my lungs remain healed. the doctor sent me to the hospital not because I was sick this time, but because I was healthy. They did many studies and biopsies but could not explain the miraculous healing.
In about 1965 Rev Jim moved to California, I never saw him again. I was never at Jonestown but shocked when it appeared on the news on TV. I don't know what happened after he left Indiana but what I saw resembled nothing like the man I knew in the early 1960s. When I attended his church every single person that came to church on Sunday morning left for home Sunday afternoon. That was back then, when the times were good.
From my experience to have a second chance at life with a healing from, or through Rev Jim and other life experiences I grew up and became an RN. Later, I became a Hospice RN working in an AIDS inpatient unit in the 1980s and then in the 1990s worked at a Pediatric Hospice Inpatient Unit with terminally ill children. Now I'm an old man but still working Pediatric Hospice but exclusively with newborn and infants supporting their families and the infant through such a difficult time. Maybe in my way this is how I honor those that Rev Jim took with him so early in their lives when I got my healing as a terminally ill child myself but am still standing and able to continue with my work to provide comfort and support for the children and their young parents.
I recently got to tell my story about my healing and becoming a Hospice RN on an interview with T&H Afterlife . What a relief it was to share so it's not forgotten when my time does come. Unfortunately because of Jonestown the good Rev Jim did prior has been forgotten. I'm glad I got to share some of my memories. It makes people angry I'm not emotionally destroyed but I got a healing and redirection of my life that I'm not going to waste looking backwards when I can look forwards and help Hospice children and their families make it through the toughest times of their lives.
Thank you everyone in my life for being a part of it and directing me to be the person I unfolded to become and that includes Reverend Jim
1000 Years of hurt