Man Recovers From 'Non-Survivable' Near Drowning After Prayer

[CVX]

VICTORIA -- A Chinese exchange student who went into a coma after nearly drowning has amazed doctors by apparently making a full recovery after a group of people prayed for him.

Li Peng, 19, was not expected to survive after being pulled out of a swimming pool last January. He had been underwater for at least four minutes and did not regain consciousness.

As he clung to life in hospital, a group of Pentecostal Christians prayed at his bedside and, against medical expectations, he slowly began to recover.

"And in his case, I probably would have said this is a non-survivable situation," said Dr. Alan Meakes, chief of intensive-care medicine with the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Although not directly involved in Li Peng's care, Meakes is familiar with the case and recalls that the medical prognosis was bleak. "I think it is fair to say that nursing and medical expectations for Li Peng were death or vegetative state."

Shortly after the accident, Li Peng's father, Li Shao Zeng, arrived in Canada from China to be with his son. He was met at the airport by Lily Chow, a program co-ordinator at the English Language Centre at the University of Victoria, where Li Peng had been studying English since September.

Unable to speak Mandarin, Chow contacted Laurence Wan, a pastor at the Chinese Pentecostal Church who spoke the father's dialect.

Shortly afterward, Wan and his wife arrived at the hospital. But when Wan entered Li Peng's room and saw the young man's sweaty, swollen face, his heart sank.

Wan prayed silently that God would give him faith and the right words to comfort the father. Then, he leaned down to touch Li Peng's hand and whisper in his ear.

"Li Peng, I'm a pastor," he said. "And if you can hear something, don't be scared. Your father's here."

He asked Li Peng for a sign that he was listening and told him, if he could, to ask for God's help.

But Wan, who has a 21-year-old son of his own, neither saw nor felt anything, and he left the hospital that night feeling dejected. He remembers it was cold outside and, as he walked across the parking lot, his wife mentioned that Li Peng had tapped her hand lightly during the prayer.

His faith strengthened, he spoke of Li Peng's plight the next morning to a group of Mandarin-speakin people studying Christianity at the University of Victoria. One of them, Kai Rempel, asked if she could bring an evangelist friend to the hospital to pray.

Rempel had met Joyce Lohrer through the Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church, and the two women joined Wan for a prayer session at Li Peng's bedside.

This time, Wan anointed the young man's head, hands and feet with oil and everyone prayed silently for him to get well.

Nothing happened immediately. But Lohrer says that it was after the session, as they were getting ready to leave, that she witnessed the first of what would be many "miracles" involving Li Peng.

"We had stepped away," she says. "And his father called him by name, and he turned with his eyes still closed toward his dad. Then I went to say something, that we were leaving, and he turned toward me as well."

That night, Li Peng opened his eyes for the first time since the drowning. And, over the following days and weeks, he appeared to defy medicine by regaining consciousness, then recovering the ability to sit up, write, speak and walk.

Recently, Li Peng was back under the water again, this time getting baptized. He has no memory of the drowning incident or the early days in hospital, and he smiled after Wan dunked his entire body into an aquamarine tub before the church congregation.

Li Peng now lives with Wan's family in Victoria and plans to return to university this fall. Eventually, he hopes to become a gardener.

"I believe in God," he says, "I believe that Jesus saved my life."

Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

[Warsai]

What can I say, miracles happen.

[jayboy]

“You are in my image”. I have learned by ordeal and lost contact, the Creator exists in our spirit. I believe we mortals haven’t scratched the surface of our abilities. Groups of folks really believing transmit energy capable of many things. Miracles do happen.
jayboy

[plazul]

Peer reviewed medical studies have shown that people who are prayed for recover faster from illness, injury, and surgery.

Couldn't hurt.

[capt_buzzard]

You people really are something else. I thought you lived in the real world.

[jayboy]

Originally Posted by capt_buzzard

You people really are something else. I thought you lived in the real world.

I have been reading a lot of your stuff and I am deeply sorry for the pain you must be suffering. That's a tough way to enter retirement. I am convinced, especially since you have not found friendship on the web, you would find much more peace in your heart if you shared it with a supreme being with what ever name you choose.

By the way, the web is not a good placce to find a friend.

I really don't believe Martin Luther is the base of US religion. He married a Catholic Nun didn’t he?

[capt_buzzard]

Originally Posted by jayboy

I have been reading a lot of your stuff and I am deeply sorry for the pain you must be suffering. That's a tough way to enter retirement. I am convinced, especially since you have not found friendship on the web, you would find much more peace in your heart if you shared it with a supreme being with what ever name you choose.

By the way, the web is not a good placce to find a friend.

I really don't believe Martin Luther is the base of US religion. He married a

Catholic Nun didn’t he?

I could not care less if he married the Queen of England. The good holy Roman Catholic Church went over with the Irish from 1846 to the US. Rome must have got wind of the gold in the city of the angels and on the streets of new york. That same church blead us dry in Ireland.This country only woke up to that fact with it selling off large chunks of land worth billions. As I said before,religion is all about power. Like sexual abuse is also about power. They are both Evil according to them who preach religion,but really do not believe it themselves.

One man who was abused by an Irish Christian Brother,told me that this brother went to holy mass regular to offer it up to his God. www.paddydoyle.com

I'll leave you in peace Jayboy.

[jayboy]

I have somewhere in this large selection of topics, mentioned I have no use for Clerics. My Uncle Ed O’Toole was a Christian Brother for a few years and finally told them to take a hike and he got on with his life. I was a poor kid in a rich parish school and the horrors of my life began. I was excommunicated when a Kennedy, married 4 years, received an annulment. For a while I golfed with a parish Priest a great golfer and a hell of a guy. This gave me insights for which I didn’t ask.

While pursuing an education of sorts, one of my campus positions was Stoker of very large boilers. Sometime the shifts overlapped and there was time to talk with another student. This guy was failing liberal arts then went to education in which he continued to fail. He told me the only way he could remain in school was to change to religion, which he did. Need I say more?

I see James Jones, Jimmy Swaggert (sp), the Bakers, and the pedophiles to mention only a few Clerics shaping my vision of Clerics in general. As with the politicos running our great country I never said go worship a mortal Cleric. What I meant although I may have written it in a poor manner is, as with the politicos ruining this great nation, Clerics have been destroying religious orders, since the beginning of time. However, the Creator Prevails and it is with this entity I suggest dialog improves our existence and allows us to continue. My deepest apologies, to those Theologians, really trying to make a positive social difference.


Thazzall, nothing more nothing less. God be with you and carry on. I’ll be back.

Oh, yes. When I consider Martin Luther, I remember him leaving Catholicism, when he marries a Catholic Nun and launching the Lutheran Church. You are correct about the religion brought to this great land.

[capt_buzzard]

Excellent. And I don't mean that in a derogerty manner.

[capt_buzzard]

I have not been to many forums,boards ect. The odd one or two,but none have made any impression on me as this ForumGarden has.


And then I knew


Once upon a time...I wanted to run
away, to go anywhere, or nowhere,
I'm not sure which. It doesn't matter now,
but none the less, I wanted to escape.
And the more I think of it, the more I'm
certain I have found the right word. Escape.
I asked myself why, and where to, and when,
Yet found no script equal to my feelings.


I was feeling abandoned and alone.
And then I knew I didn't want to run
away to anywhere,to knowhere, and
escaped nothing. In truth, I should have
run to my inner self in search of me.



Thanks Jayboy.