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.

[capt_buzzard]

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

[capt_buzzard]

jayboy wrote: 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? :-2


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.

[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.

[anastrophe]

is that your own words cap'n, or are you quoting someone? either way, nice.

[anastrophe]

i have mixed feelings about miracles. perhaps what i'm to say is heretical. my problem is that good things that happen to people are attributed to the grace of god, bad things are due to the person being a sinner/unfaithful/evil - even when good or bad had nothing to do with what actually happened to the person.



for example, [substitute generic fundamentalist bible thumper] some years back said that the 1989 san francisco earthquake was god bringing wrath upon san francisco for all the sin -the gays. of course, the tornados that hit oklahoma every year are not a sign that god hates mobile homes, no sir.



i don't doubt that miracles happen. i've 'seen' them myself. my mom should have died back in 1977, or at minimum never been able to speak again, after falling backwards off a ladder onto a concrete garage floor and cracking her skull. the bruise on her brain destroyed the part of her brain that controls speech - she couldn't speak for more than six months after the accident. but gradually, over several years, she 're-taught' other parts of her brain to perform that function. scientifically - at least based upon what is understood about the brain - that really shouldn't be able to happen.



of course, with my mom, having her be able to talk again turned out to be a mixed blessing. :wah: :wah: :wah:



i'm rambling, as i'm wont to do after my second cup of coffee.

[capt_buzzard]

anastrophe wrote: is that your own words cap'n, or are you quoting someone? either way, nice.


I wrote that yesterday after a time.................

[capt_buzzard]

anastrophe wrote: i have mixed feelings about miracles. perhaps what i'm to say is heretical. my problem is that good things that happen to people are attributed to the grace of god, bad things are due to the person being a sinner/unfaithful/evil - even when good or bad had nothing to do with what actually happened to the person.



for example, [substitute generic fundamentalist bible thumper] some years back said that the 1989 san francisco earthquake was god bringing wrath upon san francisco for all the sin -the gays. of course, the tornados that hit oklahoma every year are not a sign that god hates mobile homes, no sir.



i don't doubt that miracles happen. i've 'seen' them myself. my mom should have died back in 1977, or at minimum never been able to speak again, after falling backwards off a ladder onto a concrete garage floor and cracking her skull. the bruise on her brain destroyed the part of her brain that controls speech - she couldn't speak for more than six months after the accident. but gradually, over several years, she 're-taught' other parts of her brain to perform that function. scientifically - at least based upon what is understood about the brain - that really shouldn't be able to happen.



of course, with my mom, having her be able to talk again turned out to be a mixed blessing. :wah: :wah: :wah:



i'm rambling, as i'm wont to do after my second cup of coffee.


Yes, somewhere inside of me I believe that miracles do happen. One happened to me,that's another story I might share with you someday.