 Dr. John Mansonelli is a 30-year resident of the Tri-Cities where he met his wife of 29 years, established himself as a respected educator, and is raising four children. You may have seen his featured article on the front of Cadillac's January News Magazine. He visits us today as a brother in Christ with a testimony. On March 22, 2018, Dr. John collapsed on his office floor at Washington State University Tri-Cities, immediately taken to Cadillac Medical Center where it was determined that he suffered a significant heart attack with 99% blockage in three arteries. His wife and four kids were told not to expect John to survive the next hours. Howard Hart Hospital refused his transport because he will not survive the flight. The Cadillac cardiac team led by Dr. Al-Qaizi performed a catheterization to install stints as a latched ditch effort to get the blood flowing. The hope was to give John time and receive additional treatment later. During this time, five stints were installed with complications. John kept dying. His heart stopped four times for a significant amount of time. While the doctors battled to keep John alive, his family huddled in the waiting room as they heard, code blue, cath lab. John was the only person in surgery at the time and his second child kept repeating we need him but maybe God needs him more. As a heartbeat was stabilized, the procedure stopped and John was in coma for six days thereafter. Each day he was not expected to live to the next. Then his family and friends were told that if John did wake, he would likely have brain damage and not be functional. Dr. John is here with us today. Please give God some praise and some glory for him even being able to walk up here. Amen. Amen. Please join me, John. Thank you. So that is just one half of John's story because there's a whole other side to things because while he was dying, God had other plans and God was meeting John. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that, John? Wow. I'm supposed to do this quickly. Well, I tell you what, a lot of people ask what's it like to die and the journey is actually when I went down to the ground, I actually said a quick prayer, if you're there, God, I could use some help and I don't remember pretty much anything after that. I was generally at peace until I came to a dark place and it was like my body was in another room, right? And I had this urge that I needed to go find where I needed to be. And so I started struggling, kind of like swimming on the stream, I guess, as how I'd best describe it. Time is gone. There's no up, down, round, but I need to go. And so there was a lot of struggle. There was a lot of vignettes, I call them little mini things that I experienced. In each case, there was a watcher and this watcher was somebody who was unique, who stood out from the situation, but was there and would speak on my behalf at times. And there was things about struggle, about human struggle, and this helper helped me go around those things. And then I came to a village where I had to justify myself and there was every earthly reason to justify myself, why I needed to get past that next gate, I didn't know why I needed to go past that next gate, but I needed to go past that next gate and people were being turned away. And each time I was able to go in until I came to the last one where I said, well, there's nothing left, I'm nothing than just what my Creator made me to be. And at that point, I was exhausted. There was nothing left. I'm a former wrestler and I equated to being in overtime, three overtime and just spent nothing left in my body. And I had realized that I hadn't cried out and I cried out, God, are you there? And he's peace, white, not bright, not like lights, warmth, and I feel arms come around me and a very tender, strong voice saying, John, I'm right here. And it was in that moment, I realized several things. One, I've been a Christian a long time, I accepted Christ when I was young. Family was Christian, I had lived life the best I thought I knew how, right? Living life well, making best decisions. But that starkness of me sitting in the presence of God, I may as well murdered somebody with the difference that was there in my heart. I immediately had to confess and I said, God, I am so angry at you. I've been carrying a lot of stuff that I learned really well how to hide as a Christian. I let, and at that moment, it was very clear to me that I had allowed Satan to take advantage of my situations in life. My father was not necessarily a nice gentleman emotionally. He was supposed man of God, but yet he hurt me, hurt my family, divorced my mom for his own desires. And I, in my own life, had experienced 14 years previously, my wife had an affair. And there was points in my life where, I mean, I immediately went to my knees and asked for and tried to hold the faith, but I tell you it, to be honest, and God's big enough to handle this, is that I wasn't seeing God the way I thought I needed to see him and therefore he maybe wasn't there. Well, at this moment I'm realizing God's right here and I was expecting anger, but I was received with an incredible grace. I mean, we think about God as being big, but think about the most caring individual you've ever met, the most strong individual you've ever met, the most, he designed it all. He is so much more. I realized that my understanding of what I thought was God shaped upon my life experiences was my definition of God and it was so much bigger. And he grabbed me and took me to an altar and he said, we're going to get something right here, because right about that time is when I said, and why a child? From my wife's affair, there was a child and I've raised this child as my own and I love this child as my own, but there was this question of why? And at that moment he took me to the altar and he gave me a correction. And on the altar I saw ashes and I could tell it was as if you could see different colors of the ashes and the ashes had representation of what my past concerns had been that I brought to God that he took care of. And there was no weight to them, they were like fluffy little, it didn't matter. He pointed to the stairs and there's clay pots and I could see exactly my hurt, my wife's betrayal, and he said, John, I've been waiting to take him but you only brought him to the stairs. So he gave me a chance to say, you know what? And it felt like the universe had stopped at that moment. Waiting for my response, I said, if there's any grace left I'll take whatever I could get. I'm hoping for the custodian level at this point. But there was glee in his eye and he says, I'm just waiting. And he would not do it for me. I had to take the heavy pot and I had to crush it, throw it and crush it and watch his vicious wrath take those things and consume them and relieve me from. So he shifted my eyes from seeing only pain in life and trying to use my own justification and gave me shalom, which is peace but it also means balance where there's bad, there is good. And God doesn't necessarily give us the bad. He creates balance and there's things that get out of balance and we get consequences from those but every one of those is an opportunity for him to give us balance and shalom. And in that, he says, I didn't give you the child to penalize you. I gave you the child because he needed you who I knew what kind of a person you were for him as a father. And so in this, the verse Romans 828 that I've stood on so strongly in that I'm sure that a lot of times you have that God will work all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose because there are some things in life that you just cannot compute. Without the Holy Spirit, there are things you can just not handle. But like John was telling us, if we take it to the altar, not just to the steps, but to the altar, God will consume it with his wrath because he does not want any harm to come to you. And if you sit in the presence of the Holy Spirit, he will translate it and say, I know what this looks like, but what you don't understand is he needed you. And you were strong enough to do it. So let's go ahead and continue. Yeah, this is going to be easy in 10 minutes. I tell you, it's been a transformational experience to go from someone who thought that God cast me out and was not worthy of his love anymore to, and I was a believer. Don't get, what a point I want to make is most of the Bible is actually written to believers that need to fix their frame. And Jesus was sent because we weren't getting it the old way. So we're going to go even to that next level. And relationship became very clear to me. After I was released from that frame of mind of being a victim, to being a hero, he said, now let's get to work. And he was able to show me the magnificent work of the Father taking every single prayer from everywhere. Every moment, time is not a thing. He can intercede in every single thing and he can work in before, during and after. And he's got the biggest compliment to his creation as he's given free choice. And at every step, we are given that choice. And there's consequences for choosing or not choosing. It was very clear to me. And the purpose we have on the other side is not just to exist and praise and play harps. There's powerful work to be done on the other side. And he got me excited. And then he said, guess what? You're going back. And he said, I want you to be quiet and listen. And I want you to come to me and I want you to be with me. And he made it real clear, my God, my wife, my kids, everybody else in that order. And when I came back, it was like the genie going back into that small itty-bitty little bottle, the communication and the intimacy I had at that time. It was dimensional. It was color, words, flavor, temperature, emotion, all at one time. And I am now on, it's like going to see Mount Everest. And now when I'm back away from my trip, when I want to see God and I go look at the word and I go, oh, there he is. And it's not, you look at the vernacular, you have to understand the context so that you can see the God's intent behind it. And you go, oh, it's really that simple, isn't it? I gotta be with you and I gotta be for you and I gotta be broken daily, broken daily, broken daily. So it was fun to hear and see cuz every time, now after I come back, I get reaffirmations everywhere on my experience and I go, yep, there he is. Whereas before I was beginning to ask, where are you, God? Well, so he took my physical heart, and that was just, he took advantage of that situation to fix my real heart. And it was clear, whenever I'm asked, I'm to tell my story. I don't need to convince anybody. I know, I don't need to convince anybody. I know where the other side is, I know what's gonna be there. I'm not afraid of the other side, I don't wanna leave my family. But it is way bigger, way beyond any imagination that we think we understand what it's about. So my words today are not as a theologian. I'm not gonna debate theology, but I'm here as a brother who experienced it, has been transformed, I was broken, he met me where I needed to be. He made me whole, shalom, and now it's for you to decide whether it's hope, whether it's motivation, or it's something you need to do. But don't hide in your Christianity and protect yourself and think you're by yourself. I was a master, I was a father, I wasn't about to let my kids see myself be weak. I was a chief of staff, and an executive in leadership. Everybody takes potshots at you, you protect yourself. As a Christian, we're under attack, you learn to protect yourself. You don't risk sounding crazy. I invite you to be crazy a little bit. Hi there, this is Lana, thank you so much for watching this testimony. I bet you were blessed. If you would like to see more of these testimonies, please subscribe and thank you again for watching.