This is a very special Guest Blogger – if you can call him that way. It’s a story that is very near and dear to my heart and very religious. So if you can’t stand reading something like this, feel free to browse along other posts. I present you my Dad…he wrote this himself.

My Near Death Experienced happened way back on 25^th of January 1999, an experienced that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

This is the story……………….

25^th January 1999.

At the time I was still working with one of the biggest Coal Mine Company in a remote area within the jungle of East Kalimantan. On this particular day,  I was working to start  a new safety training.

That morning I thought I was catching a cold, my joints aches and it kept getting worst by the hours.  I decided to took some anti influenza tablets from the office.

A few minutes later, the pain became almost unbearable so I  decided to go to the hospital.  Since I  didn’t think  I had enough strength to go myself, one of my staff drove  for me. When we arrived in the emergency room my condition deteriorated badly where I can’t even walk by myself.

They took me directly to the emergency room. To the on-call doctor I explained the pain, of how all muscles on my left shoulder down to my arm was in excruciating pain. As if someone was ripping all my muscles out.

I glanced at the clock on the ER room,  it was 9:50am.

The Doctor instructed the nurses to put an ECG machine on me to monitor my heart.  “Sir….your heartbeats doesn’t look very good. It doesn’t beat at a normal rhythm at all.” said the doctor after looking at the monitor for a few minutes. I tried to digest the news…I was having a heart attack!

That was the last thing I heard.

My nephew who came to the ER later said he saw the flat line on the ECG monitor and my lungs stops at the same time. I was technically dead!

The doctor gave me a DC shock to start my heart, but there was no reaction, that’s when the head of the hospital (an Australian Senior Doctor) came to the ER and took over everything.

The Doctor injected something directly to my heart and maximized the voltage on the DC shock unit, then gave me a second DC shock. This time it worked and brought me back alive after for my heart and lungs collapsed and stopped working for 15 seconds.

This 15 seconds window of no heart and lung activities, gave me an experience that I will never forget for my whole life.

This is my experience…………

photo credit: petersandbach

Somehow I saw myself standing on the front edge of a big wooden ship, my wife and my 3 children standing by the port and looking at the ship, they were crying calling out my name. The view around the port was beautiful but I knew I didn’t want to go, I tried to jump out but was paralyzed, as if there were plenty of people holding me still.

The ship was on a right angle to the port and started to reverse to the open sea, and after awhile I knew that I can’t jump out anymore. I thought this is the time that I have to returned to the Lord.

Suddenly I heard a quite clear voice:  “What have you done in your entire life for Jesus Christ? “ This question came twice, and my whole life was flashing back in front of my eyes, everything was shown to me…one at a time.  Based on what I had seen, it shows there are too many sins that I had done compare to the good deeds. And I came to an understanding that Hell is a direction I deserved and heading to.

I managed to say a simplest prayer to Jesus Christ, I said Lord Jesus, please forgive my sins and give me a second change to become a better Christian, I repeated my prayer twice.

Quickly after that I saw that I’ve been lifted up to the air by two persons, I can’t see their faces as it were covered by wings. I saw myself flying high up in the air, and passed a black sea with fire flaming on top of the sea. We flew lower and I recognized what I saw, it is not a black sea, but people heads screams for help, I believe that this must be hell.

I saw big bible opened in-front of me, it is the New Testament, John 15:1-8

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. ⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.” Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.

After I read all of these verses I woke up and find myself in the ER room. The Senior Doctor called my name and smile at me. Thanks God, I was brought back to life.

On the same day, the doctor along with a senior nurse flew me to a nearby city which is Balikpapan and took me to a hospital for further treatments. Staying in the ICU for 7 days, my condition didn’t changed at all so they decided to evacuated meJakarta where I was taken to a special hospital for heart treatment.

Since then I had 3 heart surgeries within a year. The first one, a balloon was inserted to open the blocked vein, 3 months later I went for another surgery to put a stent for the doctor to insert a tube inside my collapsed artery – preventing another blockage. Six months later we decided an open heart surgery was a better approach. The last surgery took 7 hours.

After being released from the hospital, my family and I went to a church on a Sunday, and there was a testimony from a lady who had a near death experienced. She said that when she’s entering the world of death, she had to walk a narrow path and she heared a clear voice asking: “What have you done for Christ in your life?”. I said to my wife and families, that testimony sounds just like mine, I had this identical experienced, being asked the same question.

After a long consultation with a pastor, I decided to serve God continuously, not by becoming a pastor but to change my life and become a better Christian.

We don’t know what will happen with our life, no one really knows when our time here on earth is up. We might not be able to see the sun shines tomorrow, but the biggest question was, if tonight we have to see the Lord, are we ready to be judged for all of  our sins? To be honest, I don’t think so. Most people that I shared my Near Death Experience gave me the same answer; most people thinks they will die of old age. The saddest thing was, regret always came too late…and this apply to me as well…I wish that I could serve the Lord better before my life ends…I was lucky, very lucky and blessed to be given a second chance.

We don’t have to be a pastor to serve God, by being a good person, following and living God’s teachings,  live a life of a good Christian so there will be no regret when our times come. Some people said, I wish I had enough time to do good things in life…But we do not have a direct control of our life, what if tomorrow is our last day, are we ready?

Since 2003, my family and I had chosen to be born again Christian. I had made a commitment to serve God within my abilities and talents given by God.

This is my own commitment; to share my experience to everyone who is willing to hear this, even through my daughter’s blog. I’m not a perfect person – no one is, only our God – but I had received a “Returned ticket of life”, a luxury that not everyone receive from the Lord. And I yearn to use what’s left of my days here wisely and be a good Christian, not only as a good listener but a doer that’s willing to apply all God’s words into actions, one step at a time. This is not as easy as it says, but I believe I’m only able to do things with God’s blessing, not relying on my own power.

I have been sharing this testimony to so many relatives, friends at work and God allowed me to share this at different churches in Indonesia, Congo and Zambia (where I’m currently working at). With God’s grace, I will continue doing this until my time ends. Praise the Lord!

God Bless You.