By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Testimony by Jeffrey T. and Rebecca McKinney Part One
“Monday, May 24, 2021, began like any other day. It was to forever change my life.
“I’d wanted to finish up some bathroom tile work at another house, and the tool needed was located near my home. I wasn’t feeling very well and since it was lunchtime, I planned to eat lunch at home.
“My wife Rebecca had earlier decided not to go out that morning as previously planned. How well my Lord orchestrated all of what happened that day!
“As I came through the door, I had to grab my chest because of pains beginning to hit me. The pain intensified and I began moaning. My wife called the fire station, 300 yards across from us. They responded with two paramedics, and a gurney in about two minutes. (It must have been when, Rebecca called our friend of 20 years, Rev. Tim Melton, to ask for prayer.)
“You shall live and not die! You shall live to fulfill the Lord’s call on your life.” Pastor Tim had prayed boldly. He comforted Rebecca with, “His spirit can still hear what’s been said.”
“By the Grace of God, God is able. Thank You, Lord. I love and thank Him for His Mercy,” added Jeff. “As I went into full cardiac arrest, the paramedics were able to begin alternating doing chest compressions for a span of what was to be 49 minutes without a heartbeat.
“Only the compressions were pushing the blood around, as they rushed me to Pardee Hospital to the prepared heart-care facility in Hendersonville. Bob, one of the paramedics, told Rebecca, ‘I’m going to do all I can to help save him.’ Rebecca was told they had tried to shock his heart 9 times during this time. She was told also her husband would be placed in a sleep state so they could lower his body temperature to 81 degrees to protect his other organs from further damage.”
“Two heart doctors were there waiting in the operating room upon arrival. Dr. Joseph Moore, heart surgeon, said it was ‘the first time he had ever had a paramedic come into the operating room straddling a patient’s chest, doing compressions.” They didn’t stop compressions. The Doctor kept up the heart massage, as necessary as two stints were placed.”
Rebecca began telling her part with, “I heard someone say, ‘Doctor, he’s gone, it has been 49 minutes.’
Dr. Moore, a believer himself, had responded, “It is not even when, but if he wakes up. Jeff will have to wake up on his own. I am only a tool God has used in all of this. I put in the two stints. It is up to God what happens now.”
Rebecca told them and the staff, recognizing God’s Amazing Grace, “Jeff will wake up. He will be very hungry when he wakes up. He will ask, to eat, first.
Almost two weeks later, that is exactly what happened. Rebecca told us, “Someone brain-dead, would not keep pulling out the various tubes and ventilator, if he was not able to think anymore, or do anything like that.”
She was told in the counseling room that her husband was given less than a 10 percent chance of coming out of the coma. She told them, “satan only tries to rob us, with death staring us in the face.” She had heard God tell her, Be still, and was.
Preparing them for months, God talked to them about their faith, how to use it. “Everyone who believes has faith, but if one never uses it, how can they be sure they have what’s needed? I just keep telling satan, you are a liar! I wanted to punch him at least once. “God is a Miracle Worker!”
“I’m hungry” was Jeff’s first statement. “He was told his heart was strongly beating—a total impossibility, it was beating like new. That was God!”
“They’d had to get permission to tape his hands to the bed in order to keep all the tubes in place, and still unconscious, he kept managing to do so, with his hands taped to the sides of the bed.
Jeff woke up, went into therapy for a week, a bit weak since he hadn’t been up walking. He also told us that He had seen Jesus coming through a door into a room with the brightest light and so beautiful—with no pain. He could see the door but was told he couldn’t go there yet. He would have to return to Earth. To be continued.
