My dad, Louis James Martin. Went to heaven 20 years ago on July 18, 1999.

My dad, Louis James Martin. 

Went to heaven 20 years ago.

July 18, 1999

July 18, 2019

Twenty years ago today my Dad (pictured in the photo, bottom right, with his two older sisters Esther Martin Lyons and Jean Martin Schultz, and his older brother, Bill Martin) went to heaven, after having lymphoma cancer. He would have been 70 three days later.

Mom (Lila Martin Parker) and Dad had moved here in Charlotte, North Carolina just 4 years prior, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to be with several of the 8 kids who then lived here, and to assist me with the ministry I worked with at the time. Being a "do-whatever-it-takes" kind of guy, and knowing much of the construction and electrical trade, he was quite the one to have around.

I remember one specific time when he and I took out the horse barn doors in that barn to make the place into a House of the Lord at All Nations Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Also the time he worked on the Heritage USA amphitheater in Fort Mill, South Carolina, upgrading the electrical wiring, so the show could go on - "The Passion Play." (That same piece of ground is just a few hundred yards where I now work at Antioch International Church.)

Dad was a hard worker, often more than 60 hours a week with his maintenance job at Viking Pump Foundry in Cedar Falls, and his own electrical business called Martin Electrical Services. He would rewire churches at no cost to them.

He did not say a whole lot. Most often what he did was enough to show his concerns for being responsible, diligent, and providing for his family - Mom and the 8 kids.

I know Dad is with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now. He professed faith in the Lord after a Bill Gaither Trio concert. Maybe he did before he reached 50, but at least at that time, it was for certain.

Thank you, Lord, for my Dad. He was a true example to me!

With my love,

Steve

1968

 1962

 Camping trip to Colorado (1965?)

1973

 1995 with Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

Charlotte, NC

2 years before Dad passed on we honored him on Father's Day

at All Nations Church. June 15, 1997.

Our last family photo with Dad before he passed on.
July 1999 in Cumberland, KY

'I Saw These Swirling Lights': Double Lung Transplant Pastor Says He Died, Went to Heaven, Heard Jesus - CBNNews.com

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Woman Who Says She Died and Went to Heaven Reveals God’s Haunting Words Before Her Return - CBN News Billy Hallowell, Faithwire

Photo Credit: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images via Faithwire

Woman Who Says She Died and Went to Heaven Reveals God’s Haunting Words Before Her Return

09-26-2017

CBN News Billy Hallowell, Faithwire

Dr. Mary Neal recently shared her fascinating experience of purportedly dying and visiting heaven — an event that left the once-skeptical doctor with a totally transformed perspective.

READ: Skeptical Scientist Who Said She Died and Visited Heaven Reveals What She Saw During Near-Death Experience

In a recent appearance on “The Billy Hallowell Podcast,” Neal discussed some of the stunning things she says she saw after she died during a kayaking accident.

“I absolutely believe that God presents to each one of us that scene at that experience that we’ll understand, that will resonate with us, that will make us feel welcomed and loved and understood and known,” she said of heaven. “And the thing that has always moved my soul deeply is color and flowers and the intricacies of flowers and the aromas of flowers. And so that’s what I saw.”

Neal continued, “This path was woven together and created out of every color of the rainbow and colors that don’t exist here. There were flowers, there was the aroma, and everything absolutely exploded with God’s love.”

She also revealed that God essentially told her that her son would later die, an event that did come to fruition.

Listen to Neal reveal what she saw and heard below:

Read more about her story here.

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What God Told This Little Girl When She Went to Heaven - JESSILYN JUSTICE CHARISMA NEWS

What God Told This Little Girl When She Went to Heaven

3/17/2016 JESSILYN JUSTICE  charisma news

Photo above: The Beam sisters playing, with Annabel center. (Courtesy/Beam family)

Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

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What do you do when your daughter lies dying in a hospital bed? How do you pray when she looks at you to say, "Mommy, I want to die and go to heaven and be with Jesus where there is no pain ... you would kill yourself and go with me"?

Christy Beam's heart broke in that moment.

"I felt sick, felt like throwing up," Beam says. "What that meant to me wasn't the loss of me, too, but it meant she had processed it, that daddy will be here to take care of other girls, they will be fine. She wasn't going to go without me. It wasn't a fleeting thought, it was a thought she had taken to process the execution. ... It terrified me."

The Beam family's faith is chronicled in Miracles From Heaven by producers like T.D. Jakes and DeVon Franklin out now.

READ: 'Miracles From Heaven': The Film That Does Everything Right

Annabel Beam is a ray of sunshine for her family. The girl who plays the French horn because it has the same word as french fry is the second child for Christy and Kevin. Her story begins with a childhood diagnosis with life-threatening digestive conditions.

She was 4 when she started having "tummy toubles" as her mother called them, 5 when the nightmares of surgeries and going from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital began. Each day, Kevin and Christy watched their mellow little girl fall deeper into herself, losing the vibrancy that used to envelop her.

It was during those hospital visits that Christy found her faith being challenged and her hope waning. At times, she was almost silent in her communication with God, afraid that His answer to her prayers would be "No." And then the Lord spoke to her.

"You need to start reaffirming who you know God is, need to start praying for things in a way you know God can do," Christy says. "He is a mighty God, an almighty and amazing God—not a vending machine."

But God also spoke to Annabel, the girl says, and told her something astounding: "I believe that I was cured because whenever I went to Heaven I asked Jesus if I could stay with him and he said, 'No Annabel, I have plans for you on Earth.'" 

When Christy prayed for Annabel's healing, it came about in a way that may have cost her life.  

Annabel was climbing a tree with her sister one afternoon when she fell. And not just a little slip. Annabel tumbled 30 feet into a hollowed-out cottonwood tree. After rescuing her, the Beams made their way to the all-too-familiar hospital. Test after test revealed there was nothing wrong with Annabel—nothing including the subsiding of her debilitating illness.

That was in 2011.

The now 12-year-old is a source of joy for all who meet her, and not just because of her gratitude for life. She's a deep thinker, Christy says, but the word "chicken" can send her into giggle fits.

But more than anything, Annabel is physical proof of God's faithfulness.

"I really feel like God has called me to be hyper aware and encourage others to be aware, to not only recognize acts of faith by Christ in our lives, but realize what are our acts of faithfulness back," Christy says. "What are we doing to show Him? ... I feel like, we say God is faithful, I feel like that's an adjective, and it should be a verb."

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