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Dick Bowman's Witness

Introduction

About 12 years ago I ran into Dick Bowman who is a priest in the Diocese of Central Florida and he told me how he was healed at a Eucharist in Central Florida. I have often used that story to demonstrate the love of the risen Christ at the Eucharist, but began to wonder if I had remembered it correctly. So I called him today, and he called me back, and we just finished our phone conversation. He repeated the story, and I made notes and am now transcribing them exactly as he narrated it to me.

Dick Bowman's Witness

Dick almost died several times of various complications. First he had severe ulcers, and there was a pretty complicated and risky operation that they carried out in which they cut the vagus nerves. Thereafter he got multiply pulmonary emboli, blood clots, three onslaughts of them. The doctors estimate about 30 in all, in his lungs and heart. They put in a venacava catheter, which is a line inserted in the jugular vein and going into the heart. Once there, it opens into a little umbrella within the heart to keep the clots from entering the heart. Then he got thrombophlebitis, which was an inflammation causing blood clots in the deep veins. This was so bad that his toes developed gangrene because the blood was not getting to his feet. Then, in reaction to the blood thinners they gave him, he had massive internal hemorrhaging, and got a hematoma in the left groin, or rather, debris left over from the hemorrhaging destroyed the femeral nerves on the lower left side of his body. As a result he was paralyzed on the left side from the hip down. He went to Mayo clinic, and they told him that his body chemistry was deteriorating and that it was irreversible. Shortly thereafter, he had a massive coronary, which nearly killed him and left him completely disabled. He was told that he would be better off without the cold and snow of the North. He came to Florida, expecting to live no more than twelve to eighteen months.

On a Sunday, 3rd Sunday of 1977, he went to a Sunday morning Eucharist at All Saint's Episcopal Church, Winter Park. Then, at about the time to come up to receive the Eucharist, he felt a silence so intense, so deep, that he could almost touch it. He knew it was Christ, and he was flooded by a profound sense of well being. He knew he was healed, although he could hardly believe it. Then he noticed that he could move his left foot, then his knee, none of these could move due to the lost nerves. He then walked up the aisle to receive communion without his cane. Until then, he walked with a cane and by swinging his left leg forward. His wife knew something had happened. Part way up the aisle to receive communion, she asked what was going on. He said, "I will tell you as soon as soon as we get home." They didn't stay for the final hymn, but went home, and he told her that Christ had healed him. They put a record on the record player and danced together. After he was healed, he went to the doctor and they had just received the results of more testing they had done at Mayo. These tests revealed that he had further deteriorated. He was then retested in Orlando. His lungs were completely clear, he had been a heavy smoker for years. His heart was excellent, his leg unparalyzed. At one point, just as all these complications were beginning to occur, his condition was so severe that he was told he had about fifteen minutes to live. They called the church in Moline, Illinois, where he was then living, asking the priest to come and anoint him. The priest was not there, but the bishop received the call and went to the hospital and anointed him. At once he felt peace, and from then on, through the terrible ulcers, the blood complications, the heart attack and more, he knew Christ was with him. At the same time the bishop was called, his wife had been called. She drove to the hospital, crying so hard she could hardly see to drive. On her way there, she suddenly felt peace, just at the time of the anointing. I knew him the three and one half years I was in Central Florida, and he was always in excellent condition. Very joyful, with a deep sense of God. After he was healed he went to see the bishop to get a job. Bishop Folwell asked him to give his witness at the cathedral in Orlando, which he did. The bishop then got a job for him at Holy Spirit, Apopka.

That is the story, and today is June 17, 1995.

May our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be praised forever and ever, Amen.

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.

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