On July 17, 2019, I was at work, when I had a sudden bout of extreme perspiration, yet felt very cold at the same time. I stopped working, and it dissipated. I went back to work, and within minutes, it had started again. After the fifth time this happened, I sat down on the lounge room floor, my left arm went numb, and heavy pain ran down my left side. I knew then that I was having a heart attack.

As I laid there on the floor, I phoned my wife and told her I was having a heart attack. She asked where I was, and I said I didn’t know. I told her, “Ring the builder: He will give you the address.” The next thing I remember is two men sitting me up on a paint drum and asking me questions: my name, my age, where I lived, what symptoms I had. In the ambulance heading to hospital, I started to shake profusely and wanted to vomit. I asked them what was happening, and they said that my body was going into shock.

The next thing I remember, I was in the corridor in hospital, and the shaking and vomiting started again. Hospital staff were running everywhere, they moved me onto a bed and wired me up so the surgeon could see what was happening on the monitor. He came up to me and said, “You’re having a heart attack.” All I remember thinking was, “Father this is all out of my control, I am in your hands please help me.

Through the whole process, I was talking to God: talking to him about dying, which I was not fearful of at all. I said, “If I die right now, in the next waking moment I’ll be in Your Kingdom.” I said to God, “This is a great deal: I’ll take it. Turn me into your son, make me just like him, anything you want me to do, I will do.” I meant everything that I said.

When they finished with me, they wheeled me to the recovery room, where my minister, Mr. John Woloszyn, anointed me. The following morning, the surgeon came to see me and said that I needed a triple bypass operation.

After this news, I spent time talking to God, contemplating Christ’s sacrifice and the suffering He went through for our healing. I said that I would trust Him for my healing, and I was not going to have this operation. My wife, who is not in the Church, was the first one to visit me that afternoon. We had some time alone, so I told her what my plans were concerning this situation. This shook her, and in her mind, she thought that I wouldn’t live much longer. It was a very emotional few hours.

That same afternoon, the rest of my family came to visit, so I told them that I wouldn’t have the operation and that I was putting my trust in God. The following day, the hospital did a range of blood tests and an ultrasound in preparation for the upcoming surgery. When leaving the hospital, they sent me home with a list of drugs, which I wasn’t comfortable with at all, so all the drugs went in the bin that following morning. That same day, I went for a walk where we live, and I experienced, an overwhelming sense of freedom, knowing that God was with me. There was no fear, no anxiety, no concern about anything, just confidence that God had healed me. I felt at peace.

Three days after I came home, I received a phone call from the surgeon’s secretary, saying, “We have everything ready for your upcoming operation.” I said to her that I would not be going ahead with it. Three minutes later, the surgeon rang me and said, “I heard from my secretary that you are not having this operation.” I said that was correct. He exclaimed, “Do you want to die?” I answered, “Not particularly, but we all have to face it sooner or later.” He didn’t know what to say after that, and only mentioned that to make sure that I took the drugs that I had been given. I thought it best not to tell him that the drugs were already in the bin.

From this point, I have made real changes in my life. I lost 25 pounds in weight, I exercise every day, I changed my diet, and the rest is in God’s hands. When I talk to brethren about the trial, I tell them this is the best thing that has happened to me, and would recommend it to anyone. They say, What, a heart attack? Yes, if that’s what it takes in order for you to re-evaluate your life.