I have recorded over one hundred individual stories, and today, I want to share one of them with you.

April 2003

Today I played and sang for a family from California. I had a long, interesting conversation with the grown son of the man near death. The son's name is Dan. In our conversation, Dan shared that his sister, Carry, drowned at only nineteen years of age, swimming off the coast on the north side of Hawaii.

They believe she was caught in a rip tide. After this untimely event, Dan began having dreams at night that were very realistic. A few nights after his sister's death, she came to him in a dream and told him, "Tell everyone not to be afraid of dying. It is so joyful and beautiful here!"

When he returned to school Dan became closer to a friend, Mark, whose Dad drowned the year before. One day Dan's friend Mark was swimming, alone, off the coast of northern California. Caught in a rip tide, he found himself being dragged toward some jagged rocks. The waves were crashing against the rocks and he was sure he would be killed. He used all his strength to try to avoid the treacherous rocks, but his muscles soon began to cramp. He started to go under and swallow water.

Out of nowhere an apparition appeared and instructed him to allow himself to be pulled into the rocks, assuring him he would be okay: he would not be injured. Because he could do nothing else, he allowed himself to be thrown into the ominous rocks, and amazingly escaped with only a few small cuts and bruises.

When he returned to school, Mark couldn't wait to tell Dan what had happened. "I should have been killed, the way those waves were crashing onto the jagged rocks! Can I see a picture of your sister?" Marked asked.

As Dan pulled a picture of his sister, Carry, from his wallet, Mark professed, "That is the person who appeared to me!"

This is only a short, but true story, yet it has a huge message: this life is not all there is. There is life after death. Not only that, the next life is better than this one!