"God came to me just like he said he would. And he came to me primarily through the Gospel Fellowship church. At one point, I had so many people in my hospital room that I thought I was making a disturbance. I can’t express the love God showed me through Pastor Dallas and the people of GFC. It is something I can’t explain and an experience I will never forget. It is one of the most touching things that ever happened in my life."

As I left my house and got in my car and started driving, a numbness started to come in my right arm. Then my face began to feel numb as well. I quickly circled around the block, came back to the house, and parked. Trying to decide what to do, I went into the living room to lay on the couch for a while. I didn’t know if I was having a heart attack or a stroke. But I knew I had to get to a doctor fast. I felt like the Holy Spirit was saying to me, “you don’t have time and you must get to the hospital in a hurry.”

After talking to me on the phone, my wife rushed home upset and in a hurry. I packed my duffel bag and she drove me to the Harrisburg Hospital. Upon my arrival, the nurse checked me out and discovered that my blood pressure was terribly high. She laid me out about taking care of my blood pressure and warned me that I could end up in a wheel chair or something if I didn’t start taking better care of myself. I was then given two nitroglycerin tablets and admitted to a room in the hospital. 

Over the next couple of days, I was in the hospital reading scriptures as they started a series of cardiovascular tests. I also received comfort in knowing that the church was praying for me. People were constantly coming from Gospel Fellowship Church. And I was almost never by myself. They were always cheering me up. It was Memorial Day weekend 1997 and I felt that I was well enough to go home. But I didn’t know how sick I was at the time. Neither did I realize that I had two blocked arteries. 

At my request to go home, the Cardiologist gave a very serious response: “If you go home and you have a heart attack, you probably will never make it back to the hospital. At least if you had a heart attack here, we could help you,” the doctor said. By this time, I knew I was in trouble. I thought maybe I had a stroke. And I asked Dr. Ira Packman what had happened to me. He replied: “Your heart tried to have a heart attack, but someone stopped it.” The doctor explained that in essence I was having “mini-strokes.”

Looking back, I believe I was in that car and I started to go in a cardiac arrest. And the Lord said: “No. Its not time yet.” Jesus stopped it in the car but he would later demonstrate his healing power in the hospital. It got to a point that I had various tubes coming from my body and I desperately cried out to God for help one day while in the shower at the hospital. Thank God that the Gospel Fellowship members were constantly praying and giving me healing scriptures as well. God also showed me in the scripture that he would come to me, and he did. The scripture he used to reveal this to me was John 14:18 where Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

God heard my cry and he also honored the prayers of the saints. After spending eight days in the hospital, I was miraculously healed in June of 1997! On the day I got healed I was reading John 5:8. It stated, “Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” My wife had also shared with me that she had just read the same verse and knew that it was a word that God was going to work a miracle. On the same day God gave me this verse, I left the hospital after receiving good results!

The doctor gave me very positive test results: “Mr. Johnson your tissues are good and your arteries are clear with no blockages,” he reported. After hearing these results, I knew I was miraculously healed. I can’t begin to explain how much my wife and my church family meant to me during this difficult ordeal. The Gospel Fellowship family came in droves to see me. They prayed, encouraged me, and gave me great literature to read about healing. This was a great help to me because it boosted my faith and helped me to speak the word over my situation. I would constantly meditate on scriptures like Isaiah 53:5: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Sister Marilyn Walker, a member of Gospel Fellowship Church, was also a tremendous help to me. “No matter what anybody tells you, you believe God’s report,” she said. This was like a prophetic word, because shortly after she told me this I got the bad report about having clogged arteries. God came to me just like he said he would. And he came to me primarily through the Gospel Fellowship church. At one point, I had so many people in my hospital room that I thought I was making a disturbance. I can’t express the love God showed me through Pastor Dallas and the people of GFC. It is something I can’t explain and an experience I will never forget. It is one of the most touching things that ever happened in my life.

I first came to the Gospel Fellowship Church in 1994 when I was invited by a young black man who attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with me. I remember asking him if any white people were at Gospel fellowship Church. I wasn’t asking this because I was prejudiced. I just didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb as the only white guy in an all black church. When I walked into Gospel fellowship for the first time, I knew I was home. The people were warm and friendly. And as Pastor Dallas was preaching, I felt real welcome. I had already checked out several other churches in the area, but I felt like GFC was it for me. I started coming out to Sunday services, Bible studies, and prayer meetings. This is when I really learned how to grow. It was also at Gospel Fellowship that I got filled with the Holy Spirit. This gave me the power to overcome every obstacle in my life. I discovered that being saved was only the beginning of my deliverance. But being saved and then getting filled with the Spirit gave me the added power to remain free. 

Pastor William Dallas and the Gospel Fellowship members mean so much to me. They are my family. And I have discovered that family in the spirit is even more important than family in the flesh. We will spend eternity with our spiritual family. Jesus implied the significance of the spiritual family in Mark 3:35: “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” I grew up in Philadelphia in a mixed but segregated section called Frankford. Although I didn’t notice any major race problems, the whites and blacks pretty much didn’t associate. God proved to me that he has a sense of humor by leading me to a predominantly black church. After experiencing the tragic death of my two-year-old son Zachary in 1992, I cried out to the Lord: “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Wherever you want me to go, I’ll go.”

Zach’s death was a terrible tragedy, but it was also a wake up call for me. My relationship with the Lord grew deeper after the experience. Before Zach died, I was saved but I wasn’t very committed. I was lukewarm. I actually got saved on June 6, 1981 in Baltimore, Maryland at a Billy Graham Crusade. I was an alcoholic. And I drove to the crusade by myself because I knew I needed a change in my life but I didn’t know how to get to God. Shortly after my salvation experience, I learned how to get victory over alcohol through AA and through the Word of God. 

But it was Zach’s death that caused me to sell out and totally make myself available to God. I never imagined, however, that God would lead me to a predominantly black church. Based on where I came from, this shows me that God has a sense of humor. And the great thing is I fit right in the Gospel Fellowship Church from day one. This is a great testimony because it bothers the devil when blacks and whites get together. It puts a hurting on his kingdom. And his kingdom can’t stand if all the people of God get together. This is why the devil will sometimes try to play the race card on me and say, “what are you doing here and why don’t you go to that other church?” I simply deal with this by reminding myself that this is my family and these are my friends at the Gospel Fellowship Church.

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