Personal Stories
John's Story
"Looking at the past 7 and a half years in retrospect, I can see the Lord's providence at work from that very first day."
I was 41 when the New Church came into my life. My wife and I had been together for 25 years; we met as kids and married after high school. In August of 2001 my wife and 14-year-old daughter were killed instantly in a car accident near our home. I had come home from work on my lunch hour to be with them—they had been out enjoying the day and were supposed to meet me. A friend pulled into the driveway and let me know there had just been a terrible accident up the road and it looked like our car was in it. When I made it to the site, I was informed by the highway patrol that my wife and daughter had died.
I am unable put into words my feelings at that point, but one thing stands out that I will always remember—I knew right there that they both went somewhere—that life did not end by the side of the highway. My marriage wasn’t gone, my daughter wasn’t gone—I would see them again. This presented a problem though, finding the truth about where we go after physical death. I prayed to God long and hard to know the absolute truth, even if what was true was something I did not want to hear. The following months found me on a great spiritual journey to find the truth about the afterlife.
I was brought up Catholic. Mom was Catholic, Pop was Lutheran, and I had known a couple different views on death, neither of which was helpful. In searching for the truth, I checked out just about every religion and belief in our world—this took several months. I was having a terrible battle with the philosophy of reincarnation, something that greatly added to my grief. In the midst of everything, I was strongly considering taking my own life. I did not have the solid spiritual grounding one should have for dealing with something like this.
One website I ran across mentioned eternal marriage and linked that to a man named Emanuel Swedenborg. I had never heard of him, or of the Swedenborgian faith. About a week later I ran across Mr. Swedenborg’s name again, just his name though, no links to anything else. This time I “heard” in my head to read more on him, but I have a pretty thick skull, and it took awhile to listen to that small voice. To shorten this up a bit, I was on eBay one evening and typed in “Swedenborg.” One person was selling a book called Heaven and Hell, and it had a description of the contents and one thing caught my eye—eternal marriage. I ordered this used book and also sent a message to the seller asking if he knew anything about Swedenborg. His reply was yes, in fact he did!—I had contacted the Rev. Lee Woofenden! From that point on, I read a great deal of the Writings and other New Church related books—this led me into a wonderful understanding of the Lord, His Word, and comfort in knowing the truth. Lee stuck with me through long emails and phone conversations, answering my questions and keeping my mind busy. I can only explain my love for finding the New Church as walking in the door at home, the search was over. The Bible and the Writings, what a beautiful package. Looking at the past 7 and a half years in retrospect, I can see the Lord’s providence at work from that very first day of the accident. Life went from a state of hopelessness to happiness, and I could never see that at first.
I’ve since become a confirmed member of the New Church, visited the New Church congregation in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania several times, and made many dear friends who were instrumental in helping me through a difficult time. Many wonderful things have happened and I am able to see the beauty in life again, but that is a beautiful story in itself. To sum up everything, I know the Lord listens to our prayers and makes available every opportunity to see that goodness can come again after tragedy. As Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you... and then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”