In 8th grade I had this teacher...more of a friend really. This man, Bill Woods, has been through more near-death experiences than anyone I have ever met. It's not that he looked for situations which would cause him harm, but these situations just found him. I would always beg him to tell me one of his stories, and if he was in the mood to re-live a more than frightening part of his life, he would agree.

I had already heard the one where he got hit in the temple with a crowbar. The one where he didn't even get a bruise.
Everyone knew the 7 switchblade stories. The ones where the blades just didn't open.
He had even told me the gang-fight story.

But one story he told me stuck out. His phone rang in the middle of the night. It was his good friend, who's husband had some temperament problems. She needed his help, quickly. So at 2:00am he got on some clothes and drove over to his friend's house. He walked in to find the house a mess. Lamps broken, holes in the wall, cushions ripped to shreds, and his friend scared senseless. "He's in the bedroom" she said, shaking slightly. Bill started walking towards the bedroom. "Wait" she started, "he has a gun." Defenseless, Bill walked up to the bedroom. The lights were off, and door was cracked open, and the husband was nowhere in sight. He walked into the room and called the man's name. Suddenly he felt cold metal to his temple. He slowly turned to see the husband holding a handgun to his head. This perturbed Bill, so he started ranting at the husband. "It's 2 in the morning. I am dead tired. And here you are, with a gun in your hand, acting like you are going to kill me. Besides the fact that you have scared your wife nearly to death." *CLICK* The man had pulled the trigger with the gun to Bill's head, but nothing happened. "SEE!" Bill nearly yelled, "You can't even use a gun right...give it to me...now." The man handed Bill the gun right as the cops showed up. They took him away, handcuffed. Of course, Bill had to see, so he looked down the side of the gun...it was fully loaded. He took the gun to a friend of his who owned a gun store with a firing range. He walked into the range, aimed the gun at a target down the aisle and squeezed off 6 shots, including the shell that didn't fire into his temple.

This doesn't happen by the way. A shell that doesn't fire the first time is usually defective and will never fire. That, or it will explode instead of firing.

There was one common point to every one of Bill's stories. There was one thing that saved his life and left him with countless scars that could have been the end of his life. There was one reason that he never once feared for his life. That one thing was his belief in God.

Every time he had a switchblade to his throat, he prayed. He had guys with knives struggling to cut his throat...arms shaking with physical exertion....and they gave up, backing off, looking down at their arm, obviously wondering what went wrong, and then running away afraid. He had belief in God...nothing else. He was an average guy who ended up in situation after situation that proved that God existed...because there was no other explanation as to why he was not dead.

And people ask me why I believe in God.