Miracles: divine intervention or just coincidence?

1. Regulating the rain in Nigeria
   1. Controlling the weather would be a pretty useful power to have. Just ask a man named Dr Emmanuel Hapon, who claims his dad can do just that. Apparently, his father once announced that God had told him there would be no rain for the next four days (conveniently the exact amount of time he needed to fix the roof of his house and prepare for wet weather.) He was mocked by his friends and neighbours but, amazingly, he was right - over the following four days it rained on all the neighbouring villages, but his village remained dry as a bone until the fifth day.
2. Mending broken bones in the USA
   1. Holidays are supposed to be fun, but while travelling in the USA in 2006 Carl Cocherell broke his ankle so badly that he had to have his leg put in plaster and stay in hospital overnight. But during the night Carl had an unexpected visitor - Jesus Christ. Carl says that Jesus appeared to him to let him know that he was healed. The next day Carl was discharged from hospital and told to follow-up with his own doctor back home, who ordered new x-rays. A week later Carl’s doctor reported that not only was his ankle no longer broken but that there was no sign of a break in the first place.
3. Cheating death in South Korea
   1. In 1981, a woman named Theresa Chun Son Ho was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumour and told she didn’t have long to live. But family and friends prayed to the Lady of Akita (a Japanese Catholic name for the Virgin Mary) asking for mercy and healing, and Theresa’s tumour began to shrink and disappear. She also says that she saw visions of the Virgin Mary during her recovery, right up until the tumour disappeared completely. Theresa is still alive and healthy today and her case was even documented by a doctor, Joseph Oh of Seoul.
4. Leaping out of a wheelchair in the UK
   1. After he was involved in a car crash, Paul Haynes suffered a painful condition in his legs that made it almost impossible for him to walk and forced him to use a wheelchair. But he went to a prayer meeting at a small church in Wales and decided to go to the front when they asked if anyone wanted prayer for healing. He says that he felt a surge of power run down his body into his legs and almost immediately all his pain was gone. He celebrated by running around the church carrying his wheelchair while everyone in the church applauded, and to this day his empty wheelchair is still in the entrance to the church to remind people of the miracle.
5. Fixing faulty eyes in Tanzania
   1. In 2004 a blind man in Tanzania went to a prayer meeting, needing to be led in by friends and helped to his seat. But by the end of the meeting, after the prayers for healing, he realised he could see - his sight had come back completely. And it wasn’t just him making that claim, other people noticed it too - others at the meeting said that his eyes changed from being completely white with no pupils to looking clear and normal. He was then able to walk out of the meeting and get home with no help.
6. Rising from the dead in Nigeria
   1. Usually, the stuff of zombie movies, bringing people back from the dead might now be happening in real life. In a village in northern Nigeria, a religious man named Leo Bawa was asked to pray over a dead child. He spent several hours in prayer, calling out for the young boy to be given life again, and his prayers were answered - the boy got up and was reunited with his parents. (Leo does say that even he was amazed and excited by the miracle, as not everyone he has prayed for has come back to life.)