The Jimmy Chronicles part 2

Did I mention that Jimmy had Faith? What I mean is, Jimmy had the gift of Faith. Not just a willy nilly ,"sure I believe in God" kind of Faith, but the real deal that 1 Corinthians talks about.

I don't know what kind of salvation experience he had but it must've been a doozy. Or maybe it was his lack of schooling that worked in his favor. Either way, it worked.

I suppose Faith and Healing go together. He probably had the gift of healing also because when he prayed, things happened.

I was born with astigmatism and chronic eye infections. My mom told the story that she brought me to church where I was prayed for. A little while later, she looked down at me, lying across the pew, and my eyes were totally clear. I've had perfect vision since.

As a toddler, I was attacked by red wasp and stung all over my face. My mom, panicking, brought me to Jimmy. (we'll have to give her a break here. It was the 1970s after all and people didn't run to the Dr. unless you were on deaths door) Well, good move mom. Jimmy prayed and.....immediately, all was well. No swelling, nothing.

Same thing happened with ants. This was a favorite story of his to tell. Like every kid in the South, I got into a pile of fire ants. Except this was not just a few, I think they waited until the whole ant hill had climbed me and then all bit at once. After hosing me down and getting them all off, I was left with hundreds of bites. But Jimmy prayed and they disappeared. Disappeared. I asked him, "Jimmy, when you pray for the ant bites, where do the bumps go?" Normally, you'd be left with a pustule type of bump that itched like mad. Not that time. All gone.

Earaches and ear infections. I remember the pain. Once day, Jimmy and I were out, running errands, I was sitting in the backseat screaming in pain, my ear hurt so bad. He pulled over in a parking lot and said, "I've had enough, come here" and prayed the heavens down. The pain was gone, just like that. And that was the end of my ear woes.

We were part of a full gospel church, a movement around that time that leaned heavily into the gifts of the Spirit and signs and wonders. Our pastor had left the Baptist church to start this one. (Nobody calls them full gospel anymore, it's all non denomination.) And I don't think they go heavy on the signs and wonders, they left that for the Pentecostals. (I kinda made a joke there)

All that to say, I've seen things. Like something out of a supernatural movie. I've witnessed the power of God in undeniable ways, enough to make me a lifelong believer. And not just me. If you were lucky enough to call him a friend, you likely witnessed it too.

All because Jimmy had Faith.

The world could currently use a lot of Jimmy's. People don't talk about the gifts of the Spirit anymore. But God hasn't changed. We have.

He also became very successful in business, growing a humble auto body/paint shop into the largest in the area. All on an 8th grade education and a whole lot of prayer.

Now for a Jimmy story that can't be explained.

We were driving across the Spillway bridge, heading home from New Orleans,(I remember the area perfectly because I used to love the big lake) and.... we saw a UFO. No joke. I noticed that the cars in front of us were pulling off the road, to the shoulder. Jimmy was driving, his wife, Norma, was on the passenger side, and me and Norma's daughter were in the backseat.

I looked out my window, to the left, and hovering right above the treeline, was a UFO. We pulled off with the rest of the witnesses (side note here-Like,what? We all just pulled off the road to do what? Get a better look, wait to be annihilated?) and Jimmy got out of the car. I went into hysterics in the backseat. I knew what this was. Close Encounters of the Third Kind had already come out. After a while the UFO left. And to hush me up(I was frantic) Jimmy told me that it was nothing more than a blimp. Blimps were a common sight back then. The ride home was a quiet one and I was calm and happy, knowing that I had just seen the most incredible blimp ever.

I thought about that blimp a lot over the years but it wasn't until I was older, an adult, that the realization of what had actually happened, occurred to me. Blimps don't look like that. They don't move like that.

-Description of "blimp." Round, silver disc with a higher dome on the top than on the bottom. Lights encircling the widest part, around the middle. Like a belt of colorful lights. The ability to hover, quietly, in one spot for an extended amount of time. The ability to take off in an instant. Disappear. The same sort of sighting reported by thousands of others.

In this here handy dandy, flying saucer identification chart, mine would fall under the bottom middle three.