Miraculous appearance in Iraq

"Imam Mahdi Unexpected Appearance" proclaims the title of a video posted on YouTube.

A miraculous figure of glowing, brilliant, white light appeared on a video filmed in Karbala, Iraq, on the night of Ashura, 6 January 2008.

This Shia Muslim ceremony commemorates the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet, Hussein, whose tomb is in Karbala.
(Source: www.youtube.com)
Editorial note


from: Share International April 2009


Angelic figure appears on photograph

While on a visit to Rome, Andy Key, a retired English policeman, took a photograph of the sunlight streaming through a window at Saint Peter's Basilica. When he and his wife later downloaded their photographs onto their computer, they noticed an unusual image on the Vatican photo: an angel hovering above the heads of other visitors in the church.

"No-one can explain it", Andy Key said. "There's nothing on their heads for the light to bounce off ... It looks almost like a hologram." Professional photographers have examined Key's photo and cannot explain what may have caused the angelic image.
(Source: The Daily Mail, UK)
Editorial note from: Share International June 2007

Most Americans believe in angels

More than 80 per cent of people in the US believe in the existence of angels, according to an Ipsos-AOL poll conducted in December 2006. A strong belief in angels was found among people of different backgrounds and religious convictions, and even among those with no religious affiliation.

In an Associated Press article reporting on the results of the poll, people were asked to explain what an angel is: "A presence that you feel around you," said one person. "I accept them - to come whenever they want to." Another respondent, Edward Pelz, of Grabill, Indiana, said he believed
angels were guiding him, but that they don't necessarily have wings and wear robes. He told the story of a man who showed up to help him change his flat tyre in Ohio five years ago. He thought at the time: "Maybe I had an angel with me here today."
(Source: Associated Press)
Editorial note from: Share International, January/February 2007


Woman gives money away on bus

A woman in Spokane, Washington, USA, handed out envelopes containing $50 to passengers aboard buses during the Christmas holiday season, saying "Merry Christmas" to each passenger before stepping off the bus. Descriptions of the woman varied among passengers, as the woman did her work quickly. "She kind of kept her head down," said bus driver Max Clemons. "I don't remember ever seeing this lady before." The woman was accompanied by one or two young boys. Each envelope containing money was sealed with a sticker that said: "To a friend from a friend." According to another bus driver, Terry Dobson, who had two visits from the mystery woman on his bus: "There was a lot of excitement. People were making calls on their cell phones. The people on those buses really needed the money."
(Source: Yahoo News, The Spokesman-Review, USA)
Editorial note from: Share International, January/February 2007


Fairground 'angel'

On Friday 20 October 2006, local resident Catherine Austin and her sons visited the South Carolina State Fair in Columbia, USA, and took digital photographs of the night-time view from the top of the ferris wheel. At the time they noticed nothing unusual, but once home they found on one of the photographs a brightwinged figure hovering in the dark night sky.

"It looks just like an angel," Catherine Austin told a local television news channel. "It even has a ray of light that comes from the bottom toward the body of the angel and it's centered right in the middle of the picture - and I believe in angels. It's just an angel." Although some are sceptical, most who see the image immediately identify it as an angel, she says.

Her son Frederick agrees. "It's got a head, wings, legs, and if that doesn't look like an angel, I don't know what does," he said.
(Source: www.wltx.com, USA)
Editorial note
from: Share International, December 2006


Terminally ill boy saw angels

Two months before he died of a brain tumour, 10-year-old Ryan Reynolds of Cincinnati, Ohio, attended a picnic with family and friends, and during a hayride told his mother he could see angels. This was not unusual, because he often spoke of angels.

But when photos from the picnic were developed, white transparent images were visible among the people in attendance. "We had first thought that it
was something to do with the developing," Shirley Reynolds, Ryan's mother, told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. But three different cameras, using three different types of film, developed at three different locations, all had the same transparent white shapes.

The images appeared as scattered spots, a fish shape, and one large white globe that Ryan recognized immediately. "When he saw it, he said: 'Mom,
this is why I felt so good to go on the hay ride,'" his mother recalled. "He said: 'Because right there is my guardian angel.... I knew she'd be there. That's my angel, Mommy. She talks to me all the time.'"
(Source: www.abcnews.go.com)
Editorial note from: Share International, September 2003


Apparition at Sufi saint's shrine

Thousands of pilgrims have visited the shrine of an Islamic mystic saint in north-western India after reports that an apparition appeared on the dome of the 800-year-old shrine. Police said more than 50,000 people visited the shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in the state of Rajasthan in the days following 27 March 2002, when religious workers first reported the image.

Observers said they first saw the images of two bearded men on the central dome on the evening of 27 March. Syed Irfan Usmani, a shrine worker, said one of the bearded men appeared to be Khwaja, "who made his appearance to spread the message of goodwill and peace after the recent carnage in Gujarat". Hindu-Muslim riots in neighbouring Gujarat state claimed the lives of more than 720 people, mostly Muslims, in March 2002.

Khwaja is said to have come from Persia in 1192 to Ajmer, where the shrine is located. Sarwar Chisty, a member of the committee that manages the shrine, said he had filmed the apparition with a video camera and that it appeared clearly on the screen.
(Source: Associated Press)
Editorial note from: Share International, May 2002


Helping hand

On her return to the USA, an American tourist in Paris, France, has recounted a strange experience. It was nearly rush hour when she and her husband passed a man who appeared to be drunk, talking animatedly to an invisible companion. At a busy intersection he stood with the other pedestrians in a small crowd waiting to cross the road, still gesturing and
chatting away to himself. The light turned green, and everyone moved off, but suddenly the man slipped and fell. The crowd kept moving and he was left lying on the road in front of lanes of impatient Parisian traffic. He began to repeat: "Je suis tomb‚" - I've fallen - and he reached his hand up as if
hoping someone would help him, but still apparently oblivious to the danger from the revving cars.

No-one stopped to help; the writer's husband had gone on ahead, engrossed in his map, so she bent over the man, muttering inadequate French and trying to lift him but to no effect - he went on bleating that he'd fallen. The lights were about to change, but signalling to the drivers didn't seem to deter them. She decided on drastic action and stepped into the road, putting herself between the drunk and the oncoming cars. The traffic-lights turned green. A small group of mostly elderly men had gathered to watch, but no-one offered to help.

Suddenly a beautiful, chic French woman appeared - she wore a brown cape, had auburn hair and was aged about 40. She looked at the prostrate man and the desperate American tourist, who recounts: "I expected a signal, something to indicate she would help me. Instead, her expression was thoughtful, internal, as if she were weighing her words and actions carefully." Finally, the woman bent down and spoke to the man; he immediately stopped babbling and listened to her.

She extended a hand to him: "He reached for it like a babe in a pool, and then scooted up onto the sidewalk. Then the woman straightened up and turned her eyes on me. 'It's OK now,' she said." The American tourist gathered her wits and looked around: "I searched among the small band of watchers for the woman, but
she had disappeared."
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, USA)
Editorial note from: Share International, November 2001


Stunt rider

On 24 December 1998, a Swedish newspaper published an article by well-known Swedish singer and poet Staffan Percy, relating an experience involving his friend, a priest.

A priest was on his way through the snow to church in the Gothenburg area of Sweden. Despite the fact that it was Christmas he walked with a heavy heart, conscious of how time-consuming paperwork and mediating church conflicts prevented him from preaching the happy Christmas message which meant so much to him. Overwhelmed by the difficulty of carrying out his mission in an atheistic society, he felt empty-hearted and alone.

A noise behind him made him turn and he saw an old moped passing him, as if in slow motion, in a cloud of exhaust fumes. There was a strong smell of oil. The rider, neither young nor old, wore a beige trenchcoat, a long scarf and a cap. He leaned the moped against the wall and entered the church, much to the priest's surprise as he had the key to the church in his pocket. He was even more surprised when he arrived at the great heavy door to find it still locked. He unlocked it and entered. Inside was darkness and quiet.

He shouted a tentative "Hello!" but heard no reply except his own echo. Seeing something lying near the altar, he came closer and found a trenchcoat, an elegantly folded-up scarf and a cap. He felt a presence, as though somebody was trying to tell him something. Suddenly enlivened, he raced child-like around the aisles and benches, searching. But there was no
one there, only the same emptiness and stillness. Running outside, he found the moped gone. By now trembling with happiness, he ran back into the church and stopped transfixed before the altar. The trenchcoat, scarf and cap were gone.

He left the church once more, searching for the tracks of feet or tyres in the snow. Finding only his own footprints, he felt all his earlier cares fade into insignificance.

The article closes with the questions: "Was it an angel on a moped? Or was it the Lord himself appearing?"
(Source: Eskilstuna-Kuriren, Sweden)
Editorial note from: Share International, October 1999


Jesus appears to young woman in Cameroon

Edwige Mbalikoung, 24 years old, is the oldest of eight children in a Presbyterian family living in Abong Mbang in the eastern part of Cameroon. She was suffering from a severe disease and almost lapsed into a coma in hospital. She claims to have received visits in her dreams from Jesus Christ Who asked her to go back home and pray and read Psalms. When she finally obeyed, an insect came out of her head. Her father burnt the insect and she was suddenly healed. As she was facing criticism and suspicion while telling her story, Jesus appeared again and 'gave' her stigmata in her hands - a proof to the sceptics. Edwige Mbalikoung says the stigmata have the power to heal.
(Source: Vent d'est, Cameroon)
Editorial note from: Share International, January/February 1999


Rabbi's wife visited by 'angel'

The front-page article in the Dallas Morning News began this way: "Rosie Cohen's journey from Orthodox rabbi's wife to spiritual healer started two years ago, she said, with a visit from an angel. "Her husband, Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen of Tiferet Israel Congregation in North Dallas, lay near death from a ruptured colon. As Mrs Cohen sat in the hospital waiting room, a tall woman wearing a white turban approached, hugged her and told her she could help. The woman led Mrs Cohen to the intensive care unit and directed Mrs Cohen's hands in the air above her husband's still body.

Then she told her to visualize life energy weaving a web over the rabbi. When Mrs Cohen finished, the woman swiftly left, turned a corner and disappeared. Soon after, Rabbi Cohen began to recover. And Rosie Cohen knew she must share her experience with other Jews." Mrs Cohen has since started a spiritual centre in her home, and holds classes on practices such as meditation and yoga within the context of the Jewish tradition. She also plans to train volunteers to visit the sick and provide them with basic services.
(Source: Dallas Morning News, USA)
Editorial note aus: Share International, January/February 1999


Young boy "touched by angel"

"Touched by an angel?", an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tells the story of Ryan Wesley, an 11-year old boy who had complications from open heart surgery and was close to death. His grandparents, Lisa and Wayne Harrison, rushed to the hospital at 5.30am, having awakened with a sense of fear and dread that something had happened to their grandson Ryan. As they sat in the waiting room, a woman named Angelique, wearing a purple chiffon dress and orange patent-leather pumps, came in.

According to the article: "The woman said she, too, had been awakened by a sense of urgency. She said, something - and she thought it was God - told her to go to Egleston Children's Hospital and look for a couple whose grandson's heart was hurting. God told her, she said, to tell them not to worry, that their grandson's heart was going to be OK."

"'I remember thinking she must have a lot of money because she was flawless, her makeup, her hair, everything,' Lisa Harrison said. 'But then there was this warmth, her face was warmth ... When she looked at me, everything that was ugly and mean went out of me. All I felt was love.'"

Then Harrison looked down and noticed the woman's feet. She was wearing orange patent-leather pumps, very similar to the shoes Harrison had worn on her wedding day "because they were my lucky high heels." Harrison said the woman told them that things like Ryan's illness happen in order to pull a family together, that they were special gifts from God, and to "untie the ribbons" and share their gifts with the world.

While she said Ryan would live, she told Lisa's husband, Wayne, that she would see him later. The woman then left the waiting room, and they never saw her again. Ryan recovered, but Wayne died four months later. Doctors call Ryan their "miracle child."
(Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA) 1999

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