In the fall of 1966, I was visiting a friend in Akron, Ohio. I had just returned from 3 months of Bible School in Texas, and was full of the fire of God.

Barbara and her husband lived in the city in a second floor apartment. They had 3 little girls at that time, and they were all about my own daughter's age. Our husbands ran around doing "men" things during the day, and the children played while Barb and I cooked, cleaned, and shared many things in the Lord. It was a great 2 weeks for all of us.

One afternoon, while tidying the girls' bedroom, I noticed an open square hole in the wall just above the eldest child's bed. When I questioned Barb about it, she said that it was the heat register, but the grate was missing when they moved in. "Nothing but cold air ever came out of it," she added.

Since I had just come from a miracle believing, Bible preaching, Holy Ghost powered, full-gospel church atmosphere, I was filled with faith. I said, "Well you know, these kids need heat in this room... where's your anointing oil?!" We poured the oil down the register, prayed a prayer of faith, believed God, and continued on our way.

Different times, as the year wore on, I would ask her abut the register, and the answer would always be, "Ever since we prayed, it blows warm air!"

Several months later, my family and I visited our friends again. In the midst of our conversation, one of the girls came running to her mother, tearfully complaining that her sister had thrown her baby doll down the register! Barb told her not to cry, and that she would go down to the basement and get it. The child, consoled, scampered back to play.

I said, "Barb, why would you tell her that? You know that if it isn't stuck in the pipe, the doll has been burned up in the furnace!"

"No, it hasn't," she answered.

I said, "WHAT? That's impossible! It has to be in the heating duct or in the furnace!"

Barb said, "No... they always throw toys down that register, and we always find them on the basement floor."

I said, "Well this I gotta see," as I whirled around and headed for the basement. I thought that it was ridiculous to have to run all the way to the basement to prove my point. However, when I got there, sure enough, there was the doll on the floor!

Upon closer investigation, I saw exactly what had happened.

When I returned upstairs, Barb was grinning. "I see that you found the doll..."

"Yes," I answered, "But here's the shocker. You know how we have been telling people what a miracle God did after we poured the oil down the register last fall, and how that afterward the warm air flowed out instead of the cold air?" She said, "Of course... that was SUCH a miracle, praise God!"

I replied, "Well, it is an even greater miracle than we thought. All these months, the furnace has been blowing hot air across the basement and up 2 stories, through a laundry chute!"

Pastor Moser
August, 2004