On August 16, 2005, Richard met God during what he can only describe as an out-of-body experience. He previously described himself as someone who was unreligious and had doubts about God.
“I had never been what I would call ‘religious,'” Richard said in opening his testimony. “I’ve always believed that there was a god and I believed that there was a Jesus, but I’ve had doubts. I’ve been a doubter before.”
“I’m no longer that,” he added, before detailing the miraculous near-death experience that brought him to his knees and closer to God than ever before.
Though Richard was told by doctors he’d have a 50/50 chance of coming out of the emergency surgery that had to be done after his aneurysm, he later discovered he only had a 10 percent chance of survival.