- Greg Matthews alwaysfelt he was a man's man,

until he went toe totoe with a mama grizzly.

You see, Greg was on a hunting trip

when he became the hunted.

It was within seconds, an eightfoot tall 600 pound predator

was sinking her razorsharp teeth into his flesh.

- [Announcer] GregMatthews and his brother

planned a 10 day hunting tripinto a remote area of Alaska.

- We saw one yesterday.

- [Announcer] It started outas an adventure of a lifetime,

but on September 22nd,2015, everything changed.

Greg came face to face witha vicious grizzly bear.

The attack was gruesome, butmiraculously Greg survived.

In his book, Wild Awakening, Greg shares

his remarkable story of survival

and how a relentless animal actually

healed his wounded heart.

- This is an amazing book.

It's called Wild Awakening.

It's the story of howa raging grizzly bear

wanted to destroy a young man

and he healed his wounded heart.

It's available I think todaywherever books are sold.

It's called Wild Awakening.

You want to get a copy.

Greg's with us right now.

Greg, it's so good to see you.

This is a tremendous story.

- Thank you for having me, sir,

I greatly appreciate it.

- You were in Alaska on a hunting trip,

and you thought it was goingto be a wonderful time.

And what happened?

You pitched camp, you wentway far out in the wilderness.

What happened then?

- So we were four daysinto a 10 day hunt, sir.

And this was a lifelong hope and commitment

to wanting to go big gamehuntin' with my brother.

And we were in about 14 milesinto the Kenai Peninsula,

and then another mileand half up the valley

where we were hunting.

I was bow hunting for moose.

And we ended up, my brotherwas about 50 yards behind me,

and we were thinking wewere callin' in a moose.

But we ended up callingin that big grizzly.

- Well it was a mamagrizzly and what happened?

Did you start to run orshe just went after you?

- So my first thought when I saw her,

eight and half feet tall,basically swinging her head

back and forth, I knew she was huntin'.

My first thought was to run,

which is never what you want to do.

And then she was at theconfluence of two trails

that were, one was sweepingdown to where my brother was.

So I couldn't let her get down there.

And so I just decided to confront.

And so I put my bow down.

That wasn't the best choice of weapons,

and I grabbed a rifle.

And it was, yeah, andshe came, charged me.

- You wanted to protect your brother

because he was down quietly in the camp,

and if she'd gone thatway, he woulda killed her.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- My brother had no idea.

He was doing an awesome job,obviously he was callin'

in animals, just called in the wrong one.

- [Pat] Oh man.

- And I didn't want thatgrizzly to get to my brother,

and so I just made a decision to confront.

And I was expecting a false charge,

but it was not a false charge.

- She went right after you.

- [Greg] Absolutely.

- Well as I understand,she wanted to open you up

and so you pushed yourface down on the ground

and gave her your back,rather than the front.

- Yes, what happened was whenthe bear was coming forward,

I fired right in itsface at about 15 feet.

It didn't even phase her.

As it was lunging forme with its mouth open,

the only thing that was a defensive move,

I just forced the rifleout, the barrel of it.

And it hit her in the mouthand the rifle came back

and hit me in the head.

And then as soon as I wasgoing back from that rifle

hittin' me in the head,she lowered her head

and plowed right into me.

- Well the rifle shoveactually broke her jaw.

- Yes sir, that waskind of a miracle shot.

It folded down the left front canine,

which is about three incheslong and about as round

as a quarter.

And it folded that, andthen it completely fractured

the right lower portion of the mandible.

So she was unable to reallyunleash her full fury

on my face, or I mightnot have had a face, sir.

- Well what happened whenthe fury was unleashed?

What did she do to you?

- Well the first, once she knocked me over

and slid around, she put bothpaws right on my shoulders

and pinned me on my back.

The first bite was right to my face.

And it was, my face exploded in blood.

It tore a hole about thesize of a tennis ball

in my throat.

And then the teeth wentstraight through my cheek,

through my gums, and through my jaw.

And when it bit down, it pretty much,

it split my face from about here.

- You should have been in agony.

How come you stayed conscious?

- It has to be from theLord is what happened.

Because it didn't just stop there,

as far as remaining able to think

because once the beartook my head in its mouth,

two different times afterit bit into my face.

- [Pat] Wow.

- The only thing I coulddo was react in punching it

in the nose, it feltlike my face or my head

was in a vice, sir.

It was really painful,and so I just started

punching the bear's nose tryingto get it to let go of me.

And it grabbed my arm,and then it lifted me up

in a violent head shake.

And at that point I knew that absolutely

I was no match.

It was like a land great white, sir,

is all I can say it was.

- Did you think thenyou were going to die?

- Absolutely, that was,from the point that

that head shake andthen I was on my belly.

Like you said, I rolled over on my belly.

The only thing I could thinkto do was interlace my fingers

over my neck, spread mylegs and and my elbows out

and just pray to God.

- Was it something you learnedthat you had to get over?

- I just knew the vitalswere very well protected

in the front, and so Idid not want another bite

to the neck.

Because typically that'show they'll take game down.

That's why they went after the head.

If they can get that bite onthe neck and then you're done.

- She kept trying to roll you over.

- Yes, sir.

So she came around me.

Of course at this point I can't see.

I have so much blood onmy head, I can't see.

My ears are ringing becauseI'm going into shock.

And she reached over and hooked her claws

underneath my ribs and tried to roll me.

That didn't work.

Well then she steppedup her game a little bit

and reached over andgrabbed me by the lat,

biting me and lifting mecompletely off the ground.

And then dropped me.

And then she was reallyannoyed after that.

Because she came up to my head,

and I can only imaginethat she started way back

with that paw, came down on my head,

and started from the top of my left ear

all the way down across my spine,

and exposed my skull and my spine

and basically de-gloved my scalp, sir.

- Well she did that?

- Yes.

- Was there some unusualwisdom given to this bear?

I mean she was pretty thorough

the way she was going after you.

- I wasn't sure what was goin' on,

but I knew I was facing God's,one of his apex predator.

That's what it's bread to do, is eat.

- Yeah.

- And so there was atone point where I was

being dragged away that Ithought that this is it.

This is where I'm going to be fed upon.

And that was when Iknew, after the head shot

where it opened up my whole scalp,

I knew I had no power in myself.

And it was going back toa father wound that I had

where I was, I didn'tthink God would show up

because my dad left at a very early age,

and I thought if dads can leave,

anybody can leave.

- You harbored that againsthim all your life, right?

- Well I don't know thatI harbored it against him,

but inside I felt unworthy of love.

And that there wasnothing good inside of me.

- You actually were thinking of this

while this bear was killing you?

- Absolutely, because I wasat the end of my own strength,

sir, I couldn't save myself anymore.

And I did not expect any, I held God

and I held my dad at arm's length.

And I didn't expect anybody to show up

because Greg wasn'tperforming circus tricks.

He wasn't doing great things.

I failed, I let thebear get the jump on me,

and so I was thinkin' that I was

drawing my last breathe, sir.

- What got the bear off?

How come he quit?

Did your brother show up?

- My brother did show up.

- [Pat] And what did he do?

- Well one, the Lord gave hima special measure of courage.

Any man willing to facea grizzly like that,

I mean it got the jump on me,

but he had to make a consciousdecision to go towards it.

He came up and kept running back and forth

towards the bear trying to get it to turn.

He couldn't shoot it becauseit was in between him and I.

So if he shot the bear, there was a chance

that that bullet could gothrough the bear and into me.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- Unfortunately, each time he ran up,

the bear turned towards himwith my leg still in its mouth.

- Oh my.

- And he said that the bear'sface was completely covered

with my blood.

- Well what got him off of there?

- He ended up finally getting close enough

to wear the grizzly thoughthe was more of a threat.

- [Pat] Oh!

- And so the bear droppedmy leg and ran towards him.

And he fired once, it came up on all fours

and tried to bite his face.

And then he fired once more into the neck,

and the bear, it didn't kill it.

It ended up droppin' downsaying three is enough.

And it ran into the woods.

- Yeah.

- Where it was thrashing around.

- Well now you're in thewilds and you've got to

get back to civilization.

What did you do?

- Well I was just continuedmy path of praying, sir.

And that was an answerto prayer, the fact that

my brother had that courageto show up and do that.

But I had a lot ofobstacles still against me,

not believing that Godwas, that I was worthy

for God to go to extremes, whichis what He would have to do

to save my life.

- Well you were pouring blood you lost.

How much blood did you lose?

- Well I can tell you bythe time that I got back

to the boat, there wasn'tany part of my clothing

that wasn't soaked in blood.

I was walkin' through Alaskalike a big ole T-bone, sir.

- [Pat] How many miles did you have to go

to get back to the boat?

- It was about a mile and a half.

And it was tough gettin' outthere when I was healthy.

- [Pat] Sure.

- It was even, it wasterrible trying to get back,

but the Lord was faithful.

We came up with a plan.

My brother, Matt, wouldwalk backwards behind me

with his rifle.

And I would stumble and fall and or crawl,

whatever it took to get back to the boat.

- So he was still thinking thebear might be tracking you,

trying to kill you.

- He was guarding my sick, sir.

- Okay.

- I wanted to show somethingto you that I brought.

That's normally.

- [Pat] Come on, what is that?

- You can hold it, that'sa grizzly claw, sir.

- And that was digging,give me a close up.

- It's usually attached toabout a 10 to 14 inch paw.

You can set that on thetable if you want, sir.

Thank you.

I just wanted to give youraudience some perspective of

that's about how longthe teeth are too, sir.

- He just ripped you to pieces.

How long did it take you to rehab?

You got back to the boat,

and then you gotta run the boat to where?

- It was about a 14 mileride back to the boat.

When I landed back on the beach.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- I was going into hypothermia.

I was still bleeding.

I showed my brother howto re-bandage the wounds

and splint my arm.

And so from there, thedecision was I told him,

I said I would neversurvive a 14 mile boat ride.

It was starting to get dark.

The temperatures were dippin'.

And there was alreadywhite caps out on the lake.

And so we made a decisionthat I was going to be

left on the beach.

He was going to bring me my rifle.

And cover me up after wegot everything bandaged,

and he was gonna beat feet,sir, for about eight miles

until he could get the cell phone signal.

- Did he do that?

- No, thank goodness, andit's just like biblical stuff.

You know what, three fishermen showed up.

- [Pat] Come on.

- God loves fishermen.

(laughing)

Right, God loves fishermen.

So three fishermen showed up.

I rolled my jackets backthat were covering me

on the beach.

And they're like, oh mygoodness, what happened?

I said, my brother said, we can't explain.

Here's the map, here'sthe GPS coordinates.

Please go find cell phone service.

We need a helicopter launched,

and we need a fire department boat.

And about an hour and a half later,

they rolled up on the beach and said

that they successfully did that.

And I can't tell you that the Lord moved

in miraculous waysthroughout the whole thing.

I saw physical miracles, sir.

- How long did it take you to rehab after

they got you back to the hospital?

- Now are we talkingphysically or mentally?

- [Pat] Well, either way.

- So it was physicallyit took about probably

a month and a half beforeI went back to work.

I had six and a half hoursof reconstructive surgery

on my face.

- [Pat] Wow.

- And 300 stitches.

And so I had to do some woundcare with some local doctors

once I got back to Dallas.

- [Pat] Whoever did youface, did a good job.

You must have had a good plastic surgeon.

- Yes I did, that was another miracle.

There was someone thatrotated up there, sir,

from I think Los Angeles.

Incredible surgeon, he just came up there

to hunt and fish, butdid a rotation in the ER.

And I just got lucky with a head and neck

and a plastic combined certification.

That was just another miracle.

- Well let me ask you about your father.

Did this brought you to some kind of a

spiritual relationship with him?

- Absolutely, he's always been my hero.

But what I will tell you is the Lord,

during that whole process,and He said He was gonna,

He saved me physically.

- [Pat] Uh huh.

- But He also restoredme and saved me inside

from a cancer I had been carrying.

He restored the fact that my dad,

he'd always loved me,it had never changed.

It was a lie, an enemythat was put upon my heart,

but I believed it all my life.

So He restored me from that, sir.

- May I ask you, have you given up hunting

or are you still at it?

- About a month after that,I was back in the woods

of Texas hunting hogs.

- [Pat] Come on.

- I love it, sir, I love huntin'.

I love the outdoors, and you know,

a lot of times I get reallyclose to the Lord out there.

I love being there.

- Well it's an amazing story.

Ladies and gentlemen, thebook is called Wild Awakening.

It is a story you cannotbelieve, but it is true.

No fiction writer couldthink of something like that.

Thank you so much, GregMatthews, wow, what a story.

- Thank you, sir.

- Thank you, God bless you, Greg.

- Thank you for having me.

- What a tremendous story.