- [Gordon] T-boned by an 18-wheeler.

- It's probably gonna be a body-recovery,

not a rescue situation.

- [Gordon] Their son lay in a coma.

- Lying there and not know if you

would ever see his eyes open again.

- [Gordon] Watch a miracleunfold before your eyes.

Plus, Facebook Executive, Nona Jones,

shares how to heal from the past.

- There's no way I could bestanding here before you today

if I had not forgiven thepeople who offended me.

- All on today's 700 Club Interactive.

Welcome to the show.

An Iowa grandmother is going viral

after dedicating her life to her hometown

by fostering more than 600 children.

Linda Herring, who is 75 years old,

has fostered childrenof various backgrounds

for almost five decades.

- Well Linda and her husbandmostly foster children

with special medical needs.

They also had five children

and adopted three of their foster kids.

The habit of opening up your home

and serving others has been passed down.

Today at least 10 of Linda'sgrandchildren are adopted,

and four of her biological children

have become foster parents.

Wow.

- Officials in JohnsonCounty, Iowa honored

and thanked Linda for herservice with a special ceremony

and presented her a certificate.

Linda says it's all about love saying,

"I would just love my foster kids

"just like they were my own,

"probably more than I should.

"I cried when the kidswould leave my home,

"no matter now long they'd been there.

"I kept doing it becauseI had so much love

"to give to these children in need."

Well Linda's lifephilosophy is very simple,

if no one else can love themor take care of them, I will.

And I can't believe it, Terry,I think we have somebody

who's actually beaten you.

- Oh, she's off the chartsway ahead of me, kudos.

- Well, you've got countries.

- Honestly, I mean that is soamazing, and what a legacy.

She must have done itso well to pass it on.

Linda, my children areall having one child.

(laughs)

- Well, just think generationally--

- Yeah.

- To say, this is our life philosophy,

if nobody else will take care, we will,

and to say this is what frames us,

and then to see that repeatednow the third generation.

- And you know, in fostering also,

to love children like they're your own

when you know they're gonna leave,

it's really hard to findpeople who do that well.

Well, you may not beable to foster children,

but you can still be ablessing in your community

by making Blessing Bags, I love this idea.

Blessing Bags are Ziploc bagsfilled with various items,

usually for the homeless or people

struggling to make ends meet.

A few items you could includeare toothpaste, a toothbrush,

soap, shampoo, do thosein travel-size form.

A comb, lip balm, socks, gloves or a hat.

Hand warmers, candy,granola bars, dry fruit,

chewing gum, crackers, andpacks of tuna or chicken.

- You can also add cash or

a gift card to a local restaurant.

This allows the recipientto choose their own meal

and have access to a warmor air-conditioned place

and a bathroom.

You can make these BlessingBags together as a family

and keep them in your car or purse,

so if you see someone in need,

you have a bag right there to hand out,

and let me underline the number one thing,

at least around here,inthe shelters around here,

the request is for, number one, socks,

and then number two wouldbe shampoo and soap.

Those are in dire need.

- I think of what a legacyyou leave for your family

when this is in yourcar and you're saying,

we're engaged in theneeds of other people.

- Yeah, we're lookingout we're thinking ahead.

You know you're gonna pass by somebody

and instead of saying, what do I do,

you're prepared at the moment.

- Or looking the other waybecause you feel uncomfortable

that you don't know what to do.

I think of that old adage,

"If you build it, they will come,"

if you put the bag in yourcar, you will find them.

I really believe that.

Well most of us don't realizethe power of the spoken word.

For years author andminister, Annette Capps,

has studied what the Bible has to say

about the words we speak.

- And once you hear what she's discovered,

you'll want to chooseyour words more carefully.

Take a look.

- Our words are so powerful because God

created us in His image and His likeness.

Jesus went around talking to trees,

he'd talk to the wind,he talked to the waves,

and what he said to the wind and the waves

was, "Peace, be still."

What do you need whenthere's a storm in your life?

Peace.

What do you need whenthe winds and the waves

are about to overturn your boat in a lake?

Peace, be still.

He called the end result.

He spoke to the tree thatdidn't produce fruit.

He said, "No man will fruit of you ever,"

and the next day they came by

and it was dried up from the roots,

and the disciples were shocked.

Jesus, look, the figtree that you spoke to,

it's dead, dried up from the roots.

The power in your faith canchange the matter in your life

because the Word of God says,

"Life and death are inthe power of the tongue."

It's really, really important that we

act on what we know and that we use it.

When you hear thismessage and you find out

that your words are powerful,

it is very important that you

stop saying the negative things.

And then you start speakingin the right direction

and start saying thethings that are in line

with what God's promisesare and what God says.

Unleash the power of God,

unleash the unlimitedpossibilities that are available

that God has given us in His Word.

We are building on a firm foundation

that Jesus set for us and told us about.

We have to act on what we know,

and we absolutely have to be open

to new things, new ideas, and listening

to the infinite possibilitiesthe Holy Spirit gives us.

God created man and woman in what?

In His image and in Hislikeness, to do what?

To have authority over the Earth,

to have dominion over the Earth,

to rule and reign, how?

In the same way God createdit, through their words.

And now, what do we do?

Do we speak God's Word?

What do we say?

We face those choicesevery day in our life.

What are we going to say?

- "The power of life anddeath are in the tongue,"

and one of the things I liketo underline with people is

Jesus came to not justshow us what God was like,

he came to show us what we are like

and what His originalintent was in creating us.

We are the sons of Godand the children of God,

that means that we have great power

in the words that we speak.

So don't think that these idle things,

realize that your wordshave a very big impact.

So speak life to people,speak blessing over people,

and let me add speakblessing over yourself.

Psychologists tell us that 80%

of our self-talk is very negative.

So if you're looking in the mirror going,

"Boy, you don't look good today,"

realize that no, bless yourself,

and in that you can alsobe a blessing to others.

- That's powerful, really powerful.

I mean, I think sometimes unwittingly,

it's not like we deliberately do it,

but without that truth thatyou just heard and listened to,

that's worth going back, and finding,

and listening to again.

- Again and again, keep remindingyourself on a daily basis,

speak words of life.

Well coming up, their son wasrun over by an 18-wheeler.

- I may never get to see him again,

we may never get to laugh together again.

- It was just overwhelming,heart-wrenching.

I mean, there was absolutelynothing we could do.

- So how was he able to walk out

of the hospital just a few weeks later?

You are going to findout right after this.

(upbeat music)

Charlie was alive, but just barely.

His car had been hit by an 18-wheeler.

Even the EMTs on the scene thought

they'd be pulling out a dead body.

The report from thehospital was just as bad,

so Charlie's parentscould only hold on to hope

and a promise from God.

- [Narrator] June 24th, 2016.

EMT, Greg Clark, and theFort Worth Fire Department

responded to an accidentinvolving a car and an 18-wheeler.

- We were the first onesto arrive, and sure enough,

a large truck T-boned another vehicle,

hit him in the driver's side door.

My immediate thought was,

it's probably gonna be a body-recovery,

not a rescue situation.

- [Narrator] Amazingly,they found the driver,

23-year-old, Charles Priest,unconscious but alive.

He was airlifted to TexasHealth Forth Worth Hospital

in critical condition.

Moments later his mother,Sheri, drove up on the accident.

- It was unbelief.

What am I looking at, what amI seeing, is this really him?

At that point I think allthe emotions turned off

and it was the matter of,you gotta get to your son.

- [Narrator] After anofficer filled her in,

Sheri went home and picked up

her younger son, Texas,and husband, Chuck.

Speeding towards thehospital, they prayed.

- Okay, God, what's going on?

Is he gonna be okay?

I was just praying that God wasgonna be in the midst of it.

- [Narrator] When the family arrived

to Texas Health Forth Worth,

they learned Charles was in a coma.

Dr. Mohammad Siadati was one

of the medical staff caring for Charles.

- CAT scans reveled severehead injury, neck injury,

broken ribs, blood inthe chest, broken pelvis.

His head injury was the most severe one.

And there is micro-tears,it's damage at cellular level

that not necessarily obvious.

- To see your son lying there

and not know if you wouldever see his eyes open again,

and not know if you wouldever hear him talk again,

it was just overwhelming, heart-wrenching.

- [Narrator] Although hoping for the best,

doctors could make no guarantees.

- And it was those kind things,

if he survives, if he wakesup, and we don't know when,

and there's no way for them topredict what's gonna happen.

- [Narrator] As the staffworked 'round the clock,

friends and family gatheredto pray holding on to hope.

- I may never get to speak to him again,

I may never get to see him again,

we may never get to laugh together again.

Thought I was about to lose my son.

- [Narrator] After three days,

it was clear Charles would live,

but he still faced the possibility

of several permanent disabilities.

His fractured neck might require surgery

severely limiting his mobility.

But doctors' main concern wasthe elevated cranial pressure.

The longer it remained,

the more brain damage it could cause.

His parents feared theirson would never be the same.

- I mean, there wasabsolutely nothing we could do

except for praying andtrusting in the Lord.

- Pleading with Father and asking him

to allow us to have anotherday to play basketball.

- [Narrator] Alone in thewaiting room one evening,

Sheri says she was praying whenthe Lord gave her a promise.

- I was sitting in the waiting room

and I was looking out the window.

I saw a dark cloud out in the distance,

and when I saw that cloud, andHe took me back to Psalms 18,

and it's just a beautiful passage.

It starts out with, "Mycry came to the Lord's ear

"and He heard me."

The next several versesdescribe major responding

because He got up andHe came to my rescue.

And the Lord gave me those four things,

that he's gonna wake up,he's gonna know who God is,

he's gonna know who ourfamily is, and he's gonna run.

- [Narrator] A week later,

Charles' cranial pressure stabilized

and the doctors took him for an MRI.

The family waited for the results.

- They said, what we expect is

for his brain to look like dog food.

- And then they put theimages up on the screen

and the image of hisbrain is a healthy brain.

- And the doctors were surprised.

They didn't expect tosee it intact that way.

- [Narrator] Over the next several days

Charles started waking up from the coma

responding to verbal commands.

To the staff, it was a great improvement,

to the family, it was confirmation

that God was answering their prayers.

- The doctor would come in and say,

"We're going to do a breathing test,

"but don't be shocked, it'sgonna take him a while."

And then in a couple of days,he's breathing on his own.

And within a week, he's eating solid food.

- [Narrator] Only sixweeks after the accident.

- [Chuck] He exits the hospital, walking.

- [Narrator] Then, after wearing

a neck brace for four months,

he was released by doctors with no surgery

and no medical restrictions.

- So when it was done, it was done,

that was the last part of my recovery,

and for me to walk away fromthat with no restrictions,

there's just no way that I can look at

any of the stuff that happened to me

and realize it's not a miracle.

- [Narrator] Charles not onlyfinished his college degree,

he was deemed physically and mentally fit

to pursue his dream and servein the Texas National Guard.

- God is who He says He is.

God will do what He says He will do,

and if I doubt that, all I haveto do is go look at my son.

- He's not good because of the healing,

He's good regardless of whetheror not my son was healed.

He revealed Himself to us in this

and all I can do is say, thank you.

- All you can do is say, thank you,

and when you begin to pray,

that's when you shouldbe saying, thank you.

It's okay to pour out yourcomplaint before the Lord,

but do it in a way that yourealize He's the answer,

and He can do it for you.

So let your request be madeknown with thanksgiving.

And for Charlie, whatan incredible miracle.

You see practically notrace of that accident,

and that is but God.

The doctors were expectingto see a mess in his skull,

and God intervened.

He promised, He makespromises and He stands

by His word to perform them.

Now, He has made a promise to you,

because the Bible says,"All the promises of God

"are yes and amen for thosewho are in Christ, Jesus."

So you can find a promise, and you say,

well, this is yes and amen for me

because I'm in Christ, Jesus,I'm a joint heir with Jesus,

that means I get everything that he got.

Now, what did Jesus get?

Jesus got a resurrection.

What can you get?

What can you get today?

Here's a promise for you.

He forgives all your inequities,how glorious is that?

It doesn't matter what you'vedone, how far you've gone,

He'll forgive all your inequities

and He will heal all your diseases.

Now here's a promise from Jesus,

when two or more agree touching anything,

it shall be done for themby my Father in Heaven.

So Terry and I are going to agree.

What we ask you to do is touch,

lay a hand on that area ofthe body that needs healing,

we come into agreement with you,

and miracle power is releasedbecause that's the Promise.

The promise is yes and amen for you.

So let's put it into practice,let's put it into action,

and let God do all the rest.

Lord, we lift the needsof the audience to You,

and as people are laying hands,

in an act of faith laying hands,

on that area of thebody that needs healing,

we come into agreement withthem and we say over them

and we say over them now,be healed, be set free,

for You have borne away our infirmities,

You have taken away our pains,

You are the miracle-working God.

So stretch forth Your hand todo wonders and miracles today.

There's someone, you'vegot a patch of skin

over your right eye that's been

chronically exposed to the sun,

and I believe youalready have a diagnosis,

and God is able to heal.

He's able to take awayall precancer cells.

Right now, in the name of Jesus,

all cancer be gone from you.

Your skin be normal, no moreflaking, peeling, crustiness,

all of that, leave you rightnow in the name of Jesus.

Terry.

- There's someone else,

you have a really bigproblem with kidney stones,

they've been recurring for a long time,

but you always seem to have been able to,

through basic things, get rid of them.

But you're facing some surgery

because you have somevery large kidney stones.

God's not just gonna dissolve those,

you're not gonna have these anymore.

Just lift your hands and beginto praise Him and thank Him.

- Hallelujah.

There's a word for gallstones,

the gallstones are just beingdissolved and taken away,

and all that inflammation is leaving,

that pain, that real intense pain

in the center of your sternum.

Right now in Jesus' name,be healed, be set free.

- There's someone else,

you have a lack ofhearing in your right ear.

It's not that you don't hear at all,

but it's kinda like atunnel and it's muffled.

That's the word,

conversations are muffledin your right ear.

Just hear that now as it opens up

and God is giving you a complete

restoration of your hearing.

- Lord, we thank You, wethank You for Your promises,

we thank You that You are the promise

and You always come through.

We thank You for it, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you've been healed, let us know,

give us a call, 1-800-700-7000,

and if you need prayer, we're here for you

and it's our honor, ourprivilege to pray for you,

all you have to do is pickup the phone and call us,

1-800-700-7000.

Terry.

- Well still to come,she was a teenage runaway

who became one of the leadingexecutives in Silicon Valley,

but childhood trauma haunted her.

- What happened to me as a child,

there is now way I could bestanding here before you today

if I had not forgiven thepeople who offended me.

- Facebook's Nona Jones is here live

and shares her incrediblejourney, when we come back.

(light music)

How does a little girl who was physically,

sexually and emotionally abused for years

go on to attain great personaland professional success.

Well Nona Jones says her painful past

helped propel her to greatness.

Take a look.

- [Narrator] FacebookExecutive, Nona Jones,

is a celebrated businessand faith leader who's life

has taken her from theboardroom, to the White House,

and from the pulpit, to Silicon Valley.

Yet before achieving personaland professional success,

Nona had to make a decisionto rise from a painful past.

- What happened to me as child,

there is now way I could bestanding here before you today

if I had not forgiven thepeople who offended me.

- [Narrator] In her memoir,"Success from the Inside Out,"

Nona shares her story tohelp you heal from the past,

so you can move withfreedom into the future.

- With me now is author andFacebook Executive, Nona Jones.

It's wonderful to have you here.

- Oh, it's so great to be here, thank you.

- Your new book just out,"Success from the Inside Out,"

tells the story of yourlife from beginning to end.

When you were born, you hadan interesting situation,

your dad really wantedchildren, your mother did not.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah, my mom grew up in a situation

where there was very little money,

there was a lot of mouths to feed

and her father was veryphysically abusive to her mother.

And so I think growing up and seeing that,

she decided at a very young age

that she didn't wanna have children.

She was one of 12, andso they struggled a lot.

And so when she found outshe was pregnant with me,

after they were married for 13 years,

even though, like you said,he was excited, she was angry.

She thought that I would be a burden.

- Well, and what happenedthat really, in some ways,

made having a child a burden,

not you necessarily,but a child in general,

was your died when you were what, one?

Shortly after your first birthday?

- Yeah, yeah, half-waythrough her pregnancy

he was having some stomachpain and he went to the doctor

just to have them run some tests,

and he ended up getting diagnosed

with terminal stomach cancer.

And so he passed away, and ofcourse my mother is thinking,

like you said, I didn'teven want this child

and now you're leaving me.

- [Terry] Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and so I think it just made

the whole situationjust really unfortunate.

- She went on to live her lifeas, it seemed, best for her,

it was almost like you were there,

but you weren't there in a way.

Eventually you were in a situation

where your mom had a boyfriend

who came and lived in the home with you

and began to abuse you.

- [Nona] Yeah.

- Tell us what those yearswere like for you, Nona.

- Sure yeah, I knewthat there was something

not right about him from a very early age.

I mean, I was probably aboutfour and a half when they met.

- [Terry] It's funny how you know that.

- Yeah, and he just had an aura about him

that I just didn't like,

and he would hold me close to his body

when my mother wasn't around,

and he would make little jokes.

And so around the age of five,

my mother's sister passed away

and she had to go back to her home

and she left me in his care for a few day.

And I begged her to takeme 'cause I just knew

I wasn't comfortable with him.

But that very first nightI locked my bedroom door

and I knew I needed thatbarrier to keep me safe,

but he used a wirehanger to pick that lock

and that was the first nightthat he sexually abused me.

And it became a routineoccurrence for a couple of years

until I finally told my mother

at the age of aboutseven what he had done.

And she had him arrested,but on the day of his release

she even took me with herto go pick him up from jail

and brought him back home,and the abuse continued.

- And actually asked you how you felt

about him coming back home.

I just shook my head atthat part of the book.

- Yeah, it was really a trying time

and I think that when Irecognize that my mother

frankly valued him more thanme, it made me feel worthless,

and that's why at the nineI tried to take my life

because I felt unworthy, I felt unwanted.

And I didn't grow up in a Christian home,

so I didn't have any senseof hope, or a future,

or God, or a purpose, or any of that.

- You had a couple ofattempts at taking your life.

Eventually you were invitedto church by a friend,

Boy, this is a good Word for all of us,

take a friend to churchbecause it changed your life,

it began to change.

- It did, I was 11 years old,I was in the sixth grade,

and one of my classmatesinvited me to church.

And I didn't even know what church was,

so I thought we were gonna go to her house

and just play, or something.

And I'll never forget, whenI walked in those doors

just how welcoming andloving the people were,

and they had no idea whatI was carrying with me

when I walked in those doors.

And that's why I always tell people,

now that my husband and I,we lead a church together,

I tell people, you don't know what baggage

people are carrying throughthose doors, so love them.

Don't assume, love them,because it was that love

that really helped to heal me.

And the very first sermonI ever heard preached,

the pastor said, "God is aFather to the fatherless,"

and what he didn't know isthat there were so many nights

I would cry myself tosleep asking for my father.

So when he said that, it'slike he spoke to the question

that was always in myheart, and I wanted to know,

well, who is this God who is my Father.

And about a year later I acceptedJesus as Lord in my life.

- Even at that point, I mean surely

there was degree of healing,

and there was hope in your life.

You went on to be very successful,

though you'd struggledwith school early on

because of all the stuffgoing on in your life,

you were really gifted, youtested with a very high I.Q.

You went on with a lot of accomplishments,

but you said inside ofyou, you were still empty.

- Yeah, what I've come to believe,

and I talk about thisextensively in the book,

is that there's nothing thatyou can accumulate around you

that will actually heala deficit within you.

And so I did, I went to collegewith a full scholarship,

I ended up in executiveroles at a very young age.

But I'll never forget, I wason a business trip on time,

and I was actually at the White House,

and I was there with thePresident, and the First Lady,

and all these world leaders,

and you should feel like you've made it,

you should feel like,yes, I've accomplished,

but I still felt empty,I felt this nagging sense

that something was missing.

And I think that becamethe inflection point

where I realized, Lord,

I need You to teach mewhat true success is

because this isn't itbecause I still feel empty.

- And it started with forgiveness.

- Absolutely, yeah.

I think forgiveness isthe hidden superpower

that God gives to us.

You know, the truth isbitterness is natural,

that comes easy to us.

When somebody offends us,we are naturally bitter,

but forgiveness requiressupernatural power,

it requires grace.

- And it's not saying thatwhat was done to you is okay,

it's for you.

- It is, and I think sometimes we think,

well, I'm not gonna forgive them

because they don't deserve it,

I'm not gonna forgive thembecause they didn't apologize.

But forgiveness is not aboutwhether or not they deserve it,

the question is, do you deserve peace,

and if you deserve peace,and I believe that you do,

then forgiveness is required.

- Success isn't just whatyou see on the outside,

it's the peace and hope we find inside.

We didn't even get to talk about Facebook,

you'll have to come back.

(laughs)

- [Nona] I'd be happy to.

- To learn more, you need topick up a copy of Nona's book.

If you have been wounded,or gone through trauma,

or you know someone who has,"Success from the Inside Out"

is an amazing book.

It's available in stores nationwide.

Nona, thank you for sharingyour story so candidly.

- Thank you for having me.

- Really helps all of us to remember

God is the healer, that He's there for us.

In fact in Proverbs 2:7 it says,

"He stores up soundwisdom for the upright.

"He is a shield to thosewho walk in integrity."

That's what you'rehearing in Nona's story,

He shielded her through it all

and brought her into green pastures,

and He'll do that for you too.

Don't be afraid to beginthe journey to healing,

it's your inheritancefrom a good, good Father.

Bless you.

(upbeat music)