Here’s how God has shown up in St. Louis, MO 63129.
On Monday night, Joyce Smith watched her son, John, sink the winning basket at his school basketball game. The next day, she stood in the ER as doctors fought to save that same 14-year-old boy’s life.
In January 2015, John fell through thin ice on a frozen pond near his St. Louis home. He was trapped underwater for 15 minutes before rescuers could reach him. When first responders pulled him out, he was blue, unresponsive, and without a pulse.
EMTs performed CPR on the shore and throughout the ambulance ride — but nothing worked. Once at the hospital, doctors continued for 45 more minutes, doing everything they could. After more than an hour without oxygen, they prepared to call time of death.
Then Joyce walked in.
Overcome with emotion, she touched her son’s icy feet and prayed the only words she could muster:
“Holy Spirit, I need You now. Please give me back my son.”
At that moment, every monitor in the room came alive.
John’s heart started beating.
🙏 The Power of a Mother’s Faith
Doctors were stunned. After an hour without oxygen, survival was impossible. But Joyce and her community refused to surrender to fear.
“We stood on God’s Word,” Joyce said. “The power of life and death is in the tongue — so we spoke life.”
Prayer chains formed instantly. Friends, family, and churches across Missouri began interceding.
Doctors warned Joyce that within 72 hours, John’s brain would swell, he would seize, and he would never function normally again. But none of that happened.
“He never had one seizure,” Joyce said. “When they tested his lungs — they were sterile. The doctors couldn’t explain it.”
That first night, their pastor Jason Noble and another minister entered the hospital room to pray. As they did, two towering angels appeared, standing from floor to ceiling.
“We knew God had sent them to fight for John,” Joyce recalled.
⚡ From Death to Life in 16 Days
John was in a coma for several days, but when he finally awoke, he was fully aware.
“I remember waking up and seeing the ceiling lights in the hospital room,” John said. “I was scared but I knew — I had drowned.”
Sixteen days after being declared clinically dead, John walked out of the hospital — alive, alert, and whole.
“It’s still unbelievable to me,” he said. “I’m just a kid from Missouri. I’m not special. I just want this story to show that God still does the impossible.”
🌅 The Miracle That Touched the World
The incredible story was later told in Joyce’s book, The Impossible: The Miraculous Story of a Mother’s Faith and Her Child’s Resurrection, and adapted into the 2019 Twentieth Century Fox film Breakthrough, produced by DeVon Franklin and starring Chrissy Metz as Joyce.
Today, John is thriving as a husband and father, living proof that God still performs miracles.
“God answers prayer,” Joyce says. “And when people hear this story, they encounter God in their own way.”
Have you witnessed God’s presence in your moment of need? Share your story and let your faith inspire others across the nation.
📖 Originally shared via CBN’s The 700 Club interview with Joyce & John Smith. Reformatted here to strengthen faith within our community.