Faith in Action: Joe Quatrone, Jr. (Christian Stories, Part 1)

Pastor Joe Quatrone, Jr.

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The lives of four (4) Christians will help illustrate how adversity and painful moments can be overcome.   Each has endured tragedies which have tested, and revealed, the ‘spiritual stuff’ their lives are grounded in.   This 4-part post will showcase Profiles of Faith in Action.   This post, Part 1, explores a testimony that reminds me that divine miracles can and do occur.

An accident which could have ended the life of Joe Quatrone, Jr., ended up being the beginning of a life of Ministry and Christian service.   The prayers and faith of Joe, his parents, and his church family helped fuel the story he details in his heart-felt testimony.   In over a year of blogging, it’s surely one of the most extraordinary Christian stories I’ve ever read.

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Summary of the first Your Stories post (link to entire post)

1. Stories: Told and Untold, Known & Unknown
2. The Joys and Pains of Life: A Roller Coaster
3. Two words from a well-known Bible Story (John 11, understanding the “Jesus Wept” verse)
4. Christian Stories (4 stories of Christians who felt pain in their life)
5. The Storytelling Tradition in Christianity and Life (‘Ordinary Christians’ and those in the Christian Community with storytelling roles)
6. Your life as a Christian (Strategies given the role that stories play in the life of an abiding Christian)
   

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Pastor Joe Quatrone, Jr.

• As I expressed in the prior post (link) in this series:

When I read, last March, the testimony of a man, about a life-threatening experience he had as a 14-year old boy, I was deeply moved!   Obviously, God had allowed him to recover from being hit by a car – as a teenager, while riding his bike.   He was in a coma for 2 weeks!   Having read and enjoyed many of the blog posts of that man in the prior months, I now had a vivid, real-life illustration of the amazing healing powers of God!   I now sensed what made him ‘tick’ . . . and his God-exalting, online presence is, I firmly believe, part of a Master Plan that God had for him even then – in that hospital room.

I thought to myself that day:  “God clearly had a purpose for this young boy which could only be fulfilled by saving him!    If he didn’t, all the wonderful work of an awesome Pastor, blogger, and married father of two children would NEVER have seen the light of day!    God couldn’t let Joe go!    His Christian blogging is clearly ‘for real’.”

• In a matter of seconds, after reading his Testimony, I realized anew the healing powers of God, Jehovah – Rapha (Exodus 15: 22-26) . . . and the Plans he has for all his children.   As I told Joe yesterday morning, if I were stranded on an island for half a year, access to his blog is one thing I’d ask the Lord to provide until he came to rescue me!   Man does not live by bread alone.
• Please check out Pastor Joe Quatrone’s awesome testimony ———>  My Testimony (on his blog).   I touch on a few of the words, his words, from that testimony below.

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In that testimony, Joe writes:

• “I was fourteen years old when tragedy struck!   It was around 6:00 PM, getting dark, and raining.   I was pedaling my bike across the highway and was hit by a car driving 55 MPH.   I was thrown from my bike and landed twenty feet from the place where I was hit . . .  The car was totally smashed in and the front hood was compressed into the back seat.  Blood was everywhere as my limp and unconscious body lay in the middle of the intersection . . .
• The surgeons performed an emergency tracheotomy surgery to my throat and implanted a gastro-feeding tube in my stomach.   With just a one percent chance of survival and having three days to live, my parents were told I would die.But God had a different plan for me.
• Fourteen days later, despite the doctors’ prediction I would die, my eyes opened.   It was a miracle!    I was transferred to a rehabilitation center for six months where I re-learned how to walk, talk, eat, bathe, and function as a human all over again.
  While I was recovering in the hospital, I realized the amazing work God had done in my life and accepted His free gift of salvation.
• When I was released from the hospital, I was asked to speak at several churches and youth groups, sharing my testimony and how God was working in my life . . .  I was amazed at the response I saw to the gospel.   It was at this point that I began to sense God’s calling into pastoral ministry . . . ” [Emphasis added]

I’ve excerpted four sections of his powerful, touching testimony.    As noted in the prior post in this series, Joe’s testimony – and a Gospel song that deals with ‘real worship’ and the stories of Christians – served as the two sparks for the Our Stories, Our Praise, Our Worship Series.    Check out the entire testimony (link) to get the full sense of God’s work in one man’s life.

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• Just as the branch from the tree made the bitter waters at Marah sweet (in Exodus 15), a miracle was done for this man’s parents.   They were told that he would die.    Guess what?   It ain’t over until God says it’s over!   If Joe’s story doesn’t convince you of that, nothing likely will.
• Miss the first Your Stories post?  A Summary was provided above; link to whole post.
• To God be the glory!

 Greg Silverthorne, 66 Assurance Way

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(to be continued – Jimmy Greene’s story)

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