Reggie Anderson - Appointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctors Healing Encounters with the Hereafter

Dr. Andersons hope-filled stories help eliminate any doubt of heaven. Appointments with Heaven will comfort all who long to know that death is a transition not the final word.

Mary C. Neal, MD

New York Times bestselling author of To Heaven and Back

In an age when so much energy, time, and money are spent to help us forget about our mortality, Dr. Reggie reminds us not just of its inevitability but even more of its right and beautiful place in our journey. Appointments with Heaven is a deeply honest and moving story, told by a true eyewitness. You will be encouraged and challenged by this remarkable journey to the very door of heaven.

Geoff Moore

Contemporary Christian recording artist

Appointments with Heaven is so much more than a marvelous memoir. Its a heart-wrenching look at doubt, death, and grief. Its a mind-stretching account of supernatural encounters. And its a soul-stirring story of just how close God really is. Read it, believe it, and you will never again fear your appointment with heaven.

Lynn Eib

Author of When God & Cancer Meet

This was a great read. Intriguing, encouraging, inspirational.... I couldnt put it down!

Mark Scott

Retired president, LifeWay Christian Stores

Appointments with Heaven is not only Reggies powerful personal story; it is also a call to each of us to live with our eyes and hearts open because heaven is closer than we think. Appointments with Heaven is a welcome reminder that we are never separated from the presence of God.

Mark Miller

Lead singer of country music group Sawyer Brown; producer of contemporary Christian artist Casting Crowns

Appointments with Heaven is a moving and inspirational experience that describes real-life encounters with God and illuminates how his light shines brightest when our lives are at their darkest.

Frank Miller

Business manager for Sawyer Brown; Casting Crowns; and Colton Dixon

The stories in this book happened to real patients. To protect patient confidentiality, names and some identifying details of patients and their medical situations have been changed. Events are represented as closely as possible to actual occurrence.

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Appointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctors Healing Encounters with the Hereafter

Copyright 2013 by Reggie Anderson. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph copyright peter zelei/Getty images. All rights reserved.

Designed by Dean H. Renninger

Published in association with the literary agency of Creative Trust, Inc., 5141 Virginia Way, Suite 320, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

ISBN 978-1-4143-8045-2 Softcover

ISBN 978-1-4143-8840-3 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4143-8417-7 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4143-8841-0 (Apple)

Build: 2021-12-08 16:37:07 EPUB 3.0

To Karen,

my North Star, my tether!

Soli Deo Gloria!

We have known Reggie Anderson for twenty-plus years. The Anderson and Chapman families have shared many ups and downs, creating a bond that few families will ever know.

Our children grew up together, attended the same school, played on the same teams, and did a lot of life together. So much so that in 2009, our son Caleb and their daughter Julia got married, thus continuing our journey. Now if only those kids would surprise us with a grandbaby!

Weve experienced much laughter, tears, good times, and hard times. On a beautiful sunny day in spring 2008, our youngest daughter made her journey home to heaven because of an accident at our house. It was truly the day the world went wrong, and our lives came crashing in on us. Life as we knew it changed forever. Two of the first phone calls we made were to Karen and Reggie Anderson. They came to the hospital immediately and have been by our sides on this incredibly difficult journey ever since. They held us, housed us, and offered us the cup of compassion over and over in those first days, weeks, and months that followed. They were the hands and feet of Christ as we began all over again with our lives.

In the months that followed losing Maria, we began the process of grieving, healing, and coming to terms with what had happened. During that time we noticed Reggie writing a lot into what we assumed was a journal. We discovered at some point that he was actually beginning to write down the stories of loss in his own personal life, as well as in his professional life as a medical doctor. Marias death had stirred in him the impulse to write his own story.

As time went by, we would SEE that recording these memories was helping Reggie heal and reconcile the hard parts of his life. He began to identify these stories as divine appointments, and the more he wrote, the more he understood that God had been creating a much bigger picture than he ever imagined. Reggie also realized that he had never been alone and that the God of the universe had been orchestrating an elaborate story of redemption and purpose, which has now culminated in this deep, rich book.

God clearly speaks to Reggie in the form of miraculous happenings. Reggie recognizes those miracles for what they are: divine and deliberate pursuits by God to let Reggie know that he is intimately cared for. This country doctor from Tennessee is loved by God and has been blessed with an amazing gift. As Reggie embraces this, he wants to be faithful to tell others of the amazing lengths to which God goes so we can truly SEE him.

In Appointments with Heaven, Reggie has woven a beautiful tapestry, intertwining his own journey with the stories of other people he has come to know, whether through family, friends, or doctoring. In a poignant way, Reggie communicates his transformation from a grieving, scared young boy running from God into an amazingly intuitive doctor who now runs toward God in times of darkness and tragedy. From encountering Christ on a camping trip to meeting his wife, Karen, Reggie truly hears from God in unique ways.