DAVID Newberry was a miracle baby, miracle teenager and now travels the globe encouraging others to believe for their own miracles.
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The 70-year-old Texan preacher is in Warrnambool this weekend and next week to share his message with south-west residents.
“I was a miracle child so I grew up experiencing miracles and thought everybody believed in them,” he told The Standard yesterday.
“When I was born at seven months I had a hole in the heart and came back to life three times after dying.
“My grandmother said she had a vision that I would be an international evangelist.
“Later I contracted polio and when I was aged 11 the doctor came to our house and told my parents I’d never walk again.
“So grandmother got some ladies from the church to pray.
“She poured cooking oil over me and within five minutes I was up and healed.
“I’ve seen miracles in all countries I’ve been to.
“It doesn’t matter if people go to church or not — Jesus came to give life to all.”
His preaching career started at the age of 19 in America before he went to Africa where he worked for 31 years.
With his late wife, Cheryl, they started with work among Zulu tribes and travelled through the continent hosting healing rallies which attracted crowds of up to 10,000 at a time.
Fifteen years ago in Lusaka, Zambia, while running a small Bible school his course changed when Pastor Peter Greene of Warrnambool’s Full Gospel International Church sought him out.
“I had never met him before and he just turned up and encouraged me to start a church,” Dr Newberry said yesterday.
“We started with 17 people and now there’s almost 5000 regular attenders.”
Dr Newberry led the new Miracle Life Family Church until retiring from leadership in 2003.
“I’ve been able to speak to the whole nation through regular TV programs, teaching people how to come out of poverty,” Dr Newberry said.
“I believe the whole nation is changing
“We’ve seen amazing things happen — people with AIDS and cancer victims made well.
“Last year while preaching in the dark after the electricity went off I prayed for a lady in a wheelchair.
“God raised her up and she was instantly healed.
“The next day I was asked to visit the university hospital where there was a lady paralysed with advanced cancer and a huge tumour on her back.
“I went in with four other pastors to pray with her.
“She asked God to forgive her and to everyone’s astonishment she got up and started walking around the hospital.”
Dr Newberry will be speaking at the Full Gospel church at 7pm tonight, 10.30am and 7pm tomorrow as well as next Wednesday and Sunday.
He’ll be back in Warrnambool next month after preaching in Malaysia and the Philippines.
Early next year Pastor Greene will accompany his Texan friend back to Africa for rallies in Milawi where they expect up to 50,000 people a day to attend.
pcollins@standard.fairfax.com.au