Miracle Moments, Part II

This is the second of three installments of an interview I did recently with journalist and documentarian Mary Lou McCall, who blogs at Miracle Moments. Please visit Mary Lou's site for more insight into her fascinating testimony, her life and her work.

Mary Lou, thank you again for talking with me. Please describe the city of Medugorje, and what moved you about the place.

Medjugorje is an oasis of peace amid the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. It is heaven's gift to our troubled world. But when I arrived in the village more than 22 years ago, I was stunned. Kiosks, gypsies and entrepreneurs were everywhere. I had gone to Medjurgorje to investigate "alleged" miracles happening there, but nothing about the place looked "holy" except the huge twin towered church of St. James, which stood in the center of the village. However, I quickly learned this land had obviously been anointed.

What do you mean, "the land had been anointed"?

Communists, Catholics and Muslims co-exited peacefully among the population of farmers and sheepherders. Within a few days of my arrival there, and after conducting a few interviews, I knew within the silence of my heart that God was speaking to me and to the rest of humankind through the visionaries who were speaking to the Blessed Mother. I felt deeply touched by the sincerity of the visionaries and the miraculous conversions of those who had traveled to this faraway place.

Watching an apparition did not move me as much as watching a sea of humanity converge on Medjugorje from all over the world to pray on bended knee, to go to Mass, to go to confession for the first time in a long time and to earnestly cry out for God's loving guidance. "By their fruits you shall know them..." came to life--right before my eyes. The fireworks caught my attention, but God reached in and touched my heart.

Mary Lou, I'm wondering what work you long to do now. What haven't you done yet that you are driven to do?

I want to help inspire others to nver give up on God, because just when you want to let go, that is exactly when God is ready to give you a miracle.

I feel as though God has been training me over the last couple of years for a reentry into television on a more national level, to produce and host programming that inspires, educates and encourages others to build their dreams on a strong spiritual foundation. I have been praying daily for God to show me exactly how He wants me to use my communication skills and my life experiences to inspire others to put their hopes, their dreams and their trust in a higher power.

I would also like to publish the book I am writing which tells the story of how God has carried me through the challenges of my life by lifting my crosses with an ease and a euphoria that can only come from a supernatural embrace.

How have you changed, and how has your life changed, since your conversion?

My conversion in Medjugorje brought God to life for me. I understood deep within my soul God's healing Love and His amazing grace.

I miscarried a baby in Medjugorje, but I returned home with a powerful gift of faith that has carried me through many personal challenges. That spiritual renewal gave me the peacful courage to turn my will and my life over to His guiding power, both professionally and personally. I left my successful career as a secular television anchor and reporter and used my TV skills to produce spiritual programming.

My life began to make sense. As a young child, I felt a calling to missionary life, but I did not know what that meant until my journey to Medjugorje. I became a missionary for God on televsion by bringing a healing message of hope into the homes of our viewers.

Of course, over the last 22 years I have faced many adversities and challenges, some of them because of my own unhealthy choices. But I have always turned back to God to guide me toward the resolution of those difficulties. Today, I am more determined than ever to be a living example of diving Love in this fallen world and to share my story with others.

[To be continued]

(photo of Holy Mother Mary in Medjurgorje, by Dario Dzimbeg)