My friend Jack is a woodcarver who also plays the trumpet. Recently he shared a story of his testimony with me and it was so amazing I asked him for his permission to write it down and pass it. To set up the back story a bit it is important to note that my friend is a re-enactor who was participating in a Rendezvous. He had a Christmas tree set up decorated with his carvings and one of those carvings was an angel blowing a trumpet. After he’d set up his campsite he realized that he didn’t have a fire poker and he went over to the blacksmith’s camp to ask him to make one for him. At the time Jack didn’t have any cash with him, but in keeping with the true spirit of a Rendezvous he explained that he was a woodcarver and bargained with the blacksmith for a new fire-poker. Eventually when the blacksmith inspected Jack’s work hanging on the campsite Christmas tree he told Jack that he’d make him a new poker in exchange for the angel blowing the trumpet.

Jack informed him that the angel was part of his personal collection, but that he would be glad to carve another angel with a trumpet for the blacksmith before the weekend was over. Both men agreed that the exchange would be a fair trade and thus the bargain was set. Later that evening Jack was playing music with two of his friends around the crackling flames of the campfire when he heard a voice whisper, “Give me to Dakota.” Jack stopped playing and asked his friends, “What did you say?” But both of his friends denied that they’d said anything so they all went back to playing. Before long Jack heard the voice again saying, “Give me to Dakota.” He thought that his friends were playing a joke on him so he stood up and began to move around the campsite. When he came near the Christmas tree he noticed that the eyes of the angel seemed to be focused on him and as he moved from one side of the tree to the other the figure of the angel turned to face him. Jack’s friends were just as amazed as he was when they saw the angel turning to face him no matter where he stood in the campsite. His friends were even more surprised when Jack asked the angel if it was speaking to him and once again it said in a voice clearly audible to all of them, “Give me to Dakota.” Jack took the angel down from the Christmas tree and went to the blacksmith’s campsite where he spoke to the blacksmith and asked for permission to give the angel to the blacksmith’s son Dakota. Apparently for quite a while the young boy had been experiencing problems sleeping. The only way that he was able to peacefully fall asleep was when he slept in the same room with his grandmother’s angel figurine. The figurine wasn’t his, but his parents tended to leave it in his room since he never seemed get a restful night’s sleep without having it nearby. Jack presented his angel carving to the boy and told him that he could keep it if the boy could tell him why God exists. The boy thought for a moment and then tilted his head a bit as though he was listening to someone. When the boy spoke he said that he knew that God existed because his angel told him that the angel had been sent from heaven to watch over him the day that he’d been born. Out of curiosity Jack asked Dakota what date was his birthday to which the boy answered, “10 October 94.” The same date that Jack had carved into the bottom of the angel the day that he’d originally carved it.