Heather Bellamy spoke with Ern Crocker about his new book and heard some truly amazing stories.

Dr Jason gives a village lady back her smile in Cambodia

Ern: A friend of mine, an Obstetrician, was called in to do an emergency operation one Sunday morning. It was a Caesarean. He found that he could not stop this woman from bleeding. She had an unusual condition where the placenta was fused to the uterus. We see this very rarely, but it's a horrible condition because the patient may bleed uncontrollably. So he had to do a hysterectomy and even after this she kept bleeding and developed blood clotting problems, (I think he gave her 16 units of blood), he was terrified that she was going to die. He called his wife and said, "Go down to our church. It's Sunday morning, get the people to pray for this woman." And she did. They prayed and her bleeding stopped and she recovered completely. He said, "I still look after this lady and her child as well." But what he told me just a few months ago, was that he had recently spoken to a man who'd been at the church service that Sunday morning and the guy said, "Guess what the reading was for that service? It was of the woman with the issue of blood, who touched the hem of Christ's garment and was healed!" It took many years for the obstetrician to learn that God was there and that He wasn't blind to what was going on.

Sometimes God leads us through these things. He said to the disciples before the storm, "Let's go to the other side," and He led them through the storm and on to the other side, never leaving them for a moment. They were worried, but He sure wasn't. So, in times of crisis, expected or otherwise, God is there. He will prepare us and He will never let us down, or abandon us. I hope they get that from the book.

Heather: I'd like to talk with you about how you outwork your faith in a medical context. A lot of the stories in the book have a medical theme going through them and in this interview you've touched on prayer and the supernatural outworking within the natural context of medicine. However, in the UK it's getting harder for professional people to share their faith in a work context, for example nurses have been sacked for offering prayer or sharing their faith. What's the climate like in Australia for you professionally, in relation to sharing your faith with your patients, or praying and seeing God come in to that natural context of medicine?

Ern: It's probably just as difficult here. I've known doctors that have been stopped from practising, so I have to be wise. I realise that being a nuclear medicine referral doctor, the patients I'm seeing are patients referred to me by other doctors and I have to be respectful of that.

Pastor Andrew Chan and Pastor Miranda Riddington

But let me give you an example of what might happen. I was doing a heart test on a young man about a year ago. He had tattoos and body piercings and didn't look like a heart patient at all, but when I put him on the exercise bike, he didn't do well. So I thought I'd better stop and look at his heart with ultrasound to see if there's something structurally wrong.

So I sat him down and while I was preparing, he was reading a book. I always notice if someone is reading a book. It's often a good lead-in. I said, "What are you reading?" He said, "I'm reading the Bible." I said, "Really?" And he said, "Yes, I've read Matthew, Mark and Luke. They were good. I read Ecclesiastes and didn't understand that at all." I said, "Do you read the Bible very often?" And he said, "Yes, me and the missus sit on the bed at night and we read the Bible." I asked, "Do you go to church?" He said, "Oh no doc, no we don't go to church." And I asked, "Are you a Christian?" He said, "Oh no doc, no way". I said, "Why not?" He said, "Doc you wouldn't understand, you don't know what I've done. I'm not worthy."

I was able to quietly pray for that guy in my spirit, but you are limited in what you can say and do.

Heather: What's the response been like to your book?

Ern: It's been very positive. I had a text the other day that a copy had been given to somebody who then took it to their hairdressers. The hairdresser said, "What are you reading?" The young assistant came up and said, "Gosh I need something like that." A lot of people buy copies to give them away, especially to their doctors, which is kind of interesting.

Andrew's last baptism

It's God's book, it's not my book. My best subjects at school were science and French! English wasn't my strong thing in school days, but God said, "I want you to write this book". I was very much aware, sitting down writing it, that He was writing it through me. Every time I sat down and put my hands on the keyboard, I would say, "Lord, write the book" and the words that came were not my words. I read them and they make me cry, because I know it's of God. They'll make you cry too and laugh. If you read it, you'll be moved I assure you.

Just when I thought the book was complete though, I realised that there was something missing and I didn't know what it was. I don't know if you are familiar with the 'Bali Nine'? They were Australians convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia some years ago. One of these was Andrew Chan, a young Australian who had been condemned to death by firing squad. He had been wonderfully saved during his time in prison.

When he was first arrested he was placed in solitary confinement. He was an atheist, but he got himself a Bible and read where it says, "Pray to this mountain and it will be moved" and he said, "God I'm praying that you set me free." And then he went to court and was condemned to death. He went back to his cell and said, "God, I wanted you to free me, not kill me!" But God said, "I have set you free, Andrew, on the inside." That changed his life. Over the next 10 years he was pastor and evangelist in that prison; looking after the inmates, leading them to the Lord and teaching them to trust God.

On the night of the execution, April 29, 2015, Andrew, led the others who were to be shot, out to the execution site singing. They were singing wonderful hymns that you'd be familiar with, including Amazing Grace. When they saw where they were to be shot, their voices trailed right off. So Andrew shouted out, "Come on boys, we can do better than that!" They sang and they sang, and finally when their arms were tied, they were able to partly raise their hands in prayer. They began to sing Matt Redman's '10,000 Reasons,' but were shot half-way through the second verse.

This was just a bus stop on the way to heaven for Andrew Chan. It was just a transience in eternity and that's what death should be for us.

Andrew had married Feby two days before he was to be executed. She wrote him a letter the night he died and it said, "Andrew, when you meet Jesus, if you want to come back, you tell him, but if you want to stay, you stay there. I'll be okay." As a doctor who's seen death many times and sees people who are dying, that level of courage shown by Andrew and Feby was simply remarkable.