Authors: Dale Black

Tags: #Afterlife, #Biography & Autobiography, #Nonfiction, #Personal Memoir, #Retail

Flight to Heaven (25 page)

BOOK: Flight to Heaven

7.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

What I didn’t know about was Dale’s commitment not to share about his journey to heaven with anyone other than his grandfather unless God clearly instructed him otherwise. And when Dale commits to something, he is unbendable.

A few years ago, while Dale was starting to write about his life experiences, we were discussing the moments immediately following the crash. As I had done before, I began to ask probing questions about what he remembered. This time he was unusually quiet. So I asked more questions. He got up and walked around the room. I pressed harder. Suddenly he stood still and silent for several minutes. Then in the greatest emotional response I’d ever seen from him, he let it spill out. He finally revealed to me what I had suspected all along. Dale had visited heaven after all.

As Dale recounted his amazing journey, he paced the floor. I grabbed a pen and paper. He talked. I scribbled notes. This went on and on into the night. The intricate details, the intensity of the concepts, the incredible descriptions . . . I was stunned. His recall was so precise and so completely aligned with the Bible, I knew immediately his experience was not only real but also sacred.

Dale answered each of my questions quickly, but always with great emotion. There were no pauses, no hesitations to his story. His entire awesome journey to heaven was there buried deep in his heart. I was so astounded by his descriptions that at times I froze in place, in awe of what God had revealed to, of all people, my own husband. I have never been more convinced of Dale’s honesty and sincerity as when he finally unloaded the secrets of his heavenly journey, the secret he had kept for almost forty years.

For the next several days, hundreds of dots started to connect in my head. So many things I had thought were strange about my husband now made sense. These quirks were, and still are, some of the leftover effects of his heavenly journey.

Dale’s values and priorities completely changed after the airplane crash. That’s the primary reason he is dramatically different from anyone I have ever known. He is sensitive toward and strongly drawn to relationships where there is unity and love at the core. Dale doesn’t look for facts but the truth in each situation. He sees under the surface of things. He studies the Bible from his heart rather than his head and knows it intimately. Since the crash, he is drawn toward certain types of music. He has a quest to understand order in science, but only to understand more about God. He is fascinated with light and the properties of light as well as space and astronomy. And the list goes on and on. Without question Dale has been profoundly and permanently affected by his visit to heaven.

After much prayer, Dale finally agreed to write about his heavenly journey, but only for immediate family. At the time neither of us dreamed it would ever go beyond that. However, over the next several months, God used a series of events to clearly confirm it was time to share not only about Dale’s amazing survival and recovery, but also about his journey to heaven and back.

You should know that his story is verifiable. There are medical records, witnesses, and the lasting results of Dale’s changed life. I am probably the best witness to the validity of this story because I’ve studied the documents and I know almost everyone in this story personally. I still have the X rays, the letters, the newspaper articles, hundreds of photos, the FAA reports, and more. I also know the man. And I, too, have been impacted by the life-changing experience that has affected Dale each and every day of the last four decades.

Due to the injuries sustained in the crash, primarily his difficulty with short-term memory, Dale has had to work enormously hard to accomplish his vocational dreams. But the physical limitations that still challenge him also serve as blessed reminders of his miraculous survival. He’s learned several creative “tricks” to compensate for his injuries and, incredibly, has flown for over forty years as a professional pilot following the accident that almost took his life. And probably because of the crash, Dale spent most of his professional career as an award-winning flight instructor and examiner, trying to do his part to improve aviation safety. He is respected by colleagues as one of the best pilot instructors and safest professional aviators in the business.

It has taken a lifetime to more fully reveal God’s faithfulness in Dale’s life. And that faithfulness has culminated in this book.

I hope you have enjoyed Dale’s story and that some part of it has encouraged you in your own journey. God continues to direct our lives, and believe me, after four decades, it is still quite a ride.

—Paula Black

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Capt. Dale Black
is a retired airline pilot who has dedicated his career to professional pilot training and aviation safety. Capt. Dale has flown for over forty years and has more than seventeen thousand hours of flying experience in a variety of two-, three-, and four-engine commercial jets, as well as many corporate jets and general aviation aircraft. He is a former aircraft systems instructor for the Boeing 747, Boeing 727, Boeing 737, and Boeing 707 aircraft. He has been a senior simulator and flight instructor on the Boeing 737, the Learjet 35/36, Learjet 24/25, Learjet 55, and Cessna Citation I and II. He has been a flight examiner for the Airline Transport Pilot Certificate, the Boeing 737, and a variety of jet-type ratings. Additionally, he has been a certified flight engineer on a variety of commercial jets. Dale is also a former flight standards captain, safety consultant, accident prevention counselor, and regular speaker in aviation seminars. He founded and operated a jet pilot training and jet aircraft sales company. He has been a pilot and instructor for many celebrities as well as executives of several Fortune 500 companies.

Dale has an MA in Theology and a PhD in Business with an emphasis in airline management and marketing. He is founder of Eagle International Ministries, where he has led scores of teams on short-term Christian missionary projects to over fifty countries since 1981.

He is a regular speaker on topics regarding life after death, heaven, and Bible prophecy.

Dale and his wife, Paula, own a real estate company. They are the parents of two grown children and live in Southern California.

He can be contacted at [email protected] or by visiting
.
www.DaleBlack.org
.

You are invited to share the life-changing story and message of
Flight to Heaven

• Give this book as a gift. As you have discovered, not only will you be sharing a suspenseful real-life adventure, but friends and family member are sure to be impacted by the inspirational story and glorious glimpse of heaven.

• Write a book review on your favorite Web sites or your own site or blog. Another idea is to suggest that your local newspaper or radio station do an interview or book review.

• Reach out to those in need by providing copies of the book to places where people often need encouragement and inspiration (retirement homes, hospitals, jails and prisons, and anywhere an uplifting story is needed).