In 1995, I published a book called "Modern-Day Miracles: How Ordinary People Experience Supernatural Acts of God." It's been out of print for years, so don't worry about buying a copy.

I am now, as I was then, a Pentecostal pastor in addition to being a journalist. As a Pentecostal, I already had a lot of experience with people who claimed to have been supernaturally healed or to have received some other form of divine intervention.

I thought that subject -- reports of miracles -- would make a great book, and my secular publishing house agreed, surprisingly. I set out to research everything I could find about supposed miracles. I read books and articles. I interviewed doctors, religion experts, skeptics -- and, naturally, dozens of people who'd claimed they'd run smack dab into the hand of God.

It