"When I arrived in heaven, I was inside the gate. The gate was really tall, and it was white. It was very shiny, and it looked like it had scales like a fish. I was in the inner heaven and everything was brighter and more intense on the inside of the gate. It was perfect! Perfect is my favorite word for describing heaven."

(Columbus, Ohio)—Kevin Malarkey's short drive home on November 14, 2004 with his son, Alex, turned out to be an unexpected road trip to heaven and back. Alex's story of the time he spent in heaven while in a coma is fully told by both him and his father, in a new Tyndale House book, "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven," a remarkable account of miracles, angels, and life beyond this world.

Alex was presumed dead at the scene of the accident, and first responders considered calling a coroner. He survived but suffered traumatic injury to his brain and an internal decapitation. His skull was almost completely detached from his spinal column. Alex's parents were told that injuries involving this extent of spinal alignment virtually always result in death. If Alex were to survive, he would be a quadriplegic, never breathe independently, swallow food, or speak.

The prognosis was grim. Alex's family and friends started a round-the-clock prayer vigil in the ICU, which quickly spread across the country. In a matter of weeks, Alex's most severe spinal injuries were healed without medical intervention leading stunned doctors to cancel a critical spinal alignment surgery. (To watch a video book trailer CLICK HERE)

"The vertebrae were completely detached. The tendon sheath around the spinal column was severed near the base of his brain. The injury was so severe and so high on the spinal column; it is simply incredible that Alex survived." -Dr. Raymond Onders (Christopher Reeves' & Alex's doctor)

After two months in a coma, Alex slowly learned to speak again and had incredible things to say about where he had been: of events at the accident scene and in the hospital while unconscious, of unearthly music that sounded just terrible to a six-year-old, and of the angels that took him through the gates of heaven.

"When I arrived in heaven, I was inside the gate. The gate was really tall, and it was white. It was very shiny, and it looked like it had scales like a fish. I was in the inner heaven and everything was brighter and more intense on the inside of the gate. It was perfect! Perfect is my favorite word for describing heaven." -Alex Malarkey

Miracles continue to be the theme of Alex's story. On January 9, 2009, he became the first child to undergo the Christopher Reeve Surgery, allowing him to breathe without a ventilator. Today, twelve-year-old Alex loves watching sports and cheering for his favorite teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. He believes he will walk again.

"He gave millions to charity, often with one stipulation, that no one be told who made the donation."

Longtime Yankee owner George Steinbrenner (he had passed the torch to his sons in 2007 due to illness) died Tuesday morning, following a massive heart attack. He had recently celebrated his 80th birthday on July 4th.

The Steinbrenner family made the statement: "He was an incredible and charitable man. He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again."

Steinbrenner—a.k.a. "The Boss"—bought the NY Yankees baseball team in 1973 for $8.7 million; today the Yankee franchise is reportedly worth billions. Larger-than-life in New York and perhaps the most well-known owner in baseball, there was another side to George Steinbrenner that has gone mostly overlooked, except for those who directly experienced it—his giving spirit. (Photo: MLB.com)

Actually, a large part of the reason for the lack of publication about Steinbrenner's charitable expressions, and his caring, humanitarian actions, was due to his own request that it be kept private.

One sports writer put it this way: "He gave millions to charity, often with one stipulation, that no one be told who made the donation."

Jesus told us in Matthew 6, "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly."

Now, I have no idea where George Steinbrenner's heart was concerning faith before he died, but it's good to see reports from many coming in regarding his attitude of giving without it being heralded. And, how this man's character—though far from perfect, and at times quite argumentative and controversial—affected many ball players, managers, sportswriters and ordinary people, in an extraordinarily good way.

Interestingly enough, Steinbrenner died on the day of the 2010 All Star Game, during a year that his beloved Yankees are the defending World Champions once again.

"My father used to tell me not to believe the weekly hate speeches against Christian and Jews that we would hear in the mosques. I tried to follow this advice, and later on I kept an open mind when I met Jews - and now I have thousands of Jewish friends."

(Bangladesh)—Shoaib Choudhury, author of the book Inside Madrassa, told Israel National Radio host Yishai Fleisher recently that "Political Islam and hate speech are our biggest enemies."

Choudhury is a paradox; he is a Muslim "Zionist" who lives in Bangladesh and is the editor of the Weekly Blitz, which he calls "the only anti-jihadist newspaper in the Muslim world." He is also an author, lyricist, movie director and peace activist—and was held in solitary confinement for 17 months because he wanted to visit Israel.

"I started this newspaper in '03," Choudhury told Fleisher, "and at the time, the Hebrew Writers Association in Tel Aviv invited me to take part in a symposium. On my way to Israel, I was stopped and arrested at the international airport in Dhaka. They labeled me a Zionist and an Israeli spy, interrogated me and tortured me for ten days, and then imprisoned me for 17 months in solitary confinement, until 2005."

Asked how he came to sympathize with Jews, Choudhury said, "My father used to tell me not to believe the weekly hate speeches against Christians and Jews that we would hear in the mosques. I tried to follow this advice, and later on I kept an open mind when I met Jews—and now I have thousands of Jewish friends."

Among them he reportedly mentioned Dr. Richard Benkin, "who did not give up and worked to have me freed from jail. Many of my relatives abandoned me, but Benkin did not, and he got me out of jail."

According to a report in Israel National News, Choudhury described his newspaper as "the only paper in the Muslim world in which you can find untwisted news about Israel. We have tremendous adversity, though we have 37,000 readers of the print version. I believe that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and as a Muslim, I believe that the only problem is political Islam and the hate speech, and if these can stop, then all Muslims will be like me."