We chatted with Don & Eva Piper about the film 90 Minutes in Heaven, based on Don’s true life experience, which is set for release across the US on September 11th.
90 Minutes in Heaven is based on the incredible true story of Don Piper, who when his car got hit by a truck died and experienced Heaven, only to return to life 90 minutes later. The film explores his experience and his struggles.
Click here to read Part One: Heaven
Click here to read Part Three: The Film
Part Two: Struggles and Faith
I know that you both faced struggles and the film explores those, could you describe what you where going through at that time?
Eva: For me it was being thrown into a care giver role, learning not only how to care for Don, but to jump in and also take care for our family, I’d never paid bills, I’d never made big decisions, I had left that up to him, I had to learn to lean on other people as well as to really lean into God, not just to realise that He was there but actually allow Him to hold me up because it was a very very difficult and dark time, but God was always faithful to send someone to the door to give me a word of encouragement or sometimes a word of direction saying “hey, you got to let us help because otherwise your robbing people of the act of ministry.” We both had to do a lot of growing during those long dark days.
Don: I often say this, when I got hit by the truck that day, we all did, my family did, my Church did, everyone who cared about us did and even a lot of people who didn’t even know us who just were informed about the wreck came and began to pray for us. It took all of us and certainly by the grace of God to get through this because it was a very long dark night.
Through this time how did your faith grow?
Don: Knowing the reality of Heaven, not just believing it, it changed everything, it changed the way I conducted funerals, it changed the way I responded to other people to whom I was ministering, I’d been as a pastor on many many hospital visits but you can imagine now when I visit people who are infirm and hold their hand, they know I understand how they feel, they know I understand what its like to be in a hospital bed and to have those shots and to go through the pain and all those other things that are incumbent with being badly hurt or very ill, so that really changed the way I ministered to them because thats my new normal now, is knowing the pain, knowing the purpose, it changes the way you really go about your ministry. I’m happy about that, I often say I don’t recommend getting hit by a truck so you can learn this thing, but if you do get hit by a truck, you should certainly know how to minister because everyones ministered to you.
Eva: People need to realise, you don’t wait for tragedy to build your relationship with their heavenly Father. I learned that prayer was much more than just a lot of thank you’s and wishes, it was a real communication with God and they can go on at any time of the day, you don’t just relegate it to a special devotional time, you can pray when you’re driving down the highway because God just wants to hear from His children and we need to also be tuned in to listen to Him because He really is speaking to us, we just are often in such a hurry that we’re not hearing the words He is sending us.
This experience has changed you and your family, has it brought you closer?
Don: Incredibly we know that often crisis in the family can even destroy a family, a very sick child, a financial difficulty and there’s a lot of things folks can go through and frankly instead of growing closer they grow further. In our situation we were a close family already but it really drew us together, we had to lean on each other and we did and you can feel it, we’re not the same that we were before because how much we appreciate each other. They came as close to losing me as you can come really and of course I knew they were coming after me because they were all faithful followers of Christ. The other night standing on the stage at the world premiere were the five of us, was a glorious time because we by the grace of God we got through this and because the film is now here, we’re hoping to help other people get through such things as this.
Click here to read Part One: Heaven