17 years ago this man met a woman in a bookshop – and the encounter ended up changing his life.
As a result in that chance meeting, Phillip Miner, of Provo, Utah, went on to travel to Lusaka, Zambia, to model as Jesus Christ – and during his time out there he found the Saviour himself.
He also met Kathy Headlee, a single mother of five from Cedar Hills, Utah, while he was in Africa. Her five children and his two boys became one family after they got married.
Mr Miner’s story began in a Border’s store in 2005 when he was mistaken as another model used by artist Liz Lemon Swindle, reported the Deseret News.
Before then he had left the Mormon church aged 14, got married, became a father aged 19, had another son and divorced his wife.
Mr Miner had no interest in religion but a lady who worked with Ms Swindle noticed him in the bookshop and said he could be an understudy for a model of Jesus, named Christopher Crofts.
“I knew this Jesus guy really didn’t mean anything to me, but I got that he was a big deal in a lot of people’s lives,” he told the Deseret News, so he decided to help out.
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His big break came when Mothers Without Borders, an assistance organization, asked Ms. Swindle if she could paint scenes of Jesus interacting with African children, with the charity taking a cut of the sales.
They therefore took a plane to Africa in 2007 to visit an orphanage for kids whose parents had died of 𝑨𝑰𝑫𝑺. When Mr. Miner appeared among them, the kids were shocked and inconsolable.
“I told one 12-year-old girl that I was there to remind her that Jesus knows and loves her,’ he told the Deseret News. ‘She started sobbing, weeping and wailing.”
Then, one day in Africa, he was emotionally depleted, experiencing flu-like symptoms, and he was unable to get out of bed. A teenage volunteer tried to cheer him up by giving him a blessing.
“Until then, I was on a paid vacation having some interesting experiences,” Mr Miner said. “Then a stranger laid his hands on my head – it became clear that these weren’t his words.” It was then that he decided it was time for the actor Jesus Christ to follow the real Jesus Christ.
In addition, during the trip he met Kathy, who founded Mothers Without Borders 22 years ago. He went back home and broke up with his girlfriend. Two months later they married and merged their families.
“I go back to where I started,” Mr Miner said. ‘This Jesus guy is really kind of a big deal to a lot of people. I just happen to be one of those people now”
