DECATUR - The former sailor lived his life the way he wanted and thought very little about God.

About two years ago, Al Hawkins Jr. was lying in a bed at Decatur Memorial Hospital suffering from multiple myeloma, his family and pastor surrounding him thinking he would be taking his last breath.

"I personally didn't care. I was dying and wanted to get it over with," he said after being told by doctors that he didn't have much longer to live.

But he credits intercessory prayers from family, church members and others with keeping him alive.

Hawkins, 41, continues to give his testimony and share his story of how God answers prayer and heals those afflicted.

This message comes from a man whose rib cage cavity had collapsed and kidneys had failed because of the cancer. After undergoing intense chemotherapy treatment and a stem cell transplant, Hawkins is on the road to a recovery that some call miraculous.

Hawkins served for 11 years in the Navy as an aircraft avionics repairman. He also trained those on using weapon systems, radar and radio equipment.

He left the Navy in 1996 and moved to Carbondale, where he worked at an audio video repair shop and attended Southern Illinois University.

Soon, Hawkins found himself following a love interest to Virginia Beach, Va. But he was unhappy there and moved back to Carbondale.

Around April 2005, Hawkins said he began having back pains.

"I kept telling myself, I am a man and can take it. So I never went to the doctor." He suffered with the pain, unable to eat food or drink anything, before finally going to the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Marion.

"They gave me some muscle relaxers, but that didn't help," Hawkins said. "And then a week later, the doctors at Carbondale Memorial Hospital diagnosed me with having multiple myeloma."

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow that destroys the bony tissue and causes pain, fractures and skeletal deformities.

Following his diagnosis, Hawkins moved back to Decatur, where he underwent kidney dialysis.

By this time, according to his stepmother, Jeanette Hawkins, the doctors had given up on him.

"They told us to take him off dialysis because we were just prolonging his life, and with the cancer he would be dead within four days," she said.

She saw how frail and weak he had become. "I asked him, 'A.J., don't you want to live?' " she said.

She then told him that God had the last say-so and quoted James 5:16: "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

She remained by his side in the hospital, praying for him most of the day and night, as did his father, Al Hawkins Sr., and others.

"You definitely could see where God was in control," she said. "Even the doctor asked A.J. if he believed in Jesus Christ."

The medications thalidomide and decadron helped improve Hawkins's condition, said Dr. Mario Velasco of Cancer Care Specialists of Central Illinois. That qualified him for a stem cell transplant.

"Now there is no evidence of the cancer in the bone marrow, but it can come back," Velasco said.

Velasco, who is Catholic, said he believes in the power of God.

"Part of my calling as a doctor is to let my patients know there is a Savior. And I do believe prayer helps," he added.

The Rev. C.D. Stuart of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was in the hospital room when Hawkins was near death and surrounded by his family members.

"I reminded A.J. that God was still God and all his sovereignty," Stuart said. "My prayer always includes 'God, we want what you say is best, and in this case, what is best for A.J."

"Sometimes we selfishly pray and ignore God's will. We make requests when he knows what is best. We have to get to the point and put that person's life in God's hands, whether sickness, healing or curing and do it by faith.

"As Christians, we have to come to the conclusion that God's will must be done, and only he knows what is best for us."

Polls show that more than eight in 10 Americans believe in divinely worked wonders, and two-thirds say they know someone who has experienced a miracle, according to religionlink.org. The stories of healings and recoveries can't be explained by modern medicine, but are being attributed to miracles.

For the past year, Al Hawkins Jr. had gone from being wheeled into church in a wheelchair, walking into the church attached to an oxygen tank to having a new step in his walk.

"I've always been a private person but realized that now that God has healed me, I can't keep messing up and need to live for him. I do want to get a house and get married," he said.

Sheila Smith can be reached at sheilas@herald-review.com or 421-7963.

Miracles by the numbers

A Newsweek Poll conducted in 2000 on miracles reported:

- 84 percent of Americans said that God performs miracles.

- 79 percent accept the accounts of miracles in the Bible as accurate.

- 72 percent said that "People who face death in accidents or natural disasters can be saved by a miracle."

- Two-thirds of Americans say they have prayed for a miracle.