I have been fascinated with the miracles that many millions of people have seen on this planet
My voice mail and fax machine are flooded with reports of miracles from all over the world, sent by dedicated co-workers who have helped me become the Modern Miracles Reporter. In interviews on more than 1,000 radio and television stations in the US, I have tried to keep this nation informed of each new happening. The following is one of the most fascinating miracles IÌve encountered.
 

Marching Madonna
A fax said: "Check this." I did. Under police supervision, the traffic was being stopped Good Friday evening, 1996, in a residential neighborhood in Montclair, California, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, by a diminutive housewife (Jo Ann Noriega), marching down the middle of the street, dressed as Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was carrying a piece of window glass that manifested dozens of tiny glowing crosses, created by the light from the candles held by the scores of people following her.

Directly behind her was a volunteer group of musicians who played inspirational music for the crowd of followers. "Mary" was asked into homes along the way to offer a prayer in English or Spanish for those in need of healing.
Directly ahead of "Mary" was Jo Ann's husband, Frank, dressed as Jesus, carrying a heavy wooden cross, assisted by a grateful former alcoholic and drug addict, Hussem Farrach, who had been healed by the cross of light.

The procession ended sometime later in front of the Noriega home where all followers were invited inside, four people at a time, to look out of the bathroom window at the breath-taking cross of light towering over the homes nearby, manifested by the light of the full moon. I arranged to interview Jo Ann Noriega later in the week.
 

The Interview
I arrived at the Noriega's small home, eager to hear how Jo Ann had attracted hundreds of people to informal meetings there. Many who viewed the crosses of light reportedly left with a more hopeful approach to life. Had she always planned to do healing work like this? Jo Ann smiled. "Not at all. Let me show you the critical points in my personal diary, the diary I eventually called: 'My Healing Cross of Light Diary'."

Jo Ann's diary describes a series of devastating on-the-job accidents that her husband, Frank, a truck driver, had suffered from the late 1970s through the 1980s. After one accident, doctors discovered a massive brain tumor. Surgery was successful, but he was unable to return to work for three years. Another accident occurred when Frank purposely turned over his truck to avoid hitting an out-of-control car with a woman and three children inside. To add to the problems, doctors informed Jo Ann in 1990 that she was incapable of having children. A nun called Jo Ann months later, and told her of a homeless woman who wanted to give up her child that was about to be born. Jo Ann and Frank adopted the child. The miracles of the crosses began some two years later, with a dream. Jo Ann read from her diary.
 

"My healing cross of light diary"

13 October 1992: I had a dream. Jesus was on a cross, between two other crosses, three crosses in all, dark clouds rolling in. I was running toward the crosses saying: "I'm here for you. Whatever it is for your will to be done, I'm here." Jesus said: "Pay attention, "watch."

8 December 1992: I watched always, especially the clouds. Today I felt a loving presence in my kitchen. It seemed to pull me into the bathroom. I asked myself: "Why am I here?" It was 6 pm, dark outside, yet a light was shining in my window. I looked out slowly and saw a great, beautiful cross high in the sky! Frank came home about l0 pm. I quickly took him in to see the cross but it was gone. He looked at me strangely. "Jo Ann, are you all right?" I told him it had really been there and I felt maybe it had something to do with my dream.

9 December 1992: When it got dark, the cross appeared again and I was excited about showing it to Frank, but by the time he was home the cross was gone again. He looked at me kindly, but told me I had been working too hard and that he was worried about my health.

11 December 1992: Frank was home early, but it was almost 9 pm and the cross had not appeared. Suddenly, it did! Frank saw it, exclaiming: "My God, what's happening? We've looked out of that window for years but never saw anything like this!"

16 December 1992: I'm so sad, the cross has completely disappeared. I feel as if my best friend has deserted me. It was so beautiful.

27 December 1992: I am depressed. I prayed all day: "Jesus, give me a sign if the cross will return. It helped us so much to see it. Do you want others to see it? I'll show it if you do!"

28 December 1992: It was growing dark as I was outside my bathroom window, cleaning the yard. Suddenly, I decided to go into the house and turn on the Virgin Mary night-light on the wall in the bathroom. "Now, why did I do that?" I asked myself. Almost immediately, I heard my next-door neighbor screaming. I rushed out to see what was wrong. She pointed at my bathroom window, shouting: "My God, you've got another cross! It's inside your house by the night light!" This was our second cross. I saw three crosses in my dream. Could there be one more?

3 January 1993: Another joyful day! At about 7am, I looked out of the bathroom window and was temporarily blinded by a tremendous light. I grabbed my sun glasses and was thrilled to see, rising above the houses nearby, a cross whose light source was the winter sun. This was the third cross which had appeared. As it got later in the morning, it kept rising higher and gradually bent over the top of our house before it disappeared.

8 January 1993: It was becoming obvious that the daytime cross would stay around as long as the sun was able to contact the cross energy which seemed to surround our house. The cross had appeared regularly during the past six days.

11 January 1993: This evening an idea came. "Frank, go replace the burned-out lightbulb by our neighbor's side-entrance door. She's not home, but I want to try something." "We can't do that, Jo Ann, besides she would have to turn the switch on for us" I replied, without knowing why: "The switch is already turned on." And, it was. Our night-time cross, which can be seen as we look out of our bathroom window, was born again tonight. It's beautiful.

13 January 1993: We are receiving emotional healing from the crosses, and are deeply grateful. At about 11pm tonight we heard a group of voices outside our front door and then a knock. We opened the door carefully. A woman asked me: "Are you the woman with the crosses?" I was shocked and told her we had never told anyone about them except our neighbor. "We don't know your neighbor. We don't even know you, but we were walking by and saw Jesus' face on your living room window. He led us to this house." We asked them to come through the gate at the side of our house to look at the cross in our bathroom. There were about 20 people, but how did they know? They never did tell.

9 February 1994: By now we had discovered that the first beautiful cross, which eventually disappeared, reappeared every full moon shedding a beautiful blue light, so I felt Jesus wanted the crosses to remain. I started showing them to everyone who would listen to me, as I had promised I would if He would bring them back.
 

Jesus?

13 February 1994: At about 8am, I was showing the crosses to several people looking out of my bathroom window. I felt I was going into a trance of some sort and asked Frank to get my camera quickly. A series of forms started manifesting inside the bathroom on the ceiling and above the door as the sun reflected off a photo album I had been showing. I snapped a picture of each form. The people didn't seem to see what I saw, but I followed the forms until one settled on my closet door across the hall from the bathroom. I took that picture. I believe it to be a picture of Jesus. Then the form disappeared, but if I was lucky, I have it in my camera.

13 March 1994: That photo I took a month ago is wonderful. Looks like the outline of Jesus to me. As I was looking at the picture today, I felt an impulse to point my camera at the sun and take a shot. Wonder what that's all about, if anything at all?

20 March 1994: Got the picture I shot as I looked at the sun. There was a cloud with the face of a man in it. Jesus?
Jo Ann stopped reading from the diary to tell me that after she got the photos that she believed to be of Jesus, the healings started happening.

24 April 1994: "My name is Hussem Farrach. I'm an alcoholic and a drug addict and have been in my addictions for 19 years. I'm 3l years old now. PCP, cocaine, heroine and LSD were my ways of coping till I met Jo Ann Noriega, who was working in the rehabilitation center. I was invited to see her crosses of light. As I approached the window, I fell to my knees and started to cry. I prayed and felt an angelic presence. I smelled lovely roses, yet no roses were there, only God."
Jo Ann said that Hussem has been clean and sober for nearly four years and has helped dozens of addicts recover. He has also portrayed Simon helping "Jesus" carry the cross three times in the street pageant on Good Fridays.

20 October 1996: Sue Knudson was scheduled to go to the City of Hope hospital for cancer surgery. She came by to see the crosses before going and prayed for a healing. She reported to me today that when she saw the doctor he told her they couldnÌt find the cancer. It was gone! Sue tells everyone the cross healed her.
"Almost every week someone is experiencing life-changing experiences in the meetings," Jo Ann commented, "but I'm always the most touched when something good happens for children, like this one in the diary."

17 January 1998: Bichly Dinh, 11 years old, was brought to a healing meeting by her mother because Bichly could not see well out of both eyes. "I experienced something very beautiful," the young girl told me. "I went into sort of a trance-like sleep. I saw Jesus, who had come to give me a new pair of eyes. It was very peaceful." When she awoke she was crying. I asked her if she was OK. She told me she was and that she can see much better now.
Jo Ann Noriega has turned her tiny rental home into a shining cathedral of hope. She teaches love and evokes healings for those who come to her. By opening her heart, she has become the compassionate vessel He uses to change lives for the better. I've often wondered how Christ chooses the disciples who carry His message of love to this troubled world. As I waved goodbye to Jo Ann, I no longer wondered. Christ uses those who have suffered to serve the suffering, because they care.