The Story of a Miracle from the Man who Brought Us the World's Hottest Pepper

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He is best known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X, as recognized by Guinness World Records, a former addict that is now a man with strong faith. Here's Ed sharing a story involving him and his wife. Linda was trying to get me to go to her church, and I kept on saying, I'm Catholic, I can't go there. Even though I hadn't been to the Catholic Church except for Christmas and Easter with my parents my whole life, I mean, from 13 on.

And I support the Catholic Church, don't get me wrong. But she finally talked me into going to the church she was going to, and it was a really good service. Then they had a communion service, and this was a non-denominational church. And she said, come on, have communion. And I was like, I can't do that, I'm Catholic. You know, this isn't a real church, you know. And she said, no, come on, you can.

I said, no, I'm not going to. And she got up to get in line for communion and asked did all the other people who were with us. And the pastor was up on the stage, you know, with his Bible, and he was singing whatever song the band was playing. And he closed his Bible and put it down on the stool he had next to him. And he jumped off the stage. And he grabbed a chalice and a plate, and I'm watching him. And he came all the way up the aisle, and then across, back into the darkness. He couldn't have possibly seen me from the stage.

You know, when the lights are on you, you can't see out. And he walked straight up to me, and he said, Ed, you're worthy of the body of Christ. Receive communion. And I was immediately, even though I had like, I don't know, six, seven, eight years clean, whatever it was. I still carried all that guilt and shame from all that stuff I had done. And I did some pretty horrible stuff. I mean, stuff I thought I'd never be forgiven for. Stuff that was going to send me to hell. Okay?

All the guilt and shame. Everything. Just immediately left my body.

Okay? Immediately left my body. And it has been nothing. Nothing. Even my very worst days have been nothing but full of gratitude. Ever since, man.

Sorry. And it's just amazing what... You know, and I tell people this stuff all the time when I'm interviewing. Like, especially when the camera's rolling because the kids shut you up. And then they edit it out. You know?

And that's the kind of story that people need to hear. Alright? It's funny because I got approached to do a feature film.

Okay? From a big studio. But they refused to give me any creative control. And actually told me I had to stop the God talk. And I dropped the film. I said, nah, I'm not going to do this. Even though they were offering a whole lot of money.

Not a month later, I got approached by a rock band. Who's got a production company now. Who said they're going to give me total creative control.

Actually, executive producer position. So I can... Literally, I can say this stays in.

This goes out. They don't care about what I say, what I do. They think it's all part of the story. And if I want to talk about Jesus, that's just fine.

And that's the way they put it. If you want to talk about Jesus, it's just fine. You know? And so, you know, when one door closes, another one opens. Well, I got a call in the middle of the night, all right, from a woman. And she goes, hey, Ed, how you doing? I'm like, hey, Laura, how are you doing? You know, why are you calling me?

You know, that guy. And I had done service work in NA with her. And she goes, do you remember my daughter? And I was like, well, kind of, you know.

I met her five years ago. And she said, well, you know, she's an atheist. And I said, yeah.

You test told me, you know. And she goes, you know, I'm agnostic. And I said, yeah, you tell me that all the time. And she goes, well, my daughter has been having dreams that the baby she's carrying from an 18-year-old gangbanger, God is telling her that that's your baby.

And I was like, what? And she goes, yeah, and I've been having dreams that you have a daughter named Catherine Ann. And I had a sister named Catherine Ann who died. And I never told anybody, Linda didn't even know about her at this point, okay.

And I was like, wow. And she goes, yeah, and we want you to adopt the baby. And she knew that Linda had a bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped trying to have a baby. And I was like, well, I got to talk to Linda about that.

Thank you, but my answer is yes, you know. Because to me, that was a God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay.

And it was after this other miracle had happened. So I go into bed and I tell Linda, who's on the phone? And I told her what happened and she started cursing out God, all right, cursing. And I'm like, you can't curse God.

And she goes, I can do whatever I want to do, you know. Because she has a really good relation. And really what it was was the Sarah and Abraham thing.

She was about to turn 50. We tried for so long, how come God's providing this right now? And we were literally were praying on it and she was like, no, we're too old, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, let's go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this.

David Chadwick is his name. And we go to the church service and we get in line to talk to him. And we see that a woman who's dying of cancer is with him. So we went over to thank the visiting pastor and spoke during that meeting for being there. He's like, oh, you want to talk to Pastor Chadwick? And she's like, yeah, we got an offer for adoption, but I'm 50 years old. And the pastor stopped her right there. And he said, you see that little kid right there? God put that child in my life when I was 52.

You see this other one right here? God put that child in my life when I was 56. And before he could even stop, Pastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady he was talking to, walked over to us and said, lay hands on Ed and Linda, we have to pray. And literally out of his mouth came everything that Linda had said in our marriage bed.

We hadn't shared it with anybody. All of her fears, all of her worries, even saying God forgives you for talking to him like that. OK, all of it just came out of his mouth. And then he said, adopt the baby.

And that was it. And we called her from right there in the church and said, we'll adopt the baby. We had no money. OK, you know, literally we had no money. It was all going into the business. I had paid for a legal benefit at the bank that she had been trying to get me to get rid of.

Guess what? It covered adoption 100 percent. Adopting that baby cost us a total of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social worker that the state required comes and visited your house and make sure you're OK for adoption. That's all it cost us to adopt the first baby. And when the miracle happened, the same thing call from out in the middle of the night. Someone Linda knows saying my daughter is pregnant and she wants you guys to adopt the baby.

And same thing. That one I had already paid. I had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for five babies so she didn't have to come back.

And it just cost us the legal, you know, the legal documents from the court, which was like two hundred fifty dollars. And my wife literally cut the cord for both children. That doesn't happen to 50 year olds. Doesn't happen to 50 year olds. You can't even get on the list to adopt newborns.

And I did that more, but she says no. You know, but just amazing, amazing stuff. And I can keep on going on over and over and miracles everywhere, watching them happen to others and not think it's good luck or something like that. You can see that it is an absolute miracle.

Wow. Thank you for letting me share that and thank you for sharing it and miracles. Well, they happen all around us, believe it or not. Miracles happen every day.

And my goodness, what a miracle for Ed and his bride in her 50s, angry at God. And my goodness, why not me, Lord? Why not me? Why that other girl? Why is she pregnant? Why aren't I?

Why have you denied me? And then, well, this is why we go to church, too. So many Americans go to church, to synagogue, to mosque.

Why? Well, anyone who goes knows why. And if you don't go, well, we love you, too, here on this show.

We love people of every faith and every faith walk, including none at all. The story of Ed Curry's miracle baby and miracle babies here on Our American Stories. Hey, guys, it is Ryan. I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a fun fanatic when I can. I like to work, but I like fun, too. It's a thing.

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