Charles Shelton is accustomed to living with a number of crime elements in his West Side Charleston, W.Va., neighborhood. Recently, however, he discovered a more welcome addition to the area.
After waking in the middle of the night and walking downstairs, Shelton, who had installed a surveillance system for his home, glanced at one of the monitors. What he saw was a bright ball of light, a presence he told the Charleston Daily Mail “passed through a window and a wall and filled the entire room.”
Shelton, an evangelical minister, told the newspaper God had revealed to him “this was His angel and His presence.”
Whatever it might have been, Shelton has surveillance videotape of his experience.
“I was astonished,” Shelton told the Daily Mail. “You hear about shootings, killings and vandalism. When somebody sees angels, why can’t we let people know?”
Shelton is convinced God’s presence abounds and that He is protecting Shelton’s neighborhood. Shelton continually prays peace over the area and rebukes the crime element.
“No wonder how rough it may get, God is still in the midst,” he says. “I don’t care what critics say. I know what happened.”
Shelton, who is also a UPS employee and has been a resident of the neighborhood for 25 years, evangelizes in various churches in the Charleston area. His wife, Helen, who works at the library at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, has written a faith-based book—set to publish in December—about breaking free of the chains that hold people back in life.
