In the middle of separating Siamese twins in South Africa in 1997, Dr. Ben Carson prayed that God would take over the operation. With only a scalpel in hand, he began separating the intricate blood vessels found in the little boys' joined heads.

Despite his exhaustion, a steadiness returned to his hands. He felt calm, watching his hands move as if someone were actually performing the operation through him. (See sidebar on page 26 - Printcopy only.) He credits this miraculous intervention to the fervent prayers of people worldwide.

Ben's hands become an answer to prayer daily as he handles a caseload of 400 to 500 patients each year at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. But the world's foremost pediatric neurosurgeon doesn't let it go to his head.

"I strongly believe in Proverbs 16:3?'Commit your works unto the Lord and your thoughts will be established.' I don't for one moment, when I sit down and look at my career and see all these incredible things that have happened, believe that I'm really that good," he says. "I constantly ask the Lord to give me wisdom to know what to do. ? And he does."

For instance, a colleague recently asked Ben if a patient should come to the hospital to be checked out. The other physician explained that the patient seemed to be okay, but Ben got a feeling that the patient should go to the emergency room immediately. It turned out that the patient had an abscess in the brain. Ben, who prays before every operation, says the Lord often leads him in such matters. "It's almost like a sixth sense."

A calm, soft-spoken man, 47-year-old Ben refuses to shine the spotlight on himself. He would rather give credit to God and the positive influences of his mother and family.

In fifth grade, Ben was the class "dummy." Ben's mother, who had only a third-grade education, was raising him and his brother Curtis (now an engineer in Indiana) without their father, who abandoned the family because he was leading a double life with another wife and family. If that weren't enough, Ben had an explosive temper?he once tried to punch his mother when he didn't like the clothes she'd picked out for him.

Surprisingly, his mother, Sonya, who was working multiple jobs at the time, helped solve his education problems. Upset by both sons' poor performance at school, she gave an ultimatum: they both had to write two book reports a week for her. Ben became well-acquainted with the Detroit Public Library, reading about animals, plants, and rocks. Though Sonya was unable to actually read her sons' reports, the plan worked. Ben rose to the top of his class by the end of the seventh grade.

When it came to his anger, God had to solve that one. Ben had become a Christian at age 8, but his temper still flared out of control. In the ninth grade, he tried to stab a classmate, but providentially the boy's belt buckle got in the way. Deeply distressed by what he had done, Ben locked himself in a bathroom for hours, reading Proverbs and praying. The Lord heard his cries for deliverance; Ben's temper has been under control since then. The hymn, "Jesus Is All the World to Me," is a balm whenever he feels irritated.

Following a stellar high school career, Ben earned a scholarship to Yale, where he studied psychology, graduating in 1973. He met his wife Candy during his junior year. Sharing a love of games, classical music, and corny jokes, they were married on July 6, 1975, while Ben was attending the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

At the School of Medicine, Ben faced two dilemmas. He initially studied to become a psychiatrist. But as he got deeper into his major, he realized that the profession was not what he thought it was.