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How To Save a Life

24 February 2010 2,384 Comments

Waking up in the morning I never really think, “Today I am going to save a life”.  I mean, I go through the motions of asking that the Lord use me today in Kingdom ways, and that he would bring me to people that need to see him….but I never really expected to literally save a human life.

The day just seemed like a normal day in Kenya.  We played with the children, we shared the Gospel with people, we had about four cokes at 20 cents each…and then Martha spotted her.  Sitting in a puddle of her own urine, precious little Melissa was completely alone and scared. I first introduced you to Melissa through Martha’s blog a few weeks ago.  But I want you to know the impact this precious little one has had on my life.  We simply could not pass Melissa by.  One look at her and one could tell that something was wrong.  Melissa was seven years old, but weighs only 15 pounds – about the size of a six month old.  And yet despite her physical condition she has the most infectious laughter I have ever heard.  Upon seeing Melissa, we knew that we could not just leave her alone.  We quickly took her to the first of three doctors visits and learned that she was in dire need of nutrition and physical therapy.  On top of that, she was in the care of her father, John, who spent more hours in the bar than at home taking care of his daughter.  We were at a loss of what to do.  We could not find an orphanage that could take her, and our time in Kenya was quickly drawing to a close.  We prayed fervently for a week that the Lord would provide a way for us to help this precious little life.  The day we were scheduled to leave, the pastor we were working with said that he had found a woman from the church that was willing to take care of Melissa until she was healthy.  I was nervous because I did not want to simply place her anywhere.  However, God always has an absolutely perfect plan.

Earlier that month we had done a hospital visit where we met a wonderful Christian woman named Elika.  She led us around the hospital laying hands on people and praying for them.  She has a gentle, matronly spirit about her, and I instantly liked Elika.  The day we left Kenya, the pastor brought in the woman who had volunteered to take care of Melissa, and praise God, it was Elika!  I knew instantly that God had planned all along for us to cross each others path.  He had everything absolutely ordained since before creation.

So I am happy to report that even though it has only been two weeks, Melissa is doing wonderful!  She is taking very well to physical therapy, and the nutritious diet she is on is helping her improve greatly!  Her story is so encouraging to me because we didn’t do anything special to help Melissa, we simply stopped when we saw her on the side of the road.  God orchestrated everything else absolutely perfectly.

So how do we save a life?

Simply stop for them.

And follow the path that God has already planned since the beginning of time.

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