God really does work in mysterious ways...

On our way home, we decided to take a longer, more scenic route. My friend is a para-glider, and knew of some perfect para-gliding hills not too far off our path. We drove about 40 km on a bad, dusty road to the top of a huge cliff where he could essentially let the wind fill his parachute and jump off. Quite a thrill for both he and the 100 or so kids that quickly converged on the scene! (Just as we got to the very top, I noticed that there was a young man sitting by himself reading, but obviously didn't think very much about it.) Since my friend would fly off the cliff and land at the bottom about 30 minutes later, it was my job to drive the Land Cruiser down to the bottom and pick him up. (Yes...this is one of the perks of my job!)

Just as I had finished shaking the hands of ALL the kids and passed out the proverbial "sweets", the young man (Thomas) who was up there in the very beginning, approached me and asked if I could give him a drive down to the tarmac road. As we're usually discouraged from doing this, I asked him why he needed a ride. He proceeded to lift up his pant leg and show me a HUGE gash in his left leg that he had received from an axe when he was chopping wood. As the accident had occurred four days earlier (he couldn't walk to the hospital and had no money anyways), it had started to swell and had become quite infected.Before driving down the hill, I was able to give him some pain killers and Polysporin that I "happened" to have with me.

As I was driving down the hill, Thomas pulled out his Bible and told me that he had been reading it when we pulled up and was praying that God would send a good Samaritan to help him! As I was once again left speechless, he opened his Bible to the page that he had been reading and sure enough, it was the story of the Good Samaritan! You have to understand...the place where we met him was in the middle of nowhere, a few vehicles might make it over that road a month, and they couldn't remember the last time a muzungu (white person) had been there. And all this at the very instant he was praying for a miracle!!!! Who says nothing ever happens quickly in Africa?!!

After picking up my friend from the bottom of the cliff, we started driving Thomas to the hospital, and out of nowhere he mentioned that he had never heard "American Rock'n'roll" before. FORTUNATELY, I had an Elvis Presley tape (my absolute favourite) with me and popped it into the cassette deck. Just imagine... never hearing rock'n'roll music before, and then, being introduced to it by the king himself! Amazing!!

After arriving at the hospital and negotiating what the bill would come to (there are no fixed prices), we left Thomas with enough money for the operation, a little food, and a ride home. I didn't have the nerve to tell him that I work for Samaritan's Purse, nor did I have the nerve to tell him that the whole situation was probably more challenging and inspiring for me than it was for him, but I CAN'T WAIT to hang out with Thomas in heaven and laugh about the whole thing someday!!!