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Building a New Denomination: More than Just Nimble Structure
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In light of the multiple thousands of denominations existing over and against Je...
On December 17, 2014, my phone rang and our twenty-year-old son Adam was calling and his voice was stressed. He said he had an accident in our car with damage to the vehicle and moderate injuries to the other passengers. In Kampala, most accidents are hit and run, as was this accident. The Boda (motorcycle taxi) driver caused the accident and fled leaving his two injured passengers lying on the street.
Praying for a Miracle
Adam said a crowd was growing around him which can become mob violence. I called Adam back to tell him to get into his car and lock the doors, but he wasn’t answering. My prayers were unceasing as I drove toward him. Finally, he called to say a policeman was in the car along with the two injured men from the Boda. There are very few police here and no emergency call numbers, so it was a miracle for the policeman to be there.
I was to meet Adam at a certain hospital. When I arrived, he wasn’t there. He called again and said he was with a second policeman at a gas station nearby, but didn’t know the location. The police are sometimes corrupt here and I was very nervous.
As I prayed, I had a sense to drive down a main road and happened to see Adam. The injured young men were in the car with several friends. Not knowing whether they were dangerous, I said I would drive everyone to the hospital. Both young men had head injuries and were bleeding, one had broken front teeth.
When they told me they were Muslims from Somalia, I admit that I was nervous. In Kampala, the terrorist are Somalians. As we waited at the hospital, my heart was moved with great compassion for them. They were the same age as Adam. My fears subsided when I imagined someone helping our son Adam and the families of these young men.
It is highly unusual to help accident victims here and especially to the extent we helped that day. Even though the bill for their injuries ($1,600) and the car repair ($400) wasn’t budgeted, we knew we were called to be Good Samaritans. We will never know how God used our kindness toward the young men. Two weeks later, I read the Galatians 6 passage of reaping and sowing.
Galatians 6:9-10 (CEB) 9 Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. 10 So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith.
Three weeks later on January 5th, our 17-year-old daughter, Grace was flying back from the US having been on a FPC Houston youth trip. Her AirCanada flight from Houston was delayed causing her to miss connecting flights through London.
Grace spent two days in the Toronto airport, one night at an airport hotel. She was exhausted and dehydrated which is dangerous for her. Grace has had severe health issues throughout her life. After a vaccine reaction, she was legally blind for two years and her nervous system was damaged. Her vision miraculously healed, but she still suffers with migraines and other nervous system issues.
AirCanada rerouted her on a Turkish Airlines flight, the fastest flight back to Kampala. Once on the plane, she thought she was going to pass out. A flight attendant noticed how sick she was and went to First Class looking for a doctor.
There were two Canadian doctors, one a pediatrician trained at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where Grace had been treated her whole life. This doctor was a Christian and even a Presbyterian. Grace’s rare nervous system disorder, Dysautonomia caused her blood pressure to be in the high 180s and her blood sugar was dangerously low. The pediatrician had one patient with Dysautonomia so he knew how to treat Grace.
On the plane, they happened to have the exact meds needed for an IV, another miracle. Those two doctors offered to pay around $2,000 to move Grace to First Class to make her more comfortable with her IV. Turkish Airlines ended up moving her to First Class. Grace arrived home to Kampala three days after departing Houston.
God’s Promise of Reaping and Sowing
The Doctors’ offer prompted Grace’s move to First Class which was the same amount paid for the accident three weeks earlier. We will never meet the Somalian men’s family and they don’t know our names. We will also never know the names of the doctors, the Good Samaritans who cared for Grace on that Turkish Airlines Flight, but God does. We were overwhelmed with gratitude for the two angels on the plane and in remembering God’s promise of reaping and sowing.
