This is a story I read a long time ago. It touched me deeply when I first read it. I took a photocopy of it and subsequently included it into the crisis response manual I compiled. I am sorry but I do not have the name of the author nor the journal or newsletter it was published in. I hope that if you are the author or if any of you reading this can tell me the source, I would be very grateful.
"While serving with Operation Mobilization in India in 1967, I spent several months in a T.B. sanitarium with tuberculosis. After finally being admitted into the sanitarium, I tried to give tracts to the patients, doctors and nurses, but no one would take them. You could tell that they weren't really happy with me, a rich American, (to them all Americans were rich) being in a government-free sanitarium. They didn't know that serving with O.M., I was just as broke as they were. I was quite discouraged with being sick, everyone angry at me, not being able to witness because of the language barrier, and no one even bothered to take a tract or Gospel of John.
The first few nights, I would wake around two a.m. coughing. One morning as I was going through my coughing spell, I noticed one of the older (and certainly sicker) patients across the aisle trying to get out of bed - He would sit upon the edge of the bed, try to stand but because of weakness would fall back into bed. I really didn't understand what was happening or what he was trying to do. He finally fell back into bed exhausted. I then heard him begin to cry softly.
The next morning I realized what the man was trying to do. He was simply trying to get up and walk to the bathroom! Because of his sickness and extreme weakness he was not able to do this and being so ill he simply went to toilet in the bed.
The next morning the stench in our ward was awful. Most of the other patients yelled insults at the man because of the smell. The nurses were extremely agitated and angry because they had to clean up the mess and moved him roughly from side to side to take care of the problem. One of the nurses in her anger even slapped him. The man, terribly embarrassed just curled up into a ball and wept.
The next night, also around two O'clock, I again woke coughing. I noticed the man across the aisle sit up to again try to make his way to the washroom. However, still being so weak he fell back whimpering as the night before. I'm just like most of you. I don't like bad smells. I didn't want to become involved, I was sick myself but before I realized what had happened, not knowing why I did it, I got out of my bed and went over to the old man. He was still crying and did not hear me approaching. As I reached down and touched his shoulder, his eyes opened with a fearful questioning look. I simply smiled, put my arm under his head and neck and my other arm under his legs, and picked him up.
Even though I was sick and weak, I was certainly stronger than he was. He was extremely light because of his old age and advanced T.B. I walked down the hall to the washroom, which was really just a smelly, filthy small room with a hole in the floor. I stood behind him with my arms under his arms, holding him so he could take care of himself. After he finished, I picked him up and carried him back to his bed. As I began to lay him down, with my head next to his, he kissed me on the cheek, smiled and said something which I suppose was thank you.
It was amazing what happened the next morning, one of the other patients who I didn't know woke me around four o'clock with a steaming cup of delicious Indian tea. He then made motions with his hands (he knew no English) indicating he wanted a tract. As the sun came up, some of the other patients began to approach, motioning that they would also like one of the booklets I had tried to distribute before. Throughout the day people came to me, asking for the Gospel booklets. This included the nurses, the hospital interns, the doctors, until everybody in the hospital had a tract, booklet or Gospel of John. Over the next several days, several indicated they trusted Christ as Saviour as a result of reading the Good News!
What did it take to reach these people with the Good News of salvation in Christ? It certainly wasn't health. It definitely wasn't the ability to speak or to give an intellectually moving discourse... Health, ability to communicate cross-culturally and sensitivity to other cultures and peoples are all very important, but what did God use to open their hearts to the Gospel? I simply took an old man to the bathroom. Anyone could have done that!"
This is what I would call living out or fleshing out the gospel. Whoever you are, Mr.OMer, thank you for loving that old man, and thank you for sharing it with us.
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