Acts of Kindness
Luke: Well, friends, I hope you're enjoying Uncle Howard talking to me about his life and sharing some stories from his book. Now today, Uncle Howard, I want to ask you to tell us about Debonair.
Living Out God's Mission Through Service
Howard: Having been faith missionaries, there's never been tremendous amounts of finance available to do most things. And when we arrived at Malingwia and been accepted by the people, different people came and said hello to us, amongst others a man with his little boy with crutches. He had had polio, but his crutches were too small and he was walking with a stick and he had his leg twisted around the stick for the second leg. His leg was lame and his father asked me if I couldn't make him bigger crutches. And I said yes, I could do that. But I said I want to try something if you don't mind.
Before he goes to school every day, can he come and spend about half an hour with me at the mission, which is not very far from the school. I said I'd like to see if I can't get life back into his leg. So the first he'd come, he'd sit on a little bench and he'd move his leg up and down. At first he could hardly move it. I just push it with my hand like this and eventually I got him moving his leg.
Perseverance in the Journey of Healing
After that, when I saw he was getting movement there, I made a little contraption with wood and needle tins and cotton reel and nylon rope and two treadles in the box, one for each foot and needle tins for weights. And I put a little bit of sand in it and he had to pump these like he would pump a sewing machine with two legs.
As he was getting stronger, I put more sand in and more sand in and within a couple of weeks he was pushing it quite well and he started moving his feet, especially the lame leg started to come back to life miraculously.
And then I made him a wooden caliper behind the leg with little straps on the front and that was the end of his crutch. He just used a little stick to keep his balance.
The Ripple Effect of Compassionate Action
The amazing thing is he got a letter from him and the letter is in the book. He eventually became the secretary of the hospital and he got married and he had a family of his own and he just wanted to thank me that I took the trouble and it was a lot of trouble to have him there every morning and get him to do these boring types of things. And he just wanted to thank me for that.
Luke: And so, friends, our small acts of kindness can go a long way in encouraging somebody. Who can you reach out to today? Like Uncle Howard reached out to little Debonaire, who can you reach out to and share the love of Jesus with in a practical way?
