I don't know if this is a true story, but it is beautiful.
Vinny
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From: "VIP Christianity Forum" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 3:50 PM
Subject: Zardoz - Doug's Last Wish
>
> 2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
> weakness.
> Doug's Last Wish
>
> Doug and Margaret Nichols have faced their share of obstacles. After
> surgery for colon cancer in April 1993, Doug sat across from his doctor
> and listened in disbelief. "I'm sorry, Doug," said the doctor nervously,
> "but you do have a 30 percent chance of recovery."
>
> "You mean I have a 70 percent chance of dying?" Asked Doug, with a
> grin.
>
> "I wouldn't put it that way," said a surprised doctor. "But my best
> estimate is that you have about three months to live."
>
> "Well, let me tell you something, Doc," said Nichols. "Whatever
> happens, I have a 100 percent chance of going to heaven."
>
> One year later radiation and chemo treatments had left Doug's body
> wracked with pain. Though he kept his humor well-oiled, both Doug and
> Margaret knew the end might be near. But their world was not the only one
> collapsing. Nightly news reports from Rwanda indicated that civil war had
> spiraled out of control and more than a million people had been
> slaughtered, many by their own neighbors and trusted friends. The carnage
> was beyond belief. Terrified Rwandans by the thousands had fled across the
> border into Zaire and crowded into filthy, ill-equipped refugee camps,
> where diseases such as cholera found a ready home. People were dying
> everywhere-50,000 in three days alone in the little town of Goma. As
> Margaret and Doug read the terrible accounts and saw the images on TV,
> their hearts were broken. But what could one couple do?
>
> "I knew I was going to die," Doug told me, "but I wanted to do
> something before leaving this earth. I just wanted to hold some of those
> children in my arms and try to offer hope."
>
> Soon Doug found himself traveling with a team of doctors and nurses
> through the heart of Rwanda, with no idea of the adventure that lay ahead.
>
> A Rwandan Christian leader whom Doug had worked with before had hired
> 300 refugees as stretcher bearers to bury the daily masses of dead and
> transport the sick so doctors could do their best. One day the leader
> approached Doug with an expression of deep concern. "Mr. Nichols," he
> said, "we have a problem."
>
> "What is it?" Doug asked.
>
> "I was given only so much money to hire these people, and now they
> want to go on strike."
>
> "What? In the middle of all this death arid destruction these men
> want to go on strike?"
>
> "They want more money."
>
> "But we have no more money," Doug informed him "We've spent
> everything. If they don't work, thousands will die."
>
> His friend shrugged his shoulders. "They're not going to work. They
> want more money."
>
> "Well, can I talk to them?"
>
> "It won't do any good. They're angry. Who knows what they'll do?"
>
> Finally Doug's friend agreed. Walking over to an old burned-out
> school building, Doug climbed the steps wondering what on earth he could
> say. Three hundred angry men surrounded the Rwandan who would act as
> interpreter. "Mr. Nichols wants to say something," he called above the
> clamor as Doug desperately searched for words that would get through to
> them.
>
> "I can't possibly understand the pain you've experienced," Doug
> began, "and now, seeing your wives and children dying from cholera, I can
> never understand how that feels. Maybe you want more money for food and
> water and medical supplies for your families. I've never been in that
> position either. Nothing tragic has ever happened in my life that compares
> to what you've suffered. The only thing that's ever happened to me is that
> I've got cancer."
>
> He was about to go on when the interpreter stopped. "Excuse me," he
> said, "did you say cancer?"
>
> "Yes."
>
> "And you came over here? Did your doctor say you could come?"
>
> "He told me that if I came to Africa I'd probably be dead in three
> days."
>
> "Your doctor told you that and you still came? What did you come for?
> And what if you die?"
>
> "I'm here because God led us to come and do something for these
> people in His name," Doug told him. "I'm no hero. If I die, just bury me
> out in that field where you bury everybody else."
>
> To Doug's utter amazement the man began to weep. Then, with tears
> flowing down his face, he turned back to the workers and began to preach.
> "This man has cancer," he told the crowd, which suddenly grew very quiet.
> In Rwanda, cancer is an automatic death sentence. "He came over here
> willing to die for our people," the interpreter continued, "and we're
> going on strike just to get a little bit more money? We should be
> ashamed!"
>
> Suddenly men on all sides began falling to their knees in tears. Doug
> had no idea what was going on because no one had bothered to translate. To
> his great embarrassment, one fellow crawled over and threw his arms around
> Doug's legs. Dumbfounded, Doug watched as people stood to their feet,
> walked over to their stretchers, and went quietly back to work.
>
> Later, as the interpreter recounted the whole story, Doug thought to
> himself, What did I do? Nothing. It wasn't my ability to care for the
> sick. It wasn't my ability to organize. All I did was get cancer. But God
> used that very weakness to move the hearts of people. Because they went
> back to work, thousands of lives were saved, and many heard the good news
> of Jesus Christ.
>
> "So many are discouraged by weakness," Doug told me later. "We feel
> that God could never use us; we have nothing to offer. But you can get
> sick, can't you? You can simply obey God and do what He calls you to
> do-whether you feel you have the ability to do the job or not. Sickness
> and weakness-those things we think God cannot use-are many times the exact
> things God uses to glorify His name. But so often much is left undone in
> the world because we are so concerned about what people will think about
> us. We are underqualified; we've never done that before. And so we sit
> back as spectators."
>
> Callaway, Phil. Who Put My Life on Fast-Forward? Eugene: Harvest
> House Publishers, 2002, p. 228-232. Www.philcallaway.com
>
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