I don't know if this is a true story, but it is beautiful.
Vinny
----- Original Message ----- 
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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