Monday, September 26, 2016

Miracles never Cease

I was sharing a story with my family and they said, "Dad, you need to blog about it!" Here it is:

While I was doing chaplaincy at the Rio games some amazing things happened. This is one story I've been told to share. About the second night of chaplaincy a coach from Niger showed up asking to see the chaplains. A chaplain from Brazil and myself began to talk with him. He told us how one of his track athletes had lost a wheelchair in route to the Paralympics and was wondering if we could help find a chair that would allow his athlete to compete. I went to the American contingent while the Brazilian went to the host countries contingent. The next day I took off so nothing happened.

The following day the coach came back and I told him to followup with the American contingent. He said he would but had to go to the stadium to practice track. When he came back he told us that "miraculously the wheelchair was found." He then told us that someone in his contingent had to go to medical (polyclinic) clinic. While there he shared about this athlete and how he would like to see this athlete get orthotics. Someone there heard and looked into it. They told them to come back and get her measured for a pair of legs. So when they went there they had nothing to measure her with (none of the usual measuring instruments) but they jury rigged some tools and measured her for them.

They told them to come back the next day. Well, they came back and put the legs on her. The coach reported that the athlete stood straight up to everyone's amazement. She then took a few steps. The person commented to the coach that she was able to walk much faster then most recipients of artificial legs. When he came bqck to us to share the story he noted how good God is, He went before them and provided legs to a athlete that only had a rickety old wheelchair, and a used athletic chair to compete with. Imagine that a athlete not able to walk before the games, granted a great miracle and was able to leave to go back to her home country (Niger) with a new lease on life and the ability to walk!