Hello dear friends and readers,
As usual, we have to apologize because we are just now writing to you about events that actually happened a few months ago. We know that some of you have already been praying for this situation since you heard about it on Facebook… Even so, we thought it was time we finally shared with you the full story of what happened to our friend “Roberto…,” affectionately dubbed “Robert” here, for all of you ‘English-only’ speakers. 🙂
And as always…
We hope it touches you.
“He’s lost a lot of blood… We were barely able to save him. He will most definitely not have very good use of his right arm… And he won’t be able to go to the bathroom normally for the rest of his life.”
“…But at least he’s alive…” we thought, as we paced outside the Emergency Room.
… All for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We couldn’t believe all this was happening to Robert.
Robert had been reported dead in the newspaper. He still remembered feeling the shots hit him after he fell to the ground, when, even after knocking him down with the first bullet, the gunmen continued shooting at him as he lay helplessly on the ground.
… We continued pacing. The hospital was filled with young patients, a majority of them suffering from bullet wounds… Some lay listlessly on their beds. Others were rolled away in hearses.
But Robert was the last guy on earth you would have expected this to happen to. In fact, he was the most “play-it-safe” sort of a guy you could know. He was not at all involved in drug movement… And even though he had been a Christian for several years, he used to laugh at us when we would try to reach out to people who were involved in drugs. “You guys are crazy to be hanging out with them,” he would say. “It’s dangerous. And those guys will never get anything out of your help.”
But ironically, and even though he was the farthest removed person from the drug rings, someone from within the rings had apparently gotten Robert confused with someone else, opening fire on him and leaving him barely alive, with a shattered hip and leg, and virtually no use of his right arm.
After endless hours of hospital visits and watching this young man undergo multiple surgeries, we were finally able to escape for a brief visit to the states… Our assignment while there was to get him a wheelchair.
Kim wanted to get him a really good one, the heavy duty kind, since his family lived in an unpaved area. He would also need the kind with extending leg pieces on the bottom, since he still could not fully bend his leg.
But – unfortunately for us – none of that was in our budget.
“I guess we’ll just have to put a board under his leg,” said Larry, after hours of searching on the internet. Kim was sad, but she still determined to get the best wheelchair possible for the money we could spend.
That Sunday, a friend from church put some money in Kim’s hand. “I wish I could give you more,” she said. “We didn’t know you guys were coming.”
… In a quick thank-you to the family over e-mail, Kim mentioned that the money would go towards buying a friend a wheelchair.
The response came quickly the next day.
“… My family has a wheelchair.”
Our first instinct was not to go. We had done a lot of research and were already on the verge of buying the best chair we could get for our money.
But yet we knew we could not afford to miss the opportunity to see a wheelchair that might be for a better price. So we decided to go and have a look.
As we walked in, Kim saw an old, dusty wheelchair sitting in the corner. She walked over to look at it. “This must be the wheel chair you were talking about,” she said… Her heart sank.
Then she turned around… And to her surprise, she saw her friend wheeling out a brand new heavy duty wheel chair!
“No,” the woman said, “That’s the one my mom still likes… She was never able to use this one. We felt like God wanted us to give it to you guys.”
So Kim watched steadily as Larry fiddled with the bottom part of the chair… And when she saw her friend bring out the pair of extending leg braces that went with it, she realized this was not only the right wheelchair – but that it was the wheelchair… The exact one she had seen in the ads and had envisioned buying for Robert.
… Bringing it home to him was exciting.
“Surprise!” we shouted, wheeling it through the front door.
And then the moment of truth came when we tried sitting him down in it.
We looked at him in excitement… But strangely, Robert had sort of a funny expression on his face.
The next day, when we came back, he was back again in his old rickety wheelchair. “I’m just more comfortable in the old one…” he explained.
We felt discouraged and confused about why God had provided exactly the right wheelchair for him, but we decided not to say anything.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later that we came back and found Robert sitting in the new wheelchair… 🙂
With raised eyebrows we asked about the change, and he explained to us how the doctor had said that even though it hurt, this wheelchair was actually better for him — since it caused him to sit correctly… and that was good for his hip and his leg.
And so Robert continued to work on using his new chair.
… But the thing we are the most glad to tell you is that we have seen other, more important changes in Robert.
One evening in particular, when he was still in the hospital, we noticed that he was not his usual self. He seemed to be worried and anxious about something.
“I really want you guys to go talk to that guy,” he said, “The guy down the hall. He’s hurting, and he needs somebody to talk to.”
“That guy…?” we asked… We already knew which one he was talking about. Two doors down there was a young man wasting away from obvious drug addiction, unable to eat because of a bullet he’d taken to the stomach.
“Do you really think the staff will let us talk to him..?” We asked, a bit taken aback by the thought of trying to approach him.
But Robert insisted. “Go,” he said. “I know what it feels like to have bullets in you. Go and tell him I know it hurts.”
… So we did go… Larry, to be exact. And at Robert’s request, he told him the only thing that could have possibly meant anything to that young man in that moment: “There’s a guy down the hall who wants you to know that Jesus loves you. He’s in the same situation… He knows that it hurts.”
…As for what happened to the young man that we talked to, we are sad to tell you that we do not know. He wasn’t totally conscious when we talked to him, but our hope is that he might have been transferred to another hospital… Since all we know is that, when we returned a few days later… he wasn’t there.
Even so… we are pleased to tell you that Robert has continued to change and grow in his process of healing and recovery.
… Does he have a flourishing ministry to ex-drug-addicts…? Not yet.
… But he is able to sit in his new wheelchair now for hours at a time.
And in fact, Robert is learning to do a lot of things that are not totally comfortable for him. Things like wiggling his fingers. …And going to the bathroom. Things that the doctors said he would never do. …Even things like taking a risk yourself, sometimes, for someone else that you know is hurting.
…The other day, we had been at his house visiting, and it was time for our standard good-bye handshake. Robert stretched out his left hand and Larry shook it. But when it came time for Kim’s turn, she said, “No… give me your right hand.”
Robert sighed. This was going to be hard for him. But with the help of his left hand and with considerable effort, he finally stretched out his right hand, and, to his surprise and hers, he was able to put considerable pressure into the shake.
When he looked up at us, there was surprise in his eyes.
“It’s just like the wheelchair.” we said.
Sometimes the things that hurt the most….
… Are the things that help us grow.
(James 1:2-3)
And to the young man two doors down at the hospital…:
We just wanted you to know that we ourselves don’t pretend to know how much it all hurts.
… But we were honored to be able to tell you that there is someone who does.
In honor of the “Zoe” family, missionaries to Venezuela for many years, and because of their generosity in giving us the wheelchair we have donated what we would have spent on a chair ourselves to Robert’s family.
Photo Collage of Robert’s arm: Click here to see how Robert’s arm is healing. (WARNING: a bit graphic!)
If you would like to befriend us on Facebook to find out about urgent prayer requests in a more timely manner, please click here: Larry’s Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/larry.flathmann.