Salama looked down the hill and saw bodies everywhere, some dead, some unconscious. Soon he was frantically searching the carnage for his three children. Only a few hours before, he had put them on a crowded truck to see their mother, not knowing the driver was drunk.
On their way down the bumpy dirt road, their truck collided with another. The force threw people in every direction. Salama’s youngest daughter, a toddler, had been in the front seat but went through the windshield and was found under the other vehicle. She suffered significant head trauma, a gash across her stomach and a broken leg. His son, thrown from the back, had a head injury, and the older daughter had a broken leg and a large part of her upper thigh torn off. When Salama found them, all three were unconscious and so disfigured that he hardly recognized them.
He rushed his children to the closest clinic, where workers sent him to another a few hours away. There, they informed Salama that he needed to wait until the next day when a doctor would arrive to assess the children. They were still unconscious when the doctor looked at them and had them airlifted to Port Moresby. All anyone had was the bloodstained clothes on their backs.
In God’s timing, Salama’s children were placed in a ward where he met Margaret, an Adventist lady whose son was hospitalized with an asthma attack. She took one look at Salama, awkwardly trying to cope with this crisis, and had compassion for him and his distraught children. Leaving her son’s bedside, she gently took Salama’s littlest daughter from him, who had been crying uncontrollably. She soon fell asleep in Margaret’s arms.
That evening, Margaret and her husband came back to visit Salama and gave him clothes, food, money and a cell phone so he could let his wife know where they were. Margaret then said, “Nothing will be difficult for you while you are here. The challenges that you might be thinking about will not happen. We are here for you to take care of you.”
For two months, Margaret visited Salama every day he and his children were in the hospital. Her church texting group (called Hands and Feet) contributed money and necessary items to support them during their stay. They paid for all the surgeries, as well as their daily needs. Other members visited and prayed for him and taught him how to pray for himself.
As Salama told me his story, I marveled how God put His people in the path of someone in need, moved upon their hearts to show His love and changed Salama’s family eternally. As a result of the compassion shown by these faithful members several years ago, today, Salama and his family are faithful members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and leaders of the growing church in Uladu.
Who has God put in your path? Whether you see it or not, your love in action can forever change their lives.
