today, and a man was walking by and began pleading with us in French. Of
course, we didn’t have a clue what he was saying so we said we’re sorry and tried to keep walking. However, he
knew English too, and he
asked us if we could help buy some insulin for him! At first it was a
really odd request, and he kept saying, “I’m
not begging for money, I just need help buying insulin… I’m a
diabetic and I need insulin really soon!” I had no idea what it would
cost, but I knew I needed to help this man! It seemed like he had the
same type of diabetes as a good friend of mine, so I knew that this
could be a very serious situation.
Komle is from Benin, but he was in Ghana for his
company and was traveling back to Benin. Last night at the Ghana/Togo
border crossing, Komle was robbed and his luggage was stolen with all of
his diabetic needles, electrical insulin reading device, and all his
insulin. He had just been to the bank to cancel his credit cards, since
all of them were stolen as well. All he had on him was what he had in
his pockets; his phone, some spare change, and a small box that he kept
on him with a few of his diabetic things. He looked like he was going to
go into a diabetic shock; you could see it in his face and in the panic
of his voice when we met him.
When we got to the pharmacy across town, it was going
to cost $175,000CFAs which is around $360 USD. I definitely didn’t have
that kind of money on me, and they didn’t take credit cards, so we were
going to have to go to the bank. Komle was desperate to get the
insulin shot. He talked the pharmacist into taking his phone as a
promise that we would come back with the money and they gave him the
insulin shot on the spot. He immediately lifted up his shirt and gave
himself the dose, and you could just see peace swarm over him within
minutes. He was so thankful! We grabbed some taxi’s to go to
the bank to get money, and we gave him a little extra for food for
the few days of travel he had left.
I know that this was completely divine
appointment. We got to tell him a little bit about our trip with the World Race, but mostly just talked about God and Christianity and how
God provides for His people. Komle told us that he wishes he could wake up
one day and have the diabetes completely gone. He said that he has some
Christian friends who took him to church and prayed over him for the
disease to be gone, and that he himself had prayed and prayed and prayed
that God would take this away from him, but it never went away.
He wasn’t sure what to think about God or the power of the
Holy Spirit, and it broke my heart. We shared that God knows what is
best for everyone and that no matter how He does it, He will provide for
His children, just like He provided for him today. I didn’t have a word
from the Lord if it was God’s will to heal him today; or ever. All I
heard from the Lord as we went about conversation with this man was “Give;
this is My provision for His life today.” We left him
with the simple encouragement that God’s ways are not always our ways,
and He knows what is best. We told him that the money wasn’t from us;
this was a gift from the Lord as a testament of His love and provision
for him.
He told us right before we parted ways
that he was always the one to help other people out, and this was the
first time anyone else has ever helped him, and he was almost shocked
that we did, but really thankful. Right before he bumped into us, he
felt so bad he thought he was about to die. He was
completely hopeless, and when he came past us, we were kind of a last
attempt at a possibility of help. Praise God for this miracle!
