Many say the first lesson a missionary must learn is to be flexible. Vicki Greenfield, a missionary in Ghana, West Africa, was recently reminded of that lesson.
Vicki had planned to go to lunch with a fellow missionary, Barb Mathews, at a local restaurant with a great view. The two women loaded into Vicki’s old clunker of a pickup truck and headed up the mountain, but the Lord had something else in mind.
As they were walking into the restaurant, a stranger approached them in the parking lot. He asked them if they spoke French, and they told him they didn’t, so he struggled in broken English and the local language to communicate his situation. The man, Komla, told them he was traveling to the capital city of Ghana when his duffel bag was stolen. He was a type 1 diabetic and was now without his insulin, several hours from home and several hours from his destination. His sugar level was getting higher and higher, and he didn’t have enough money to get more medicine.
Vicki was about to write it off as another scam, but Komla’s request was different than the other stories she’d heard. When Komla asked for help, he didn’t ask for the whole cost of the medicine. He said he had some money, but not the full amount. He also offered to leave behind his backpack, his passport, and whatever else he had as collateral while he went to the pharmacy to buy the insulin. He even said he would inject it right in front of them so they would know that he wasn’t trying to cheat them.
“The man was nearly in tears. I figured that he was either the world’s greatest con-man or he was in serious need,” said Vicki. “So we decided to abandon our lunch plans and take him to a hospital.”
When they reached the hospital, the staff gave him an immediate injection. As his blood sugar levels evened out, Komla started talking about his wife and the twins they were expecting soon.
“Each and every day, I’ve got my to-do list ready, but sometimes the Lord has something different in mind,” said Vicki. “Those changes in my plans often turn out to be the biggest blessings.”
When Vicki and Barb finally parted with Komla, they gave him their lunch money to buy more insulin pens and some food. The two women headed home, with empty wallets and full hearts.