Attending Angels

Hello, this is Dave Scherrerrer, and you've found us here at 100 Full Ministries in our podcast environment that we call Kingdom Offerings. And usually we take this time to unpack some kind of really fun, I think fun, Kingdom Principle. Jesus' central teaching was about the Gospel of the Kingdom, and I kind of feel like we've lost track of that a fair amount in church today and in Christian walks today. But I want to trick things up and do things a little bit different today because I have a personal story that I'd like to share with you. My wife, Susan, and I have been married for 48 years now, coming up in March. It's January of 2024, Happy New Year. And in 1998, we had a tragedy. My wife, Susan, had an episode of the flu and had a full renal shutdown. And so that dramatically changed our lives. And in 1998, she needed to go on dialysis, and that was really hard for her. She didn't do well on dialysis. She went on the kidney transplant list here in Colorado, but that was going to be a three-year wait, and we could tell that she wasn't going to make it. She was barely going to make it a year, hardly three years, on dialysis. We of course were praying and hoping that things would improve, but they didn't. And with the prospects being what they were, I started talking with her transplant team about the possibility of being a kidney transplant donor. And I got a kind of a negative look from the doctors and said, well, you know what? We don't usually test spouses because they, you know, they're not related. And so it's just not going to be a great match. And so we'd rather test family members first. Well, Susan's dad was alive at the time, but he wasn't in great health and a good match. And we really couldn't find anybody from Susan's side of the family that was going to be able to be a great match. And so I kept it up. So I kept nagging and complaining that I wanted to be tested to see whether I would be a good match. They kept ignoring me. Finally thought, well, I'll do my own research. And I got my mom on the phone from California, and I said, Mom, what blood type am I? And she said, well, I can't quite remember, but I believe that you're an A, type A. And when I heard that, I was a little discouraged because I knew that, you know, that's not Susan's type, and that would immediately put me out of the running for a kidney transplant. So I thought, well, I'll go down and donate blood just to make sure. And so I donated blood, and it turns out that my blood type was actually O, the universal donor. Now, I had been praying that God would change my blood type so that I could be a donor for Susan. But when I got my blood typed by donating blood, I kind of felt like God must have worked a miracle because my mom couldn't have been wrong. I mean, that's just not possible. And so God changed my blood type to a type O, and that was kind of the first step. I liked that. I made a big enough stink with the doctors that they finally, I think, tested me just to get me off their back. And it turned out that I was a terrific match. I can't remember exactly the details, but there are some number of antigens, these protein antigens that are kind of a map for these transplants, and we happened to be an exact match for like six of these seven antigens. And so they scheduled us in November for a kidney transplant, a live kidney transplant where we both go to the hospital, and they unzip me and take my kidney out and wash it off in the sink and then put it into Susan. Susan got sick, and we had to postpone it to January 4th, 1999. So today, being January 6th, we just celebrated our 25th kidney transplant anniversary. Kind of a hallmark moment for us, since it's just you and me talking today, I feel like I can get away with this. I have this little joke that I tell. Susan doesn't like it all that much, but I thought, well, it's kind of fun. And so what I like to say is that my heart beats for Susan and my kidney squirts for Susan, which I think is, of course, very romantic. One other little story that I wanted to tell in this context. I had the worst of it when it comes to the surgeries. The surgery 25 years ago was a pretty big deal. They put about a 12-inch, 14-inch incision in my left lower back, cut through two inches of muscle to get at my kidney, and then sewed me back up. And that was a pretty big deal for me. I was pretty sick. The surgery to put the kidney into Susan, they don't take the old kidneys out, and so the surgery to put the kidney in her is a lot easier. The surgery for me, I was recovering in a different room in the same hospital. Two nights later, I was in a great deal of pain. I was having very much difficulty. I didn't feel like I had slept at all since the surgery. I had been sweating through my sheets day in and day out, night in, night out. And I was in so much pain that I couldn't lay down flat. And so I had figured out how to get to the end of my bed, and I sat in a chair, and I tied myself to the end of the bed, chest first into the bed, and tried to sleep that way. In my delirium and pain, I really thought I was dying, and I asked Jesus to just take me home, or maybe send me an angel. And so I dangled there on the end of the bed for what felt like six or seven months, was probably a couple hours. And a nurse came in and said, what are you doing here? And I kind of woke out of my stupor, and I said, I'm just not comfortable. I had sweat through my sheets, and I'm in a terrible amount of pain, and I actually think I'm kind of in a lot of trouble. I feel like I'm in deep trouble, that I may be dying. This nurse looked at me and said, well, let's take a look at things here. Let's see if I can help, and let's change your sheets first thing, and get you laying down and try and make you more comfortable. I can get you some more pain medications, and that's going to help you sleep, and that's going to help you feel more comfortable. So let's get started with that. And as we were getting this kind of care, I noticed that he had a heavy accent, as though he was from Africa. And I said, I recognize your accent as something similar to a friend of mine, Emmanuel Tichindu, who is a Youth for Christ fellow in a cohort in Africa, a friend of mine. And I said, he comes from Zambia. And you know what, that's kind of like somebody saying, you know what, I lived in New York City for a while. Oh, did you know my brother? He lived in New York City. But I was kind of all goofed up on drugs and pain, and so I said, any chance you knew Emmanuel Tichindu in Zambia? And he said, well, as crazy as it may sound, I grew up with Emmanuel. We're best of friends. And I thought, that's absolutely crazy. And we laughed about that, and he said, well, I'm going to go. I need to finish my rounds. I'll come back in a little bit, and I'll make sure that things are going well for you. So I laid down and fell asleep much more comfortably, and my soul had been kind of ministered to by this fellow and his Christian testimony and friendship, and my spirit was raised. Come morning time, nurse shift change had happened, and a new nurse came in and said, how am I doing? And I said, well, you know what, surprisingly, I'm doing pretty well. Last night, I thought I was dying, but the black nurse that came in and attended to me the one from Africa, he was just super, and I never did learn his name. And she looked at me and said, I don't know what you're talking about. We don't have a nurse of that description on this floor. And I said, well, sure you do. He was just here maybe two, three hours ago. And she looked at me and said, no, no, there was no nurse fitting that description on this floor. And that's when my skin began to tingle just a little bit, and I remembered that I had prayed either to die or that God would send an angel. To this day, I believe that that is exactly what happened that night, that God had mercy upon me. He sent someone in this form that I might find encouragement and strength, that I might be attended to. And I'm remembering a verse where it says that you need to be aware because you never know when you might be entertaining an angel. So that's my hope for you this year, that you would remember the King desperately cares for you, that there are things going on that we cannot see in the realm of spiritual work and that your God is for you. And it wouldn't surprise me if already in your life, you had been attended to by an angel sent by your heavenly Father to attend to your needs in your lifetime. So these are the works of 100-fold ministry is to remember the full work of the gospel of the kingdom and the work that Jesus is doing in our lives, and to remember that he is attending to our needs in ways that we do not usually pay attention to. So here in 2024, let's pay attention and let's celebrate the gospel of the kingdom and all the work that he is doing on our behalf. This is Dave Scherrerrer, Happy New Year, and thanks for checking out 100-fold Ministries.