Providential Meeting

(By Mark Kordic, Village Help Foundation Board Member)

Four days before Christmas, 2017, I received a special present when a neurostimulation unit was surgically implanted in my lower back, attached to my spinal cord. Finally, the searing pain in my lower legs and feet subsided as the unit blocked pain signals to my brain.

But one month later, infection had settled in the implant, and my long-awaited pain-blocking unit was removed during emergency surgery at Harris Hospital in Fort Worth. To say I was disappointed was certainly an understatement.

However, as I awoke following surgery, I was being cared for by a very tall, very pleasant African man who was a patient technician. Gatjang Deng told me he was from South Sudan, and he had formed a foundation to help orphans in the world’s newest country obtain a Christian education. I was immediately drawn to his compassionate nature and extraordinary vision for the next generation in war-torn South Sudan.

I was involved with prayer and financial teams focused on supporting trauma-healing workshops in South Sudan. So we wondered out loud about the possibility of collaboration. He left the room and unbeknownst to either of us, we each began to daydream about our providential encounter.

Over the next few months, Deng would contact me to further our discussion. I told him I didn’t see how I could assist him, given my limited availability due to my severe chronic peripheral neuropathy pain.

Then in April, 2018, my wife Paula and I took the trip of a lifetime to Jordan and Israel. The trip brought us both closer in fellowship with God than we’ve experienced in many years. As we took time to visit the places where Jesus walked 2,000 years ago, Scripture like Psalm 22 came to life. In particular, these two verses:

"The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to Him. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him … Our children will also serve Him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord." — Psalm 22:27, 30

I immediately thought of the 250,000 orphans of South Sudan and our friend Deng’s vision of new life for each of them. I determined to do all I could to partner with Deng in this adventure of seeing God transform the lives of a new generation of young leaders.

God makes no mistakes. I believe the encounter in the hospital was not a coincidence but a providential meeting to advance God’s Kingdom in East Africa.