Heart Warming Story

This is a true story from a family from our church. Beautiful!!

"Here is a story of waiting from Tony and Kelsey Thompson, a young couple from our church who have saved money to literally travel around the world for the purpose of giving it away and helping people in need. Here is one of their amazing stories from Tanzania which I've abridged but not edited...

It started off like any other day. Kelsey and I walked over from our hotel room to the tour company across town. When we arrived our tour guide was late so we sat outside & waited for him. We had only been waiting about 5 minutes when we saw a group of about 25 people dragging his man into a side street/ally... they were slapping his face & kicking him... we asked some onlookers what was going on... he had stolen a cell phone & the mob was trying to get it back. Slaps turned to punches & kicks got harder. Soon the man was really beaten & bleeding... the mob size had grown to maybe 35 now... Our tour guide had arrive by now & we asked him to find out more... 5 minutes later he came back..."He doesn't have the cell phone anymore so now they are going to kill him."...at this point we knew we had to do something... We walked over with our guide as a translator & asked the head of the mob, "How much is this cell phone worth to you?" He quickly replied, "$40." I took out $40 & told the mob, "I am paying this man's debt. I want your assurance that he will not be harmed after this." ... the head mob guy nodded, took the money & walked away. The beaten man in front of me broke down, embraced my ankles and wept. I knelt down with him & in front of 40 people I prayed & thanked God for his grace... we prayed... we walked him to a grocery store to get him something to eat... there was a guy sitting next to him about our age. He introduced himself as Julius... is a Christian and would be happy to take in the street person for as long as he could... it turned out his name is Stephen... a kid of 16! His parents died recently... There was a cloths market nearby so we shopped for "all" new cloths for him... went back to Julius' house so Stephen could have a shower...Julius thought it would be a good idea to introduce him to his pastor to see if he could help him get a job...Oh yeah, we we also paid for three months rent for the both of them ($13 a month!)... Stephen spoke up and said he knew how to cut hair... we bought all the supplies while the pastor looked for a business place nearby to keep an eye on him... Business space was $20 a month so we paid for 3 to start off with... we prayed with them and explained to Stephen that it was Christ giving him a second chance and not us. He cried tears of joy & promised that he would work hard & tell people what Christ had done for him. AMEN!

When we met Stephen he had no food, was dirty, was being beaten to death, had no home or friends. In about 24 hours time his debt had been paid, life ad been saved, he was fed & clothed, he had a roommate, pastor & friends & at the age of 16 was the proud owner of a barber shop... All in all to change the life of Stephen it cost about $450 and it was worth every penny.

What would have happened to Stephen if Tony and Kelsey were not waiting outside for their tour guide?

When we wait... we become.

The Question... What are you becoming?"