PeterLee

(Written on 2/2/2012)

On the walk back to Lifeline from visiting Mykenlove’s house, I got another surprise I had so hoped for but had given up in my head because of the time- getting to see PeterLee- the 18 year old boy (now 20) who I worked with all summer in 2010 in therapy after the quake. When Dr. Bill saw him right after the quake, he wrote him off as dead after being found buried alive for two days in a huge building in Grand Goave that had collapsed. By the time I met him five months later, it was an absolute miracle he had survived, but he couldn’t walk on his own. Throughout the summer though, he was a daily miracle as he gradually got stronger and began to walk again. By the end of the summer, he couldn’t stand because his balance was bad, but he could finally walk by himself! But yesterday, for 30 minutes, God blew me away speechless with what I witnessed...

I saw him up off in the distance on a street corner, and our eyes met at the same time! There he was, standing on his own! I couldn’t believe it! The word “miracle” almost seemed like an understatement for where he is today. I ran up to him to hug him; he looked amazing! “I’m so happy to see you!” I said. “How are you?”

With the biggest smile he said, “Sarah, I walk well, I run, and I play fútbol (soccer) now again.”

WHAT!?!?!?!! Are you kidding me?! “PeterLee, you are a miracle!!” I was astounded and speechless! Since I was still with a team of “blans” (white missionaries), we had to keep walking back toward Lifeline, so I asked him if he could walk with us, and so he did for our remaining good half mile walk. As we started to walk, he looked down at his shirt and brushed it off and half ashamedly said to me, “I’m dirty because I was working.”

“You’re working?!?!? WHAT?!?!” Joys of laughter poured out of me.

“Well, it’s not for money, but just to help my dad.”

“But, PeterLee, that doesn’t matter! You’re capable of working! You thought you would never walk normal again, but now you’re working!” Having the ability to work means that this young man has the skills to be able to provide for himself someday; a man who should have died and when he didn’t, he should have been critically crippled the rest of this life. But now, he’s capable of working!

We walked and talked down the streets of Grand Goave, neither of us able to stop smiling. I asked how JeanEllie, his younger brother who was also injured though not nearly to the extent of PeterLee and trapped in the same building, was doing. “He’s doing well,” PeterLee told me. “He’s as tall as you now.”

We continued walking and I had to ask again, “You can run?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile.”

“PeterLee, run!”

He chuckled, “No.”

“Yes, PeterLee, I have to see you run!” He laughed and shook his head again. “C’mon, I’ll run with you!” I grabbed his hand and pretty much pulled him, and off we ran for twenty yards. Again, I burst forth laughter of joy and praise to our great God!

I stopped and looked at him in the eye and said, “PeterLee, do you realize, do you really understand the living miracle that you are?! You shouldn’t be here today. You shouldn’t have made it, but God saved you! You’re a walking miracle and you have to share your story with everyone. You have to tell everyone about what God has done in your life! I don’t know why God chose to save you, but He did, and so you need to honor Him with the rest of your life by giving your life back to Him, by serving Him and telling everyone what He’s done for you!”

“Sarah, I can’t thank you enough…”

“No, this,” as I pointed to him, “is not me. I had nothing to do with you. How you are today is so much bigger than anything I ever could have done!”

“I know, but I mean, after God, it’s because of you.”

“PeterLee, you need to tell people your story. But when you do, I don’t want you to even say my name because this is all God’s doing, and He needs all the honor and glory for His miraculous work in your life!”

We continued to walk on, in utter delight of seeing one another. I couldn’t cease to be in complete awe and amazement of this living miracle of God walking beside me. We got to Lifeline’s gate and I had to say goodbye. I gave him a hug and told him I had no words for how happy I was to see him. He looked in my eyes and with all sincerity said, “I will never forget you.
You will always be in my heart.”

...Lord, “Thank you,”? Those words don’t do it. “Miraculous”? That’s not it either. YHWH- the letters the Israelites used for the name of the LORD because His name was too great to say and they were too unworthy. I have no words. YHWH.