Tonight something amazing happened but I have to back up so it will all make sense. Yesterday a dear friend of mine came to me crying because she had found out that her Mother, who has a tumor growing on the side of her head, had taken a turn for the worse and the tumor was now bleeding into her head and putting pressure on her brain. My friend’s family has been trying for several weeks to get her mother into the public hospital in Mexico City to be treated because their health coverage would then pay for her mother’s surgery as the family doesn’t have money to pay for a private hospital. But the public hospital told them they couldn’t see her mother until January of next year and given how dire her situation is the family realized she likely won’t live that long. My friend was a wreck, understandably so. She asked if I knew anyone who could possibly help them. My first thought was that I don’t know anyone down in Mexico City that I could call to help. But I told her I would see what I could do.  I felt sick about her situation and I wanted desperately to try and help. Within a minute or two a name popped into my head of a friend from business who moved from Utah down to Mexico to live for several years. I hadn’t spoken to this friend in quite a while but I knew he had dealt with cancer situations in his own family and I figured given his experience that he might have some thought on what I could do. Plus, I figured, it couldn’t hurt to just ask.  So I sent him an email and tried to explain the situation.

My phone rang tonight and it was this friend I had emailed. He immediately offered to contact a physician that he knew in Mexico who might be able to give us advice on what to do. He asked me to provide him a little more info on the woman’s medical history and which doctor had seen her etc so he could pass it on to his contact and ask for help. I hung up the phone with him and called my friend whose mother was the one needing assistance. She was in tears when she answered and she let me know that her mother had just been picked up by an ambulance in Mexico City and was being taken to the public hospital because she had taken a further turn for the worse. I got the information on the hospital and told her I would call her back.

I then called my friend who was trying to help us and told him of the update. He immediately conferenced in his physician friend in Mexico who happens to be an amazing Oncologist. This doctor took down the mothers information and offered to get on the phone to the hospital to see if he could get the Neurosurgeon to tend to her right away at this public hospital which her insurance coverage would pay for.

I was overwhelmed at how quickly this friend of mine that I hadn’t even seen in a while would drop everything to help me by contacting this physician he was friends with and enlisting his assistance. As I thanked him for what he was doing for me and my friend he explained to me that his own father had died of a brain tumor that bled into his head and the pressure from the bleed killed him. Had the doctors been able to relieve the pressure sooner his father would have been able to be saved. Suddenly I understood exactly why he was so quick to help me to help another person he doesn’t even know.

I believe in tender mercies. I believe there is no such thing as coincidence. I believe the Lord puts people in our lives at the right time for the right reason who have the ability to provide an answer to prayers. I believe tender mercies are real. And tonight I saw one take place firsthand. And I am forever grateful to all those who were willing to be the answer to prayers.

“I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord’s timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them.” – David A Bednar

Have a blessed day!

~Amy