The truck driver frantically slammed the brakes. Nothing happened. The old truck, full of young soccer players, careened down the rough mountain roads and flipped.
As the dust settled, one scream was heard above the chaos. A teenage boy named Aakash was laying by the road—his legs shattered, unable to move.
His friends rushed him from their isolated mountain village to the nearest hospital—an ABWE missionary hospital.
The medical staff whisked Aakash into the operating room, working to stabilize his femur, pelvic ring, and forearm fractures.
One surgery quickly turned into eight, and a soccer game into a 12-week stay in the hospital. The entire time, hospital staff worked diligently to reconstruct Aakash’s arm and legs in the hope he’d walk again.
As Aakash began to improve from the surgeries, the doctors became increasingly alarmed by his steady weight loss. Within weeks, Aakash lost 40% of his bodyweight.
Aakash’s appetite was destroyed by the medication and pain. The problem was only compounded by the fact that the hospital’s food was so different than he was used to. The new tastes and smells nauseated him.
His medical team decided something had to be done. They sent social workers into the mountains to gather ingredients and food from Aakash’s village. And though they didn’t speak his language, Aakash’s medical team prayed for him fervently.
When the workers returned, Aakash began to eat. As he ate, a Bible translator would visit with him and tell him Bible stories in his own language.
When Aakash heard, “Whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life,” Aakash struggled to understand. How could something like this be possible?
Slowly, his disbelief faded. As he thought on the words, he silently gave his life to Christ.
But he didn’t tell anyone.
Eventually, Aakash had gained enough weight to be discharged, and he took the stories he had heard with him back to his village.
Weeks later, the hospital staff visited Aakash in his village. His unspoken faith in Christ had grown. Now confident, Aakash shared his salvation with the medical staff and asked them to baptize him.
Like the woman at the well in the book of John, the truth of the gospel grew into a need to share it with others. And, like that woman, his faith led six other villagers to the Lord.
