This week's story is from Marvin Kohlmeier, mission counselor for LCMS Foundation Ministries Support in the Kansas District. Before he started serving God as a mission counselor, he was a high school basketball coach in Sabetha, Kansas. Marv tells a story about a very sick little boy who gave of his very best to an equally sick little girl. He shared $10.00 from most prized treasure box and he shared his Savior, Jesus.
During my last year of coaching and teaching at Sabetha, my best friend's 8-year-old son Josh was stricken with Leukemia. Scott Burger was the head girls' basketball coach and had an undefeated, number one ranked team heading into February when Josh was rushed near death to the Kansas University Medical Center. Scott asked me to help coach his team for the remainder of the season.
We took the Sabetha girls' team to visit Josh several times as he clung to life and went through treatments for the second time in his short life. His leukemia had been in remission for 3 years with a 99 percent chance it would not return. The doctors thought he had contracted a virus that activated a mutant cell.
About this same time a junior high girl moved to Sabetha to reside with foster parents. She had been abused, but she was a very positive, energetic, loving little girl. No one knew she had already suffered twice with leukemia because she was also in remission. She stole the hearts of the student body, but shortly her leukemia returned for the third time and she too was rushed to the K.U. Medical Center on the same floor as Josh Burger. Amy had never had a family who loved her and no one had ever shared Jesus and His love with her. The Burger family sort of adopted Amy as their own and shared their family as well as their Christian faith and love with her every day.
One day Teresa, Josh's mom, came into his room and told him that Amy was really having a bad day. The doctors could no longer get IVs into her arms because of the swelling and she was in a lot of pain. Josh decided to make her a card. He gathered white paper and crayons and made a colorful card that said "I love you very much and Jesus loves you very much too." Then he told his mom, "You know what would really make Amy happy, if I shared some of my train money with her."
This shocked Teresa because every day his friends and relatives would include a dollar or two in his cards and letters. They knew he was saving it up to buy an electric train to play with in his hospital room. One day he took out all the dollar bills, laid them out on his bed and sprawled out on top of them saying, "You know its not so bad here in the hospital."
This day, he walked over to his little wooden box and took $10.00 out in one-dollar bills, put them in the card and walked it down to Amy's room. When Amy read the card and saw the dollar bills she started to cry and told Josh that no one had ever cared this much about her. Teresa looked down proudly at Josh's beaming face and knew that he had learned a real lesson of life: "It's far more blessed to give than to receive."
She took him back to his room and a short while later they heard a commotion out in the hall. Theresa stuck her head out to see what was going on. Amy had somehow gotten out of bed and was arguing with the doctor. She was walking to Josh's room but the doctor said she was too sick. Maybe she would make it tomorrow if she got a little better. Amy refused; she was going to see Josh immediately. Amy had made a card for Josh. In it she returned two of the dollar bills he had given to her. She wrote in the card: "One dollar is because you love me and one dollar is because I love you very much. Love, Amy."
Amy died three days later, but we can celebrate that she is in Paradise with her Savior because 8-year-old Josh and his parents took the time to be missionaries. Josh gave $10.00 and received two in return. He also gave her his most prized possession, the Love of Jesus and His salvation.