This Sabbath morning we had an elder from another church preaching. Fifty years ago we had trained as apprentices together in the steelworks. We had not seen each other for twenty years. Three years ago he was struck down with a rare brain disease that totally paralysed him. Treatment restored the upper half of his body, but his legs are still infirm, and he struggled to climb the pulpit steps. His wife suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Twelve years ago he took a lorry on a mercy mission to war-torn Bosnia. Since then he has taken convoys of medicine, clothes and toys, nineteen times from his small local church. That means driving right across Europe. In total, he has raised and taken 3.2 million pounds from other churches and friends, and has had personally over 385 thousand pounds posted through his letterbox. He and the church also bought and took over to Bosnia, fourteen ambulances. On his first visit he met with twenty-six Christians there, but last January he was asked to go and lay the foundation for the building of a large church. That was supported by over three hundred Christians. He is sixty-seven, and promised the Lord when he was ill that if he was spared to seventy, he would use every minute to serve Him.

What an example to us, as we seek to help in the Philippines and other places. Theology must materialise into practical sociology, believing that all things are possible with God.