My name is Bain Head and I am a POP Lay Chaplain at MD Anderson. I am also involved in a Church Apartment Ministry that serves patients and caregivers visiting the Texas Medical Center from out of town. I received permission to share the following sacred testimony from one of our apartment guest.
Monday, August 28th
A day after being displaced from our ground floor apartment due to rising flood waters, we were trying to get a ride for my son, a stem-cell transplant patient, to MD Anderso. A black man, a tree trimmer as listed on his truck (Reverend Johnson), saw us and stopped his pickup and asked us where we needed to go. He pushed everything around and took my son and wife to the MDA emergency room. About 7 p.m. at night I was trying to get a ride to MDA after working in our flooded apartment and was holding a sign up in the rain. A doctor saw me and took me too the hospital as well. Later, since my son had not eaten, we went to the Rotary House for a meal. My wife and son were planning to sleep in the lobby of MDA but Rotary House had a cancellation and we got a room that night (and subsequently were able to extend it for the remainder of the week). Rev Johnson called me about 8:00 pm and asked if he needed to come all the way back to pick me up. Unbelievable where the word of the Lord shows up. I said I was safe. Note: he would not take a tip from my wife but took my cell number.
I could not sleep that night worrying about no place to stay (as originally Rotary House could house us only one night), no car (flooded at the apartment complex) and everything lost. My good friend from college who now lives in Marble Falls called and said he rented me a van and would deliver it to me when he could drive the clear roads. Also, his Mother passed away two months ago and he offered that house to us to not only store our stuff but to stay there as well. About that time the First Presbyterian Church from Houston was informed by San Antonio friends of our situation. They were on the way to pick us up and let us stay in their church cottage. I called and stopped them but when it seems there are no options the Lord provides. The two ladies who let us share their apartment after living in the hallway all day on Sunday came by the Rotary House and picked me up awhile ago and helped me take the salvageable items from the apartment.
I wanted to let you know the situation as you have been a blessing and did not want to end our special relationship due to a Harvey Hurricane. Thank you so much. As a closing, Sunday morning at 9 a.m. the water was impassible to any of the apartment complex buildings. I pulled up an elderly diabetic man trying to walk from the apartment office building to my building as he thought there was an open apartment. He would have drowned. I helped put him on the second load on an evacuation Coast Guard Helicopter. The complex had no power or sewage or anything. We had to vacate our apartment as water levels exceeded 2 feet. We sheltered in the second story stairwell of the building all day. This was the lowest point in my life. Looking at my son and wife in a darkened hallway with no options what so ever. I cannot ever recall feeling as low as that point. But I prayed and things started to open up. A believer is this person as results to show. I hope I can recognize anyone who gets as low as I was and “pay it forward” or ensure it does not happen to someone else.
I met some very good people and now it is my turn to “pay it forward” for the rest of my life and still will not pay it all back.