You'll Need To Take Him

by Kay Heitsch

The phone rang, it was the school calling. "Would you please come and pick up Brandon? He seems to be sick." What could be wrong, I wondered? I drove right over to the school and picked him up. We drove home, and he went upstairs to lie down. Brandon slept for a long time but woke up very sick. It was now quite late, and nothing was open; I wasn't sure what I should do. I called Bill, and he told me I should take Brandon to the Kaiser Clinic by the mall. We had just recently moved, and I wasn't familiar with the area. We hadn't even gotten our insurance cards yet. I had a vague idea of where the mall was, but I had no idea where the clinic could be.

I headed for the mall. I could see Brandon was feeling worse and worse; I had to find this clinic fast. I found the mall, then started to drive down the side streets. There it was, the Kaiser sign! "Thank you, Lord," I whispered. We walked into the clinic. Since it was late, no one was in the waiting room, and we were taken right back to a room. The doctor examined Brandon, then looked at me and said, "You'll need to drive Brandon to the hospital yourself. He needs surgery right away. We don't have time to wait for an ambulance."

Wait a minute; I have no idea how I even found this clinic; now I was supposed to find a hospital at night when I had no idea where I was going? The nurse wrote out some directions. "I have no sense of direction, so drawing me a map is useless," I frantically tried to explain to the nurse, but all she said was, "You can do it; there's no time to waste."

I started not knowing where I was going. While Brandon was moaning and trusting me to get him to the hospital, I told him that we needed to pray. As I drove in what I thought was the right direction but feeling lost, I prayed, "Please, Lord, help us find this hospital. We need someone to show us the way."

There was no one on the streets; everything looked deserted. It appeared we were at the wrong end of the city. We pulled up to a stoplight on the one-way street we were on. An old beat-up car pulled up next to us. The people inside of the vehicle looked rough. I felt uneasy at first. But then I remembered that I had prayed that the Lord would send someone to help; I had to trust Him. I looked over at Brandon and said, "I'm going to roll down the window and ask these people for help." Brandon gave me a look like he seemed to think it was a good idea. I rolled down the window. "We're lost--could you please help us find the hospital?" I said, half crying. "No problem, just follow us," was their reply. I felt I had no choice but to follow them.

However, we went up and down one street after another; I started to wonder if these were the people the Lord had sent to help us. I felt we were on a wild goose chase. After what seemed to be a long time and many turns, I could see the hospital sign. I was so relieved! I kept following this old beat-up car right to the emergency room door. With a wave of their hand out the window, they were gone, back into the dead of night.

I rushed Brandon into the emergency room. After several doctors had examined him, they agreed he needed surgery right away. Even though we didn't have our insurance cards yet, the bill was paid entirely, and Brandon came through the surgery with flying colors.

To this day, I've often wondered who those people were who came to our aid that late night years ago. To Brandon and me, they were angels that the Lord sent to help us find our way.