On January 10, 2000, I received several urgent e-mail messages from Mary Thompson, executive director of Nurses Christian Fellowship-USA, and Ruth Snapp, national continuing education director of NCF-USA, about a nurse connected with NCF through the University of Texas at Austin who was in grave condition at a Wichita, Kansas, hospital.
After a life-threatening accident outside of Wichita, Sabrina was hanging on by a thread in a local ICU. I was asked to get the word out through our Central Plains regional e-mail prayer network, as well as to see what we could do in Wichita to help Sabrina and her family. A precious sister in Christ, connected through the sweet bond of nursing and NCF fellowship, was in dire need.
What neither Mary nor Ruth knew was that God had prepared a way to support Sabrina and her family, as well as allow NCF to share in Sabrina's care beyond anything we could have imagined. A Taiwanese nurse, Tsweing Huang (we knew her as Ty, pronounced Tee), had been attending the Wichita NCF Gathering for Nurses and had become a dear friend in Christ. Ty had come to the Gathering through my contact with Margaret De Jong, a Canadian nurse I had met at a national NCF summer conference at Cedar Campus, Michigan.
Ty worked on a medical unit at the same hospital where Sabrina was a patient. I immediately thought of Ty when Mary and Ruth e-mailed. I contacted Ty about Sabrina. To my delight, Ty's heart leaped at the opportunity to care for one of her people and a Christian nursing sister.
Only God could have provided someone as perfect as Ty to care for Sabrina and her family in beautiful Christian love. Like Sabrina, Ty had come to the U.S. from Taiwan to study nursing and had just completed a graduate degree at Wichita State University. Ty was alone in our country and had come to appreciate the ministry and fellowship of NCF and the support of Christian nursing colleagues. So, in addition to speaking Sabrina's language and sharing her culture, mores and values, Ty shared faith, nursing and the mutual fellowship of NCF.
Ty stayed involved in Sabrina's care for the many weeks Sabrina recuperated in Wichita. It would have been difficult for any of us in NCF to have had access to Sabrina, participate in her nursing care or care for Sabrina's family as Ty was able to do. In addition, Ty sent regular e-mail updates on Sabrina's condition that were forwarded to NCF colleagues so we were able to maintain a nationwide, up-to-date prayer network. It was as though NCF had our own private duty nurse and reporter linking us to a precious colleague.
This amazing experience with Sabrina brought the words of Paul to life: "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Eph 3:20-21).