If you have two functional legs, imagine life without them.... Imagine life without them.... Imagine that your legs are gone so that you can have life.

That’s the story of my cousin, Mal. He was in a coma, almost dead, and his sons and daughter agreed to the one medication that might save his life, knowing that the loss of fingers or feet was a likely side effect.

Despite weeks of therapy, he did lose both legs below the knee. He says, “You would think that I would be angry and bitter. I can only say, God gave me two months [of therapy] to be prepared for this.” 

Yes. Losing one’s legs is desperately difficult. But how might it change our perspective if losing legs meant keeping life? Maybe we’d say something like Mal does:

Why had God saved my life? The only reason that came to my mind was, He had additional purposes for my life. I promised God that whenever a door opened, I would trust that He wanted me to step through. 

When Mal, on his two prostheses, steps through the door that stands open now, he will be part of the second Harvest Project team delivering wheelchairs to people in Cameroon. His work will be as a wheelchair mechanic, helping to fit chairs to the particular needs of particular people. I am privileged to be part of that team with Mal.

His greater mission, though, will be fulfilled just by living. His presence and ability and faith in his Sovereign God will be a testimony to families, communities, and churches who may have assumed that a disability means worthlessness—maybe even that it would be better to be dead than disabled.

God is using Mal’s life to prove otherwise—“that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).

I hope you will visit and subscribe to "Let The Nations Be Glad" where I and others from our team will post updates on the Harvest Project, so you’ll be reminded to pray for the team and the people we’ll meet there. You can also read more of Mal’s story and see something of the challenges for a Cameroonian with disabilities.