Sometimes miracles happen when we least expect them, which is is exactly what happened when Don and Belinda Herbert randomly decided to stop off at a church yard sale.
It was a move that wasn’t too out of the ordinary for them, but one that they definitely didn’t plan ahead. The two had no idea that their decision to stop would end up changing several lives forever, including their own.
You see, while the couple appeared totally healthy on the surface, sadly, Don had a big secret he was hiding. It turns out, he was in desperate need of a new kidney.
Six months earlier, Don had had a liver transplant done, and while the body did accept the liver, it came with a new side effect. It caused his kidney to fail.
Now he needed to do an entire new kidney transplant as well if he wanted to survive, yet finding a donor was next to impossible.
However, Don wasn’t overly worried.
“I had a strong faith that God was going to take care of me no matter what happened,” he said.
And take care of Don, God did.
When they stopped at the yard sale, they also heard music playing inside the chapel, and he and his wife couldn’t resist going in to check it out.
Once inside, Don met Pastor Tim Jones who, by chance, also shared his intense love of gospel music.
Tim invited Don’s singing quarter to come perform in the church.
“I went out yardsale-ing with my wife, you know, I wasn’t expecting for me to find anything really, and I came out with a date for me and the group to sing,” said Don.
Yet, before the group was able to perform, health complications sent Don racing back to the hospital once again. He emerged from this stay worse than ever. He immediately had to start doing dialysis for his kidney and the doctors gave him limited time to live.
It caused Belinda to put out a desperate plea for help on Facebook.
She prayed that someone would respond, and by chance, someone did — Pastor Tim.
In their chance meeting a few weeks prior, the two had added each other as friends, and when he saw the Facebook post, he felt for them so much that he decided he had no other choice than to help.
“I told Belinda, I said, ‘I’m not calling you to be a hero or to give you any sort of false hope, but I believe that God is showing me something and I would like to try and help you’,” explained Tim.
The families talked about it, and after some deliberation, Tim decided to donate his kidney to his new friend.
Don was shocked that someone he met just a few weeks prior was willing to make such a big sacrifice for them. He couldn’t believe it was real. Yet, there was still one huge glaring problem.
Organs are fickle things and doctors said that there was only a one in 20,000 chance that Tim would actually be a match.
However, they did the tests anyway and when the results came back, no one could believe it — the two were a perfect match. Chance brought them together, and chance once again proved to be on their side for the blood tests.
Although, the miracles didn’t stop there.
Yes, the doctors did the operation and it was a total success, yet what they told Tim after the surgery was nothing short of incredible too.
While operating, they discovered something inside him that undetected would have cost him his life.
“They said, ‘you had an aneurysm, which did not affect the kidney’, however, if it would have stayed in my body, it could have ruptured, and you could have lost your life,” said Tim.
Not only did transplant save Don’s life, but it also indirectly saved Tim’s.
It is such an amazing story and one that the families and the people in their community will be talking about for many years to come. It just goes to show you how important it is to be kind to all of the strangers that you meet. You never know when a chance encounter could end up saving your life.
Watch the full video of the miraculous story below.
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