“I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There is a hospital in South Africa that is one of the most advanced places of medical learning in that part of the globe. They treat hundreds of patients per year and they have been doing so for over 80 years. They are on the forefront of the war against the spread of HIV/AIDs on that continent. It is called the Nessie Knight Hospital.

In 1925, Bert Paterson received a medical degree from the University of Glasgow, Scotland and promptly went to Sulenkama, Cape Province, South Africa to establish a Scottish Presbyterian Medical Mission. He had been married only a few months and because of finances and conditions he was forced to leave his bride behind.

Bert sent back desperate letters. He badly needed an office in the field and a hospital but he had no money. He needed six thousand dollars. He had no way of raising the funds and people were dying all around him. His wife contacted his friends and teammates from his soccer club.

She organized the team into a dramatic club. They put all their money together and bought manuscripts for two plays and rented a theatre in downtown Glasgow. It was a God-inspired, desperate attempt to get help to Bert. The author of the plays heard about the endeavor and gave the little company two autographed copies of the manuscripts to auction off. The orchestra director for the Scottish National Orchestra found out about the venture and came to direct the orchestra for the first few nights of its’ performance.

The company sold tickets feverishly and when all was said and done, Bert’s wife boarded a ship on her way to Sulenkama with almost seven thousand dollars that they had raised in just a few short months.

I read that story this morning in a book called “A Man Called Peter”. I was inspired by the courage of the friends of Bert Paterson. I had to see how the story ended and so I googled Nessie Knight Hospital and there it was. The story is still being written. The hospital remains and so does the gospel and the heritage of faith that the wife of Bert Paterson left behind. Thank God for Nessie Knight and men and women like her who will not settle and who have the courage to follow a God-given vision.

“Those who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of those doing it.” Chinese Proverb