A text message accidentally sent to the wrong person ended up reaching the right person, who was able to help a needy family in Arizona.
Abby Fink thought she sent a text message to church friend, Alex Jakeman, “Hey brother Jakeman, this is sister Fink, we are bringing you dinner tomorrow I was wondering what time would be a good time to bring it over,” the text read.
The Jakeman family’s 4-year-old son, Noah, was very ill. His mother said, he had suffered from a seizure and was vomiting and going through respiratory failure.
Noah has Lennox Gasteau Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy and cerebral palsy and various other complications.
But instead of the text message reaching the Jakeman family, it went to someone else’s phone. A person named Bill, texted back, saying “Oh what are you bringing me, I don’t like seafood.”
Fink was confused on reading the text because it didn’t seem to be from someone with a child in the ICU. Fink then informed Bill that her friend’s son was in ICU at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Bill got serious and wanted to get involved. He started raising money on Facebook and asked his network for cards, blood donations and monetary donations towards the family’s medical expenses.
He asked people to send Noah cards and gifts to the little boy so when he woke up, he would “see himself surrounded in love from the community.”
Bill is not religious but believes that “all we have is each other, so it’s our job to look out for each other.”
“It made me realize that no matter how hard that can be, I’m super lucky,” said Bill, a full-time single dad to a teen. “My biggest reward for this is having an opportunity to teach my son the lesson of charity.”
Noah is on the road to recovery and now in a regular hospital room, Jakeman said. “It’s amazing,” she said of Bill. “He is a total stranger and he just wanted to jump into action.”
“I told him he was an angel,” Fink said. “Sent to help this sweet family.”
Fink and Bill are yet to meet face to face, but are planning to do so in the next week.
Bill reminds us of the Good Samaritan in the Bible who did not know the injured man on the road to Jericho but became his savior. After telling them the story, Jesus concludes by saying, “Go and do likewise.” if we follow His word, our lives and the lives around us will be so much better.