Bob Pierce was the founder of World Vision, the international Christian relief agency (40 hour famine). Pierce had leukemia, which eventually killed him. But before he died he went to visit a colleague in Indonesia. As they were walking through a village, they came upon a young girl lying on a bamboo mat next to a river. She was dying of cancer and only had a short time to live.
Pierce was furious. He demanded to know why she wasn’t in a clinic. But his friend explained that she was from the jungle and wished to spend her last days next to the river, where it was cool and familiar.
Pierce was filled with compassion. He took the girl gently by the hand, and although she couldn’t understand him, he prayed for her. Afterward the girl spoke in her own language and said, “If I could only sleep again.” You see, her pain was so great that she could hardly sleep or rest.
Bob Pierce began to cry. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his own sleeping pills, the ones his doctor had given him because the pain from his leukemia was too great for him to sleep at
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