And on the seventh day He sent forth a special angel to bring light unto the night. We’ve encountered many wonderful nurses, technicians, and caregivers during our stay here at Hotel Helipad. The staff here has been amazing, kind, and generous. But tonight God sent a very special lady into our room.

I could easily tell she originated from another country, so I asked how long she had been in Nashville. I was somewhat taken back when she told me she had been in the United States for thirteen years. She arrived in Nashville and has never left the city. Let that sink in for a minute. She came to America thirteen years ago and the only place she’s ever been to is this city. I was stunned. Where are you from, I asked. She said she came here from Egypt. Then I asked what brought her here.

“They kill us Christians in Egypt,” she said. “My family has lived there for over 2,000 years. Jesus spent two years in the area where we called home. When he came our land was blessed! Crops grew, the region prospered. Today you can see his footsteps in stone where he stood. Behind it is a large rock that has a split in it, and water continues to flow from this rock! No one knows how or why. “

She had our rapped attention.

“The laws are now against us if we profess to be Christians. We raised pigs. They come and kill all our pigs, pile them up and burned them. We had 100 acres that they took and banished us from it. Our home.

We applied for a green card lottery hoping to come to America and save our lives. They killing us Christians because the laws don’t protect us.

I was so lucky! God won me 7,000th place in the lottery and I was able to bring my husband to United States with me. “

She went on to tell me that her husband managed to get his teaching degree and is now a professor in Nashville. She said it was her turn to go to school. She studies to be a nurse by day and works here at Vanderbilt at night. They have been blessed with two daughters that are safe in America. In Egypt they could have been killed or enslaved because their parents are Christians. “I am so thankful to be here! America is a wonderful place. You are free! You can be anything you want to be here even if you are a female.

Don’t take that for granted. I look around and it saddens me to see people don’t realize what they have!”

She finished taking the vitals, recorded them into the computer, said good night, and disappeared into the hallway.

Patrick and I looked at each other and knew we had been given a powerful message. We are blessed. We are lucky. And neither one of us will look at our lives as we did before that angel entered the room last night.

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Rick Algood
September 27, 2019