“Dad! My bed is on fire! Help!” Moriah yelled into the darkness. It took me only a couple of seconds to transition from a deep sleep to fully alert as I ran into her smoke-filled room, opened the window and threw out the flaming blankets.

After checking to see that Moriah was unhurt, I realized the pile of wood outside her window was now engulfed in flames from the blankets. Not even bothering to put on my shoes, I flew outside and extinguished the blaze with our hose.

As soon as most of the smoke had cleared, we went back into Moriah’s room to survey the damage. Her electric blanket seemed to have malfunctioned and ignited the material. We were awestruck as we looked at the outline of her body on the charred sheets. The fire had burned right up to her, but miraculously she had not been injured. Moriah is a heavy sleeper, so an angel must have awakened her and kept her from harm. The three of us gathered to praise God and thank Him for His protection.

A bit later, we smelled more smoke, so I ran up to Moriah’s bedroom and discovered that the mattress had been smoldering and was now on fire! I grabbed the small fire extinguisher we keep in our kitchen, pulled the pin, and pressed the button, but the button broke off in my hand. Again, I had to use water to put out the fire.

The availability of water, too, was a miracle. Our water service had been out for two days and had just come back on that evening. Later that day, it shut off again for two more days. If the water had been off the night of the fire, we would have been in big trouble.

Tod’s baptism was scheduled for the following Sabbath, and the devil was not happy. Every time we plan a baptism, difficulties have followed. Before our first baptism, Moriah had to leave the country for safety reasons. This bed fire happened during her first return visit to Albania. In fact, Tod had requested that his baptism be scheduled when Moriah could attend because she was the one who had given him his first Bible study. She was only 12 years old at the time.

When we met Tod, he and his family had just returned from the United States where they had lived for many years. Tod was an atheist and had been influenced by a group of boys who talked of hateful and twisted things, like white supremacy. Tod really enjoyed spending time with our family, but he didn’t know what to make of our faith and our daughters’ ministry to gypsy children. Still, he was intrigued.

Megan tutored Tod with an Adventist curriculum (Griggs). Later, Brenda was his tutor in another home-school program and continued where Moriah had started with studies about creation. We became like second parents to Tod, and he was like a little brother to our daughters. Some of the shopkeepers in town think Tod is my son because he is with me so much.

Many of our supporters have prayed for Tod and his family and prayed for us as we reached out to them and others. One woman even sent a book about Dr. Ben Carson for Tod, and it greatly inspired him. He later invited his family, including two cousins, to watch the biographical DVD “Gifted Hands” at our home. His family and even those cousins began to come to Sabbath worship services. Another supporter sent Tod a very nice Bible with the Conflict of the Ages series. Our student missionary, Natasha Towns, also tutored Tod and became another of his big sisters. During our furlough, our son-in-law, Kristofer Hendrickson, befriended Tod and began studying the Bible with him and preparing him for baptism. Several others have also helped to influence this young man for the Kingdom, including Graham and Pauline Allcock, our field directors.

It was a very cold day to be baptized in an icy river, but our hearts were warmed with joy. Tod had brought five of his friends to witness the event. Three of them are secular Muslims. They all heartily congratulated him as he came out of that cold water. I wasn’t sure if they were congratulating him for his bravery or what, but some of them told him they would like to come to Bible studies sometime.

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Looking back on Tod’s journey, I thought about how people often underestimate the importance of their influence on others, whether as a friend, classmate, teacher, pastor, sibling, doctor or some other type of contact. But, even beyond personal contact, you can change someone’s life for eternity—someone with no other access to the gospel—by supporting a missionary, praying for their work and the people they meet, and praying for and supporting their field directors. You may never know until heaven how many you will have helped to find Jesus.

Our Albanian members are praying for a church building to worship in so that our group has room to grow. Our living room can’t accommodate many more. If you are able and willing to be used by God to help answer their prayer, please mark your gift “Mays/Albania building project.” Never underestimate the power of prayer—your prayers. Please continue to lift up Tod in prayer that he will never be without his spiritual armor and that he will continue to grow in faith and lead others to Jesus. Pray also for his family members. Two of them have decided to be baptized.

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