Sara wanted help. She was 27 and dying. No self-respecting Christian would blatantly turn aside, and yet the cost of caring for Sara seemed overwhelming. She had ALS, a degenerative nerve disease that would soon kill her.

The rehabilitation institute had done everything it could to help her cope with what was happening so rapidly in her body. She wanted to go home to her apartment for a couple of weeks before spending her last days with her mother.

A nurse would be with her during the days, but Sara was terrified of sleeping. Her father had died of ALS in his sleep less than a year ago. She asked if some women from our church could stay with her at night.

Sara was not a Christian, but she had heard about our church from a co-worker a year ago—before her disease was evident. Jerry and his wife, Kathy, had stayed in contact with Sara as the disease progressed and was diagnosed. When they brought her to church, many people reached out to welcome her. One was Martha, a paraplegic who knew ...