As I was preparing for bed on the evening of July 4th, my phone rang.  It was Sister Torea, one of our sister missionaries.  She was in tears, and scared.  Her companion, Sister Lekupe, was very ill, had just fallen off the couch, and Sister Torea was unable to get her up off the floor.

Sister Kerns and I hurried to their house.  I determined that if things were as bad as they sounded, I would go get the pair of elders who lived nearby, have them administer a priesthood blessing, and then have them help me load Sister Lekupe into our pickup.  I knew that I wasn’t man enough to do it alone.

Sister Kerns and I found Sister Lekupe unconscious on the floor.  She was unresponsive when Sister Torea shook her to get her attention.  She could neither open her eyes nor speak.  While I was gone to get the elders, my wife determined that Sister Lekupe had a high fever.  She began trembling.  Sister Kerns covered her with a blanket, and noted that Sister Lekupe was drooling as well as being totally unresponsive.

Elder Esplin knelt beside Sister Lekupe, and anointed her with the consecrated oil.  Elder Mu’amoholeva then joined him, and sealed the anointing with a long, detailed blessing in Bislama.  I didn’t understand half of it, but I knew that it was a powerful, faith-filled blessing.

At the conclusion of the blessing, I took Sister Lekupe by the hand, and started raising her.  Surprisingly she responded, and tried to help herself.  With my help, and the help of the elders, we got her on her feet.  I was grateful to find that she was able to move her feet.  I put my arm around her for support, and walked her to the pickup.  She slid into the back seat, scooted herself across to the other side to make room for her companion, and put her face and open mouth against the window.

The hospital was perhaps 5 minutes away.  Knowing how sick Sister Lekupe was, I tried to call my friend, Dr. Wang, to alert him that we were coming with an emergency case.  Thankfully, the call wouldn’t go through.

At the hospital I assisted Sister Lekupe as she got out of the pickup.  She was walking very well.  I kept hold of her arm just in case she might stumble.  A very competent nurse greeted us as we entered, and directed Sister Lekupe to a bed.  Sister Lekupe laid down, smiled, and began talking.

The nurse took her temperature.  It was normal.  The nurse took her blood pressure.  It was perfect.  Sister Lekupe explained that she’d had a very sore throat and a dry cough the day before.  Earlier that day they’d been out working, when she got very weak.  Her legs went numb, and she wasn’t sure that she could climb the hill to their house.

The nurse prepared a packet of antibiotic pills for the sore throat, then looked into Sister Lekupe’s mouth.  There was no soreness.  The dry cough that we’d heard on the way to the hospital had ceased.  The nurse decided the pills would not be necessary.

Sister Lekupe sat up in the bed, laughing and joking.  She said that she hadn’t heard the priesthood blessing that she’d been given.  Sister Kerns told her to lie back down, and at least pretend to be sick.  Sister Kerns was embarrassed.  People were going to wonder why we were there.  For my part, I was glad that I had been unable to reach Dr. Wang with my “emergency.”

I asked the nurse how much we owed.  An emergency room call for a grown person should have cost 500 vatu ($5).  The nurse laughed and said, “Don’t worry about it.  I haven’t done anything!”

Sister Lekupe stood up, walked out under her own power, and declined the invitation to stay at our house for the night where we could watch her.

She answered the phone when I called this morning to check up on her, and announced that she feels fine, and was getting ready to go to work.