A Friend for Li Chen

Li Chen lived over 60 years ago and through a difficult experience she found a true Friend. It all began one hot summer day. Li Chen was hungry. She was starving, and she was thirsty. With no water for three days, the sun seemed even hotter, and the cutting wind swept across the burning China desert. Every time Li Chen moved, she moaned. Part of the time she talked to herself, and part of the time she prayed to her ancestors and to Buddha. “Honourable ones,” she prayed, “Li Chen is suffering. She cannot stand it much longer. Please take her home to be with good ancestors.”

She moaned again and tried to crawl another step. You see, Li Chen could not walk She had never walked in all her thirteen years. She had been born with tiny misshapen feet and always shuffled along with the aid of homemade crutches.

But in the rush to get away from the bandits who had raided their mountain home two weeks ago, her crutches were lost. Her parents had fled and never come back for her. Li Chen had been left alone and now she had crawled for many miles searching for food and water. They had no neighbours for many miles around so there was no one to call for help, so Li Chen was truly on her own. For the last three days she had crawled toward this spring. But when she arrived, she found it had dried up under the parching sun.

It was no use to move, for there was no place to go. In despair Li Chen sank down into tired, hungry sleep. For a long time she dozed. Then she awoke with a start. There was a roar and a long scream ringing through the skies. Looking into the fiery sun, Li Chen could dimly see a great American sky bird that carried men. The wings were made of brilliant red feathers, and the great scream came because the bird was diving toward the mountain.

“Oh no!” Li Chen cried out, again and again. The feathers were not feathers. They were plumes of flames. The great American bird was badly wounded. Out of its back sprang tufts of cotton smoke.

They bloomed out into big umbrellas.
Then Li Chen could see that men were floating down to earth in safety. But the iron bird seemed to be plunging straight at her. She tried to move, but the pain was too great. With the noise of a thousand storms, the big airplane tore into the forest on the mountainside. It cut off the tops of great trees and finally stopped in the huge branches of some of the grandfather trees.

Red, yellow and orange flames rose from the airplane. It was one great ball of colour. But out of that great light dropped what looked like a man, clothed in flame. In a moment he was rolling around on the ground, trying to put out his blanket of fire. After a long hard fight, the fire was out, and he lay very still.

Li Chen called out in Chinese. “Hiee! Are you alive?”
Then, in a voice that came from way down inside and must have hurt very much to talk with she heard him answer in broken Chinese, “Yes, thank God, I am alive. But I am burned badly.
Come closer; perhaps you can help me.”

Li Chen tried to forget her bleeding knees and torn hands as she crawled toward the stranger. It hurt a lot, but she finally reached his side. “It was hard for me to get here,” she explained. “I cannot walk.”
“That isn’t so bad,” said the stranger. “I am blind.”
Then she could see his face was all burned. His eyes were blistered shut. “Oh, you are badly hurt. And I cannot do you any good. I have nothing to help. And everything of yours is burned up in the thing that flies.”
“There is only One who can help me now. Let’s talk to Him.”

Li Chen shook her head. “There is no one here. You must have hurt your head. I can see and you cannot. I say, there is no one here. Those other men came down on the other side of the valley, and it is two day’s journey to them. There is no one here.”

“Yes, He is here all right. We can talk to Him, too.” And the stranger started talking as though there were someone right beside Li Chen. “Lord Jesus, thank You for saving my life. I don’t know why You let us crash, but there must have been a reason. Now will You give rne wisdom and strength to get out safely, if it is Your will? Amen.”

For a long time it was silent, and Li Chen wondered what the airman was doing. Finally he drew a deep breath. “Would you like to help me, my friend?”

“Yes,” Li Chen said with hesitation, “but I am so small and weak, and I don’t know how I could help.”

“Do you have good eyes, and do you know the way to the village?”
“Yes, I can see, and I know the way, but I cannot walk.” Li Chen was about to cry with helplessness.

“That is all right. You be my eyes, and I will be your feet! My head and body are burned, but my legs are okay. Let’s go!”

The Chinese girl saw the airman grit his teeth. Great drops of sweat rolled down his face as he painfully got to his feet. He lifted her to his shoulders. Then started the walk they would never forget. She would tell him when to turn, to step up or down, as they moved along on his strong legs. To keep their minds from the terrible journey, he asked all about her home and herself. She talked until her words became a mumble, and even she did not know what she said. Dimly she could hear him talking to that unseen Friend, Whom he called Jesus. Over and over as he stumbled along, he
pleaded for strength for both of them.

They stumbled into bushes, and once she was so tired that she did not even see the tree until they ran right into it. It knocked them both down. They lay there weeping and, in sheer weariness, fell asleep. It seemed like ages later that they awakened and started on the endless journey again. Li Chen was not sure that they were on the right path. Nothing seemed to matter any more except to keep moving. She heard voices and thought she felt hands lifting her from the blistered back of the airman. Then she sank again into sleep.

When Li Chen awoke, she was lying in a comfortable straw bed. Someone was forcing a cold liquid between her lips. Greedily, she drank, then more sleep; then waking moments and more sleep. She did not know how long it was before she could stay awake. Not until then did she become aware that in the bed across the room was the stranger. That is, his voice was over there. The rest of him was all wrapped in white bandages, and she couldn’t see his face. But there was a smile in his voice.

“Well, He brought us out safely, didn’t He?” the voice said. “Jesus, I mean.”
Li Chen’s lips quivered, and a little cloud appeared on her face. Then a teardrop trickled down her cheek. “I was not afraid out on the mountain, but I am afraid now. If I should die, where would I go? I have no good friend like you have. Who would take care of me?”

“Didn’t Jesus save me out of the crash and the fire? Didn’t He send these good people to save us?

Don’t you think that He could take care of you?”
“Yes, I know He could, but maybe He doesn’t want to.” The Chinese tears fell just as American tears. “Listen to what God’s Book says. ‘God so loved the world [Li Chen] that He gave His only begotten Son, [Jesus] that whosoever believeth [if Li Chen would believe] in Him, [she] should not perish, but have everlasting life.'”

Li Chen looked toward her poor crippled feet that had never walked and never would walk. She felt so heavy inside and needed someone so much. “I want Jesus with all my heart,” she said. “I need Him and I want to be saved.”

It didn’t take long for the airman to show Li Chen the way. And she was soon smiling.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. As she turned, a little nurse with golden hair kissed her on her forehead. “I’m so glad for you, Li Chen. You see, we have been praying for you since we found you. You didn’t know it, but this is a missionary compound, and we are missionaries. Jesus so loved you enough to send us to you.” And the tears of joy started to fill her blue eyes. For a long time no one spoke.

Then the airman broke the silence.

“I didn’t know why God let us crash, but I do now. The great thing about having Jesus for a Friend is that He never makes a mistake. Never! Even though we lost the airplane and all the supplies and I had to endure all this suffering, the Lord had it all happen so that Li Chen could be rescued and could find Jesus.”