Where's my leg?

It's been about three or four hours since the traumatic events this evening. At eight a.m. this morning Justin Tan and I drove up to Ipoh to attend meetings during the day. Once our meetings concluded we packed up our things and drove home. While driving down the North-South Highway a tropic-force rain storm thundered down on us. Wanting to redeem the time while driving home I asked Justin if he minded if we listened to a sermon from my former pastor, Mitch Majeski (http://www.summitview.com/index.cfm/page/messages and the message, 'Wherever the spirit leads, preach Christ'). We were listening to Mitch, using the example of Paul's circumcising Timothy to describe how we need to let the Spirit lead our lives and wherever the Spirit lead to preach Christ, when the sky fell-in and our lives were intersected by 'Chong'. Pounding rain started beating down on us as we weaved through the mountains; Justin had just started to snore. Next thing I remember is Justin rousing himself and saying he had been listening to Mitch and that he had seen an accident on this stretch of road earlier today and that we should slow down. Right after Justin's words had left his mouth the semi (they call a lorry over here) in front of us moved out of the inside lane, revealing an orange warning cone directly in front of me. Plowing right through the cone I firmly, but not to the point of hydroplaning, came to a stop. Immediately in front of my windshield a trauma scene was unfolding. Here my memory gets a little fuzzy, but I think Justin and I stepped out of the car to see how we could help. Next, one of the first responders started asking Justin, in Malay, if we could take the victim to the hospital. Justin, turning to me, restated their request. Looking to the shoulder of the highway we could see the traffic was preventing the ambulance from arriving on-site. Dumb-founded I said, "sure we can take him!" Next thing I know we'd cleared out the car and they loaded a leather clad, motorcyclist into the back of my Accord. Justin and I hopped in and we sped off behind a police car. Chong, the young Chinese Malay that we were rushing to the hospital was going into shock. He'd lost his leg from the upper calf down. I didn't get a look at the full wound, but saw a large chunk of flesh dangling out from the lower tourniquet. As we wound through the North-South highway crawling through the pouring rain I could only think to keep Chong lucid, asking him questions to keep his mind from going into shock. While I asked Chong questions about him, his family, anything I could think of, Justin applied pressure to the large vain in Chong's inner thy trying to assist the tourniquet and keep blood from exiting the gaping wound under Chong's knee. We had time for Chong to call several of his family members. Speaking in Cantonese I can only guess at Chong's message to his wife and mother. "Case, go faster," Justin whispered as Chong growned softly. Justin had just felt the warmth of life in Chong's leg fade to cold death. I started praying out loud asking Christ to protect Chong and save his life. With no one greeting us at the country hospital Justin and I ran inside to find someone. Quickly several white clad workers were peeling Chong's limp body out of my car and into the awaiting emergency room. Justin and I followed Chong into the hospital wanting to help. We stayed around for roughly half an hour, then with nothing left to do we started driving home. The smell of hot wet blood filled my car. We made it back to Kuala Lumpur not sure what had just happened to us. Just before entering KL Chong called my mobile asking if we knew where his leg was. Horrified we stopped at my home checking the car to see if someone had placed the lower half of his leg in my trunck or somewhere else. What an crazy feeling to look for someone's body part. We couldn't find it and asked one of our coworkers that was driving on the same highway to see if anyone was around to look for it. I don't think anyone did.

What a day. I shared with Justin that this morning Ella and I had been praying that God would use us today. I guess Chong was my answer.