The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear
 a little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have
 died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before. It's
 not influenza, but three or four people are dead, and it's kind of
 interesting, and they're sending some doctors over there to investigate
 it. You don't think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from
 church, you hear another radio spot. Only they say it's not three
 villagers, it's 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this  particular
 area of India, and it's on TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb;
 people are heading there from the disease center in Atlanta because this
 disease strain has never been seen before.

 By Monday morning when you get up, it's the lead story. For it's
 not just India; it's Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know
 it, you're hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as
 "the mystery flu". The President has made some comment that he and
 everyone are praying and hoping that all will go well over there. But
 everyone is wondering, How are we going to contain it? That's when the
 president of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is
 closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the
 countries where this thing has been seen.

 And that's why that night you are watching a little bit of CNN before
 going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is
 translated from a French news program into English: There's a man lying
 in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu. It has come to Europe.
 Panic strikes. As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a
 week before you know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable
 symptoms. And then you die.

 Britain closes it's  borders, but it's too late. South Hampton,
 Liverpool, North Hampton, and it's Tuesday morning when the President of
 the United States makes the following announcement: "Due to a national
 security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been
 canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I'm sorry. They cannot come
 back until we find a cure for this thing." Within four days our
 nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear. People are selling
 little masks for your face. People are talking about "What if it comes
 to this country," and preachers on Tuesday are saying,  "It's the
 scourge of God."

 It's Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when
 somebody runs in from the parking lot and says,"Turn  on a radio, turn
 on a radio." And while the church listens to a little transistor radio
 with a microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made:  "Two women
 are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu."  Within
 hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country People are
 working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is
 working.California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. It's as
 though it's just sweeping in from the borders.

 And then, all of a sudden the news  comes out. The code has been broken.
 A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. It's going to take
 the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so, sure enough, all
 through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency
 broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: Go to your
 downtown hospital and have your >blood type taken. That's all we ask of
 you. When you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make
 your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.

 Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday
 night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors coming
 out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your
 wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they
 say, "Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be
 dismissed and go home." You stand around, scared, with your neighbors,
 wondering what in the world is going on and if this is the end of the
 world.

 Suddenly a young man comes  running out of the hospital screaming. He's
 yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your
 son tugs on your  jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me." Before you know
 it, they have grabbed your boy. Wait a minute. Hold on! And they
 say,"It's okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make
 sure he doesn't have the disease. We think he has got the right type."
 Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and
 hugging one another - some are even laughing. It's the first time you
 have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and
 says, "Thank you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect. It's clean,it
 is pure, and we can make  the vaccine."  As the word begins to spread
 all across that parking lot full of folks, people are screaming and
 praying and laughing and crying.

 But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and you wife aside and says,
 "May we see you for a moment? We didn't realize that the donor would be
 a minor and we need. ..we need you to sign a consent form." You begin to
 sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is
 empty. "H-how many pints?"

 And that is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, "We had
 no idea it would be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it
 all!"

 "But-but...You don't  understand."  "We are talking about the world
 here. Please sign. We-we need it all!"

 "But can't you give him a transfusion?"

 "If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign? Would you sign?" In
 numb silence, you do.

 Then they say, "Would you like to have a moment with him before we
 begin?"  Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room
 where he sits on a table  saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?" Can
 you take his hands and say, "Son, your mommy and I love you, and we
 would never ever let anything, happen to you that didn't just have to
 be. Do you understand that?"

 And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry, we've -
 we've got to get started. People all over the world are dying."  Can you
 leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, "Dad? Mom? Dad? Why -  why
 have you forsaken me?"

 And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your son, and
 some folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even come because they
 go to the lake, and some folks come with a pretentious smile and just
 pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED FOR
 YOU! DON'T YOU CARE?" Is that what GOD wants to say? "MY SON DIED FOR
 YOU.  DON'T YOU  KNOW HOW  MUCH I  CARE?"
 

 "Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we can
 begin to comprehend the great Love you have for us."

 You can now SPREAD THE GOSPEL...or delete it.