Lata feared something was seriously wrong when she noticed a painful lump on her back. Over the next few months, the 10-year-old girl suffered from shortness of breath, weakness in her legs, and stabbing pains.

Living in rural Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in Asia, her medical options were limited. The so-called doctors and priests her desperate family consulted speculated that she had no liver, or that she had tuberculosis, or that she had been attacked by the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Finally, a doctor diagnosed cancer and said she would die within three months.

Then Lata's family heard about a surgeon at Memorial Christian Hospital in southern Bangladesh, one of dozens of missionary hospitals around the world supported by Samaritan's Purse through our medical arm, World Medical Mission.

From that point on, Lata's life was a whirlwind of compassion. When her family couldn't afford the fare for the three-day bus trip to the hospital, Christians paid it. When she was lonely and afraid, Christian nurses befriended her, shared the Gospel, and led her to the Lord. When she went into surgery, believers gave blood for her.

Dr. Stephen Kelley, a missionary surgeon, removed an 18-pound tumor from her abdomen, but Lata's legs were still paralyzed and the doctor warned that the cancer was likely to come back.

Even if it was not the restored health that she prayed for, the Great Physician was working miracles. From her bed, Lata became a radiant witness for Christ. First her sister accepted Jesus, and then her mother and father. Several weeks after surgery, Dr. Kelley carried Lata into a pond near a church, where she and her sister were baptized.

As Dr. Kelley feared, the cancer came back. He dreaded telling Lata, but he will never forget her response. "Good!" she said. "Now I won't have to go home to my Hindu village. I can die here and be buried among my new Christian family."

Samaritan's Purse , Bangladesh , World Medical Mission , Radiant in the Face of Death