Michael - I grew up not knowing what peace looked like. I grew up in a very war, intense country that people fight every single day, the gunfire is going all over,  and God set my life there. When I was about 10 years old, I suddenly got sick,  and I didn't know what was wrong. In South Sudan, there were no medical  facilities, and so we were wondering what to do, but God was so faithful enough, we brought in a small plane to do some humanitarian work. And they say, Okay,  we're going to take you to the refugee camp in Kenya. And so they brought us to the refugee camp in Kenya, where we're trying to look for treatment. God, bring  in these mission doctors. And they came, and they look at me, and they say, we  can take you to our hospital. This long list of people, a waiting list of people  trying to go to the hospital. And so the time they look at me, I have another six  months to wait to actually make it to the hospital. So by the time that I got sick to the time that I finally made it to the hospital, two years has already passed by. 

Jana Mead - Michael came to our hospital in 2005 for his first surgery. 

Dr. Tim Mead - I saw him. He was paralyzed from basically the chest down.  When you looked at his X rays, he had very active tuberculosis involving his  spine. His thoracic spine was bent way beyond a right angle instead of a nice  straight up. So it went and kinked, and when it kinked, it was putting pressure on the spinal cord. 

Michael - And so he came and did the spine surgery on me, and I was okay for  the first two days. And then the third day, I developed a lot of complication. 

Dr. Tim Mead - But we explored everything, decompressed everything, but his  motor function never returned. He couldn't walk again, and would be resigned to the wheelchair. And then came the final discussion was, what are we going to do now we have a young boy from Sudan living in Kenya in a wheelchair. If he can't go back to South Sudan in a wheelchair, there's just it's just not possible. 

Jana Mead - Well, Michael's been in the hospital on and off. Well, mostly in the  hospital for two years by this point, 

Michael - and then one day, his wife, Mama Jena Mead came to the hospital,  and they visited with me, and we're talking and just telling how I'm doing. 

Jana Mead - and I'm sitting there, and Michael's across the way talking to me,  and I am arguing with God, who I felt like was standing there saying to me,  Jana, I Want you to take care of Michael. And Michael, meanwhile, is talking to  me, yakking at me across the room. I have no clue what he said to me, because

I am just arguing. And so I finally said goodbye to Michael, and I walk home, and I said to Tim, God just told me that we have to take care of Michael. 

Michael - So they came and told me about this like God has told us to take care  of you. Michael, and I couldn't believe tn myself, like, Why me? Why there's so  many kids that they've taken care of but why did they pick me to save my life  and to let me go to school gave me the opportunity to be able to experience this  different life, because at that point, my life was hopeless, somebody in a  wheelchair in Africa living a hopeless life. And so when I came to the United  States and see the hope that people with disability have because of the people  that love them, that care for them. It starts something in my heart saying that,  you know what? I think that's why God saved my life. He saved my life to look at what it is like how people with disability I love and care for and value, and I want  to take that back to Africa. Living with hope is a ministry that is to share hope  and also mobility to those people who are living in Africa, those kids, they have  potential. They could have hope if someone speak through them. And that's why I started the ministry of living with hope. And so we've been going to Africa, to  Kenya, to do that, and that is, we take a team of physical therapists and  mechanics to go with us, to go and distribute those wheelchair to making sure  that the wheelchair feed the people. 

Jana Mead - Some of the cases were very sad because, you know, like, some of the kids were horribly contracted for cerebral palsy, and you could tell they've  never really had any therapy. They've never had any movement. You know, they couldn't bend their elbows, you couldn't bend their hips, you couldn't bend their  knees. You just kind of picked them up in like a sitting position, and just plunk  them in the chair, and then you had to modify the chair. And the mechanics that  we worked with were all unbelievably amazing. 

Dr. Tim Mead - The physical therapists would tell us what we needed to do,  whether it put bindings or straps onto a wheelchair to hold people's arms and  legs in place, whether they needed extra seat cushions to hold them in a little  tighter in their seat, or just to raise them up in their seat. So our job was to  retrofit those chairs to whatever the therapist wanted us to do. Every person that we come into contact with, we also share the gospel with them. They all  received a Bible in either English or Swahili. We would pray with them. We  would tell them this. You know, this is all done in Jesus' name. 

Michael - They should know that they are special and that God created them  with a special plan and purpose for their life,

Dr. Tim Mead - seeing just the change that you can make in someone's life with  something simple. And then you see these people's face light up, and you see  them just get almost giddy as they sit in this wheelchair and learn how to turn  circles with it and go backwards with it, and the whole family starts clapping. And you just realize that you've really made a difference. 

Jana Mead - Take them from not being able to move and being outdoors or  being able to be out and about, to put them in a chair, to give them the means to move in locomotion and mobility, and it does give them a whole new perspective on life, and to be part of that is an amazing thing. And that's what living home is  Hope is all about. 

Dr. Tim Mead - When you go to these this third world country, and you see these people that are crawling across the streets, you see these people that, I mean,  we had one lady come in on her hands and knees one day. She had sandals on  her hands and big, huge pads on her knees. And she walks through this door,  and she's walking with her three year old daughter alongside of her, and then  you put her in a chair, and she can get up and get mobile and take care of her  daughter. I mean, that's there's hope in that. 

Michael - What we do is life changing for so many people, being in that place,  especially being on the trip, and see how everything come together. It'll change  your life. Your passion comes from your biggest pain. People that do something, they do something because of what they have experienced. So my deepest pain and suffering gave me the passion to be able to want to do what I'm doing right  now. I'm thankful to God for giving me this story To share hope with the whole  world.



Last modified: Thursday, April 23, 2026, 8:46 AM