Comments on: The Foot Savior

By: Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 14:30:24 +0000

In reply to Nilanjana Bairagi. Much of the research on materials was done at Karigiri, associated with CMC Vellore. Perhaps you could connect with some of the researchers there? Dr. Brand did much more at the leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, though that facility has changed and I don't know who controls the records. Keep up your good work!

By: Nilanjana Bairagi

Nilanjana Bairagi — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 14:09:12 +0000

I am really touched by the books written by Dr. Paul Brand & you. Very powerful. I am going to share and give a presentation about Dr. Paul Brand tomorrow in my sunday school.

I am working in the area of design and recently in the area of functional footwear and I never knew that there was a connection between the effects of these two diseases ( Diabetes & leprosy).

Thank you & God bless!

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:58:40 +0000

Hi Philip…I enjoy all your books very much, I read and re-read them all the time. Paul & Margaret Brand have been a blessing to so many people in need!
Reading all the comments posted in your blog, I can see that there are many others who feel the same way I do – you write as if you are speaking to friends and your work is an incredible inspiration. How much you have helped me in my faith is difficult to put into words.
From some of the things you have written, I think your wife Janet is pretty special too!
I especially think of the time when I read that you & Janet were in an area where you met a woman whose face was so very disfigured, and yet Janet, without even thinking gave her a hug. I think it is great when you include some things about Janet and the work she is involved in. I am thankful for both of you!

By: Jeanette Shackelford

Jeanette Shackelford — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:27:44 +0000

Dear Mr. Yancey, I have read and re read most of your books and the books of Dr. Brand. I am a Bible teacher of all ages at different times and I am constantly going back to In His Image. I read the Granny Brand book and had a couple of my grandkids to read it. I feel in love with her. I enjoyed the stories about your families and the homespun lessons that were learned. I’m anxious to learn more about you as a person. I liked Why Bother a lot. Thank you for your love for God and his people.

By: adeline ong

adeline ong — Fri, 13 May 2011 00:13:27 +0000

This is not in relation to what you blogged, Mr Yancy.

This is a super-duper belated THANK YOU ‘card’ to say HEAPS OF THANKS for doing these stuff exactly 1year 1week ago when you were in Singapore:

Remember the telephone call you made to an ardent fan of yours who was in hospital? Remember leaving a voice mail in my mobile phone as I missed your call?

[You even left a voice mail on my close friend’s mobile phone, which I replayed and replayed to hear your voice and message that you left me. Thank you so very much. Your message boosted my morale while I was trying not to lament being in hospital…again.]

Remember the email I wrote you to invite you to visit me at home as I was hooked to an o2 machine at home?

I so barely wanted to meet you in person (and I still do)
& so badly wanted to learn more about writing from you but I couldn’t attend the writing seminar by you because first of all the venue was not wheelchair friendly & second, I ended up in hospital for the entire first 3weeks of May 2010.

For the past 1year 1 week, it has been on my mind to send you a THANK YOU email or e-card, and I am indeed horrible as I procrastinated for more than a year. On those days when I am well–half of the time I am not well–I ended up doing other things; and also when I am well, my computer became “sick” for weeks; and then there were just weeks when I am just not well to sit at the computer to even bother reading my personal emails.

Mr Yancy (don’t know whether I should just call you Philip or Mr Yancy because you used both in the messages you left me on the mobile phones), thank you so very much for bothering back then in Singapore in May 2010 to call me up despite your very tight schedule.

I truly appreciate it very much.

just sincerely yours,
adeline

ps: Regarding WHAT GOOD IS GOD?, I can truly identify with the things you wrote about and experienced. I wish you will write about this that has been bugging me: Why do Christians find it such a taboo to talk about death & about preparations for death?
We are all heading for Heaven to be with God, with Christ, and yet, Christians just don’t want to talk about death, about pain, about any thing related to death, to one’s departure. I do want to expand more here in a proper email but since there is no way to do so, I am using your blog. So sorry about this. THANK YOU for your patience and your time.

By: Kate Hamilton

Kate Hamilton — Sun, 08 May 2011 00:05:02 +0000

I could never find the right words to thank you for the work you have done, bringing the stories of men & women who have lived as Christ taught us to. As well as assisting me in my faith and sustaining me through much sorrow, tragedy and heartbreak, you give me sane, intelligent, interesting, vital ways to speak of Christian work & belief to my skeptical teenage children. My partner & I read all your books. Then I re read them, then begin again. Perhaps this shows weak faith & memory skills – it does! however, the message of Grace to those like me who have failed to reach even the first step toward serving God as they wish they could, is virtually impossible to believe. Thank you for making it a little more credible.

By: david thwaites

david thwaites — Sat, 07 May 2011 14:11:47 +0000

On reading this blog it brought back memories of my grandmother who faithfully made bandages for leprosy missions back in the 1960s, no doubt before as well, as she herself had served as a nurse missionary and other members of my family in medical
missions dating back into the 1950s, including my cousin Art Johnson in Ecuador in the 1950s with Jim Elliot and others. Thank you for the gift of those who have served and serve.
I also had the privilege of visiting a leprosy hosptial in the Dominican Republic a few years ago. To be able to sit with and enjoy worship with those who have known pain and rejection, for few otherwise visit, was an honour and humbling, especially as I reflected on the touch of Jesus on the lepers of His day.
Thank you to the Paul Brands of the world.

By: Robert A. Warriner, III, M.D.

Robert A. Warriner, III, M.D. — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:24:17 +0000

I first met Dr. Brand in the early 90s at the USPHS hospital in Carville, LA. At the time it was the continental US treatment center for Hansen’s Disease and was transitioning under Dr. Brand’s leadership to be a national Diabetes Treatment Center focusing on diabetic foot offloading and amputation prevention. I was there to study healing sandles and total contact casting. Dr. Brand went out of his way to seek out this fledgling wound care physician interested in healing diabetic foot ulcers. I knew of him from reading The Gife of Pain and Ten Fingers for God while serving as a short term missionary anesthesiologist in Nigeria. His life story and his writing greatly impact a life long commitment to service in missions. But meeting him in person and experiencing first hand his kindness and his zeal has clearly been a transforming experience for me. I was to attend the dedication at Barry University, but illness kept me away. To Margaret I wish to say again, thank you for the gifts your lives have provided to us all. And to Philip Yancey a thank you for helping pen those words on paper for all of us to read and experience again and again. God bless the Brands. They have certainly blessed us.

By: Chris Malan

Chris Malan — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:05:53 +0000

This has nothing to do with diabetes or leprosy. It’s just that I can find no other way to maybe contact you. I’ve read some of your books. You’re big on social action. Jesus was born, lived and died in a foreign occupied country. Opposition to the Roman occupation was rife. Jesus was even expected to cast off the Roman yoke. Slavery was still the in thing. Yet Jesus never said a word against the foreign occupation or slavery. Jesus was focussed on one thing only. It is extremely unlikely, had Jesus lived in the right times, that he would have joined the American civil liberties movement or any anti apartheid groups.

You also told an “amazing grace – Van De Broek – truth and reconciliation committee” story in one book. That never happened. It comes from Maake Masangu. This story has been pulled from most places it appeared. One Mennonite, I think named Melanie or Melody, even knew Maake Masangu. The Truth and Reconcilliation Committee itself denied it ever happened. The story had obvious non sequiturs. Shame on you. At best you were lax in verifying your sources and gullible, at worst malicious.

You’re right that Jesus avoided most overt political issues, though we can only speculate what he would have done in other circumstances. Certainly he never mentioned abortion or homosexuality, two big issues in our day. As for the Van de Broek story, this is the first I’ve heard of its inauthenticity. I’m very sorry that I’ve helped spread something not based on truth. I got my material from Mennonite sources, usually most reliable, and checked it thoroughly on the Internet (which shows, of course, how much we can trust the Internet). If you have any links to the correction or denials from TRC, I’d love to see them. Thank you for bringing this up.
Philip

By: Marty Jones

Marty Jones — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:04:22 +0000

While I have been spared my grandfather’s, and father’s diabetes, I somehow have contracted the neuropathy. Having read yours and Dr. Brand’s books has made this last two years more tolerable.
Blessings, Marty