I came across this story by Dick Duerksen in the April 2018 issue of Adventist World Magazine.
Doc Miller and his wife, Wilma, shared a desire to serve. After retirement, they traveled several times to Cambodia and used their medical skills in refugee camps: Wilma said, “we dispensed meds, set bones, distributed food, and hugged children. Most of the kids were orphans, and we wanted to give every one of them a loving home. That was impossible, so instead we focused on making certain they had the best medical care we could offer.”
Doc Miller always carried peppermint candies in his pockets and he quickly became known as the “Candy Doctor,” even to the guards. One day, they called him to the gate where a young girl and her little brother just arrived. The girl had a fractured leg. She had been walking for days to make sure her little brother reached safety. The girl had been badly beaten and the brother was terrified of everyone. Doc Miller set her leg and put her to bed and the little brother slept under the cot. Doc gave the boy a small red fire truck. He clutched it tightly to his chest and dove back under the cot. A few weeks later the Millers returned to the States.
The Miller’s son, Gordon, a medical doctor himself, told his parents that he was going to fly them to the Paris Air Show in France. Doc Miller loved flying planes and it had always been a dream to attend the show. Unfortunately, Doc Miller suffered a heart attack and died. Wilma didn’t want to go on the trip, but her son insisted that Dad would want her to go.
At the Paris airport, Wilma eyed a young Asian taxi driver and called him over. Wilma began to ask the driver how he came to be in Paris and as he related his story, it sounded strangely familiar. She pulled out a photo of Doc Miller and showed the driver. “Did you know this man?” Wilma asked.
The driver pulled over to the curb and pulled out a small package from under his seat. He showed Wilma what was inside—a small well-worn red fire truck: “Doctor Miller was my friend. He gave me hope.” It is in service to others that we give them hope. Try it and see what miracle might happen.
