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BY KATHERINE CAMPBELL
UMCONNECTION STAFF

I?m always touched when I see someone who?s been through so much be so incredibly optimistic about life and their situation. These are the people who define the phrase 'count your blessings.'

Janet is one of those people. She?s the recipient of my dad?s 'extra' kidney.

Janet is someone who is willing to share her story and knows how to make anyone feel at home in her presence. And she is someone who is proof of how God surrounds us with the support that we need, just when we need it.

Janet Labelle has been a member of Anchor Park UMC in Anchorage, Alaska, for the last 40 years. There, she has served as the financial secretary.

In 2002, her kidneys started to go bad and she was abruptly put on dialysis. She recalls being so exhausted after each dialysis treatment that she once woke up on the couch hours after returning home, still in her jacket and scarf. In January 2005, Janet went on the transplant list for a new kidney.

When Janet?s health started to become a struggle, her sister knitted her a prayer shawl. It was this gift that gave Janet the idea to start making prayer shawls for others. She gave them to friends and family that were going through hard times, and even others she?d never met.

It was through this that Janet felt a deep connection to God in her relationship with those she knitted the shawls for. Often, Janet used a pattern that repeated in thirds, and within this she prayed Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as praying for the recipient.

Her 151st shawl is in the works.

Janet can fully understand how moving such a gift can be, for her own prayer shawl has been with her through every dialysis treatment and trip to the doctor?s. Currently at Anchor Park UMC, there is a prayer shawl group of 12 members that meets every Monday.

After being on dialysis for a year, Janet received an e-mail from my father, the Rev. John Campbell, an Elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference serving in Alaska, saying there was an anonymous donor in the church who was interested in giving their kidney to her. This was a surprise, considering there are about 56,600 people a year in the United States who are on a kidney transplant waiting list.

A little while later, she received a call from my dad and mom, asking if they could visit. This didn?t seem out of the ordinary, considering they were her pastors, and they often made house calls. But when they arrived, Dad told her the news: he was the one interested in giving her his kidney.

'I just about dropped my teeth,' Janet recalls. 'I was so surprised and shocked, I didn?t know how to respond.' But Dad had been thinking over this for some time, and he felt strongly about God?s calling to serve Janet in this way.

Janet was an acquaintance in the church, but wasn?t someone he knew well. My father had seen her prayer request and thought that maybe he could do something about the situation. He felt compelled to help. Someone was in need, so he responded.

In his prayers, he kept coming back to the fact that he had an opportunity to give of something that he wasn?t even really using. I think this is easier said than done.

Going through surgery for someone is extremely admirable, but there?s also a good lesson in remembering that we?ve each been blessed far beyond our own needs, and that God calls us to share those blessings with others. In addition, we are called to love everyone, not just those who are closest to us.

I was surprised to hear the news that my father wanted to donate his kidney. But not as shocked as many have expected me to be. As a small child, I learned the importance of service and the normalcy of sacrificing one?s own comfort to do something amazing for another.

When I heard about the surgery, it was out of the blue, but not out of character.

By November, 2005, the surgery was scheduled to take place in Seattle. Just before the transplant, when most of us would have been quite nervous, Janet recalls a nurse asking her how she was doing. 'I?ve got two pastors down here with me. I think I?ve got things covered,' Janet said.

Throughout numerous tests and visits to the hospital, so many people assured Janet they were praying for her and Dad. Most of them were nurses or others working in the hospital that didn?t know her. Janet had trouble just listing to me all the prayer chains she was on, and I got to share with her the many that were praying for her in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

As both Dad and Janet move through their recoveries and into life again, I know they will forever have this special bond together and with God. And they will be a reminder to us of how God often calls us to amazing things we aren?t capable of on our own.

Just as we each have an overabundance of so many things, my dad?s voice will be a continual reminder: 'Well, I had two,' he said.

And so he did. Until he opened his heart to hear God call him to share in his many blessings.

If you?re interested in donating your kidney, University of MD Medical Center has one of the largest U.S. programs, performing more than 300 transplants a year. Visit www.umm.edu/transplant/kidney/ for more information.

Katherine 'Kate' Campbell is the graphic artist for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.