Have you ever needed an advocate, someone who speaks on your behalf? When we can’t handle something, we may need an advocate, someone who will act as our champion because they believe in us. I can think of a few times when we have needed one.
The first time we badly needed an advocate was in Papua New Guinea, and Joice had an ectopic pregnancy and was in danger of losing her life. She needed to be flown to a hospital 100 miles away, and I needed the approval of a local doctor to order a small airplane to fly her there. I rode my motorcycle 8 miles and found a doctor (playing golf), but he refused to call for help. By God’s grace, I heard an airplane taxiing at the local airstrip and rode there to stop the plane. The pilot opened a window and asked me about my problem. I explained Joice’s situation, and he assured me that he would radio for a small plane to go to the airstrip near where Joice was located. He did—he was our advocate—and Joice was flown to the hospital where a doctor operated on her and saved her life.
When I wanted to attend the Biola School of Missionary Medicine in California, it was 1955, and the Korean War was on. I had just graduated from college and was subject to be drafted, unless my local Draft Board decided otherwise. I wrote them about my plans to be a missionary, but I also needed someone who would verify my status. I went to my local doctor, showed him the school catalogue, and he agreed that it was a legitimate request. I sent my information to the Draft Board, and they granted me a 4-D (ministerial) exemption. My doctor had acted, probably not knowing it, as my advocate, and I went to California and completed the course of study.
Joice and I had been studying in a “workshop” under the direction of Professor Kenneth L. Pike, from the University of Michigan and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Professor Pike asked me to do graduate studies in linguistics, and I had chosen Cornell University. I didn’t think my GPA was high enough for admission, so I needed someone to verify that I could do the work. Dr. Pike contacted the head of the department of linguistics at Cornell, and I was admitted without a problem. He had spoken on my behalf and convinced those in charge at Cornell that I could do the work. I successfully completed an M.A. in linguistics and anthropology, but I remembered how I got into the study program mainly because I had an advocate.
We always need an advocate when we have a cause that is too difficult for us. Have you ever had trouble dealing with a health insurance company? It was in 2013, and we were trying to have Joice admitted to the proton center at MD Anderson in Houston for cancer treatment. Our insurance company had never approved a person with Joice’s variety of cancer to go there. It was all new and strange, but we had been told that proton radiation was what Joice needed. Our son-in-law Mike, who is a doctor, knew how difficult it would be to have Joice admitted, but he acted as our go-between until, a month later, she was cleared to go for treatment. Well, almost cleared, because we needed approval before every procedure: when she had blood drawn, MRIs, x-rays, and so on. We now needed someone in the hospital system to act as an advocate, and, again, Mike acted for us and contacted a woman who came to our rescue. On several occasions, she was our advocate with the insurance company, and, on one trip to Houston, we were in the city limits before she called us and said we had been cleared for insurance aid.
When I was the Director of our work in Papua New Guinea, I sometimes had the opportunity to act as an advocate for someone in need. One such occasion was when a couple needed to return to the States for medical reasons. They had no money, and our institution’s policy manual said that they could therefore not go. However, I intervened on their behalf, and they were able to leave, although in debt. Later, they told me how much my help as an advocate meant to them.
There are many times when we can act on behalf of someone and be their advocate. It is an opportunity for us to put our beliefs into action.
When we do this, we can remember that great advocate we have had in Jesus, “who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2.2-3 NLT).
Karl Franklin
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