Throughout the Bible, God uses the most unlikely people to do extraordinary things. Abraham was old, yet God made him the father of many nations. Jacob was a cheater and a liar, but through God, he was a king. Thomas doubted God’s faithfulness, but he was one of Christ’s trusted 12 disciples. Paul was a murderer who killed Christians, but God changed his heart, gave him a new name, and he became one of the greatest church planters of all time.
When God calls, he also equips.
Nothing could be more true for Good Samaritan Stephen Jones—a homeless man who was sleeping on the sidewalk outside of Manchester Arena on Monday night when a suicide bomb explosion went off inside. The blast following an Ariana Grande concert killed 22 and injured more than 119 others.
The 35-year-old jumped to action, rushing to provide help for those fleeing the 20,000 person arena. He found “a lot of children with blood all over them crying and screaming.”
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Stephen told ITV news, “We were having to pull nails out of their arms, and a couple out of this little girl’s face.”
He wasn’t alone in his selfless pursuit. Another homeless man, Chris Parker, also rushed to the scene. The 33-year-old says he regularly begs for money outside of Manchester Arena as people are exiting events.
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“[The blast] knocked me to the floor, and then I got up and instead of running away my gut instinct was to run back and try and help,” Chris told local news.
The first victim he helped had lost her legs in the explosion.
“I saw a little girl…she had no legs. I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said ‘where is your mum and daddy?’ She said ‘my dad is at work, my mum is up there.’”
Chris later tended to a woman who he believed to be in her 60s. She died in his arms.
“I haven’t stopped crying,” Chris said.
In the moments following the blast, both Stephen and Chris abandoned their own safety and heroically helped those around them. They have no medical background, no knowledge of how to treat a child who just lost her legs or extract nails from a kid’s face.
But God equips the people He calls to be His hands and feet.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself for walking away and leaving kids like that,” Stephen says. “Just because I’m homeless it doesn’t mean that I haven’t got a heart and I’m not human still.”
In the days since the terrorist attack, donation pages have been set up for both Stephen and Chris, and the community has rallied to support these men who selflessly supported those victims.
More than $70,000 has been raised for both men combined, and one group even took things a step further.
On Tuesday—less than 24-hours after the attack—David Sullivan, joint-chairman of English Premier League club West Ham United, offered to provide Stephen Jones with six months of free rent. David says he hopes they can help him get back on his feet.
Stephen is overwhelmed and beyond grateful for the kindness he’s been shown after performing what he declared a merely “human” act.
“They needed the help. I’d like to think that someone would come and help me if I needed the help,” Stephen told ITV News earlier this week. “It was just my instinct to go and help people out.”
And now, amidst an unthinkable tragedy, that “help” has come full circle for the Good Samaritan in the form of a place he can call his own.
The events of Monday night’s terrorist attack are absolutely devastating, and we mourn with those who lost loved ones to the evil of this world, but I’m thankful for the rays of hope that God continues to shine through the heartbreak.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
No darkness can dim the light of the Lord. Amidst destruction and terror, God used the unlikely—homeless men and beggars like Stephen and Chris—to be His hands and feet with the whole world watching.
Thank God for their selflessness.
