It is always true that God uses unlikely people and circumstances to accomplish His purposes. With the news of the onset of our son Danny’s terminal illness with Muscular Dystrophy (MD), our family was totally devastated. Anguished by the thought of life without Danny, we began seeking the comfort and strength of our Lord Jesus.
As we wrestled with this terrible situation, Danny never complained of his pain or struggles but was gentle and always cheerful despite being in utter weakness. Danny also felt very sorry for the plight of the poverty-stricken MD patients in India who were often doomed to live in a corner of the house until they died. At this time, Jesus drew our attention to Matthew 25: 40, which says that if we have done it unto “the least of these,” we have done it unto Him. His grace and mercy gave us the wisdom to direct our agony into a productive ministry.
Even though we were aware of our own deficiencies, we put our feeble faith in our God, Jehovah Jireh, who can provide for all needs. As a family, we prayerfully accepted God’s challenge to start a ministry for MD patients. With Danny’s declaration that “all the muscular dystrophy children in India are my friends”, Danny and Friends came into existence in September 1992 with Danny accepting to be the first honorary President for the same.
Danny left us on October 26, 2000 to His Heavenly abode after a sudden setback in his health. He finished his race in this earth when he was just 18 years old, leaving us in inexplicable grief and sadness. Twenty years have rolled by without having his physical presence in this world, but the hope that one day we will see his happy face with our Lord Jesus comforts us and keeps us going.
Today, the main objective of Danny and Friends continues to be to provide medical, financial, emotional and spiritual support to the MD patients and their families who are in utter desperate need. Whenever we see MD Patients, we see Danny in them and that is enough for us.