A Mississippi teenager has credited God for helping her find an elderly man who went missing for several hours. Katie Qualls, 17, was browsing through Facebook a few weeks ago when she stumbled upon a post notifying her local community that an old man with dementia had wandered away from his property.
The compassionate young girl was concerned for the old man’s wellbeing, not least because of the low temperatures outside. “I immediately went to my parents and was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to go to sleep until this person is found,’” Qualls told WLBT. “I was just thinking about if that was my grandfather or somebody. It just didn’t sit right with me.”
Knowing that she could draw upon her personal connection to the man’s grandchildren if she came across him, Katie threw on some warm clothes and headed out into the night. It wasn’t long before the entire community was out looking for the man. But while most of the search party headed off into the nearby wooded area, Qualls felt led to take a different route – heading towards a particular house.
“I walked around and I’m feeling like this is good,” she explained. “I hear something, I turn to my left and he’s laying (sic) on the floor on his side, backed up into the bushes. He blended in with the mulch, so you wouldn’t have seen him unless you actually walked into the bushes.”
The man was confused and kept telling Katie not to hurt him. She reassured him by talking about his son and grandkids.
“I was like, ‘I’m here to help you, I know your son, I know your grandkids,’” Qualls said. “I don’t know how I picked him up, but I picked his whole body up and carried him out.”
Katie alerted the authorities and the man was kept warm in the back of a police cruiser. Qualls stayed by his side the entire time, before reuniting him with his wife, who was incredibly grateful for the young woman’s determination to find her frail husband.
Once all had been taken care of and the man had been returned to his family, Qualls found herself reflecting on the whole ordeal as she lay in bed. The faith-filled youngster quickly realized that the whole thing had the handprint of God all over it.
“I realized it was just all God,” she declared. “He led me there. I truly believe He made that happen for a reason. With all the stuff that’s happened in my life recently, I feel like He has a plan for me, and I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s going to be helping people.”
Photo courtesy: Jake Melara/Unsplash
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