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Imagine this.

There’s a mother in a foreign country, doing her best to take care of her adult, autistic and disabled son.

She goes to the local Christian center, where she can get medical care and food. She turns around, and her son is gone. Nowhere to be seen. And many of those around her are speaking in a language she doesn’t understand.

This happened last week in Mocksville, and what happened next should make us all proud.

The woman – who did not speak English – was at A Storehouse for Jesus when her son walked off, just disappeared. They looked outside, and he was nowhere to be found.

A call to 911 was made.

As police and first responders arrived, almost immediately, this woman began to panic. She was worried because she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She wasn’t sure if they were there to look for her son or arrest them all.

An interpreter eased her nerves, and the best of Davie County went to work.

Those first responders – which included just about every emergency agency and fire department in the county – didn’t care about the woman’s issue with language. They had one thing on their minds: find her son, who with limited mental capacity, could be in danger.

They deployed drones. Officers started traffic stops, showing a photo to all passing motorists. They patrolled the streets around A Storehouse. They had off-road vehicles at the ready.

Yes, we should be proud of that emergency response. Remember, they will do the same for you and your family: stop their already busy lives to come and help. Some were paid, many were volunteers. They always seem to show up when the chips are down for someone.

It turns out that there are more reasons to be proud. Because of that influx of quick information about the missing man, most people in the surrounding neighborhoods knew what was going on.

And this disabled young man happened to walk by a house in a nearby subdivision that had a basketball goal in the drive. And a ball right underneath it. He liked balls, and stopped to play.

The resident went out, offered him a drink and someone to play ball with and talk to while his mother was summonsed. It couldn’t have worked out any better.

It reminds me of a song I heard “The Hot Mud Family” sing, written many years ago, that goes something like this:

“You don’t love God; if you don’t love your neighbor, if you gossip about him, if you never have mercy, if he gets into trouble and you don’t try to help him; well if you don’t love your neighbor, then you don’t love God.”

Thankfully, in Davie County, we love our neighbors. If you get into trouble here, someone will be there to help.

Thank God.

– Mike Barnhardt