"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his kidney for a stranger.” Perhaps this translation of John 15:13 is more of a circumstantial paraphrase, but to Mark Ferrell, 34, it gets right to the heart of Christ’s lesson.

Ferrell, a Life Flight nurse at Stanford University Hospital and lay pastor at the Redwood City Church, met John Ang, 36, at the Central California Conference annual pastors’ retreat at Leoni Meadows in January 2002. There, the Malaysia-born Ang, pastor of the Los Altos Chinese Church, shared a painful story about his failing kidneys and his fear of leaving behind a beautiful wife and two small children.

Touched by the story, Ferrell began to pray. During the following weeks, he agonized about the consequences of donating a kidney to a man he barely knew. What if one of his own siblings someday needed the organ he’d given away?

After much prayer and a conversation with his sister, a nurse at a dialysis center, Ferrell decided to offer one of his kidneys to Ang. “I guess it’s drilled into my head, I don’t need to know someone to help them,” says Ferrell. “For years I’ve risked more than a kidney to help people I don’t know.”

After all, he remembered 1 John 3, “If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear” (The Message).

When his phone rang that afternoon in March, Ang was cautious. Health problems had prevented two of his siblings from donating, and a pastor’s wife who had offered later decided the procedure was too frightening to continue.

After a battery of tests revealed they both had O-positive blood and that they were in all respects a good match, the surgery date was set for Sept. 18, 2002, and Ang moved forward with renewed hope. “My biggest fear was my tolerance for pain,” Ang says. “I’m afraid of needles!”

The Stanford surgeon, Dr. Stephan Busque, performed the transplant. For Ferrell, it was a minimally invasive laparoscopic procedure. “We were able to take the kidney out of his body using very small incisions,” says Busque. The organ was immediately implanted into Ang. The kidney began working within minutes, and Ferrell was released from the hospital two days later.

Both Ferrell and Ang have recovered well from their surgeries, and the experience has created a bond of friendship between the two that cannot be broken. “I see him as my brother,” Ferrell says. “I gave away something that I knew he would love and take care of and be most grateful for, and always take his anti-rejection medicine, and I have not suffered any major effects (it's not like I gave an arm or leg or eyeball that I would always miss!). But when you look at Jesus, He gave His life to somebody like me who doesn't quite get the impact of the sacrifice of the gift, and I don't treat it well, and I sometimes don't take my anti-rejection medicine (the Bible), so I go into rejection and have to come back and get another heart transplant. I've learned a lot more about Jesus through this whole thing!”

Ang says the whole experience has better equipped him to minister to people with health problems and taught him to trust his faith. “I know Mark went through a lot,” says Ang. “I feel like we’re bonded now. I learned about the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people, and that God can work wonders beyond our expectations. I want to use this borrowed time to serve God more.”

Perhaps 2 Corinthians 9:10-14 explains Ang and Ferrell’s story best: “This most generous God … gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God. ... You show your gratitude [to God] through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need.”