A Florida pastor says he is grateful to God even though doctors had to amputate his arm.
Pastor Nate Hille of The Bible Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., told a local Florida TV station that he was nearly killed when he fell from a step stool six months ago and scratched his elbow.
He was working at a second job in HVAC when he fell and suffered a cut on his arm that became more painful, according to reports.
“The whole thing happened very, very quickly,” the pastor’s wife, Cassie Hille, said. “He had a small fall at work, which led to a small cut on his elbow. And we didn’t know that it was anything serious.”
The small scratch turned into necrotizing fasciitis, a “rare bacterial infection that spreads quickly in the body and can cause death,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I ended up having to get my arm amputated,” Hille said. “And then, over the course of 19 days, had 12 surgeries, lost my scapula deltoid, muscle, minor pectoral muscle, lymph nodes, and just continued to have surgery, after surgery, after surgery.”
Hille, however, said he trusted in God’s plan for him.
“Who am I to question the Lord?” Hille told WTSP-TV. “He gave me an arm, and He took it away. That was just kind of our attitude towards this — that the Lord gives and He takes away, and we are to bless His name regardless of what transpires in your life.
“I got to talk to people about the Lord that I never would have gotten to talk to otherwise,” Hille added.
His wife Cassie also told reporters she had the chance to pray with strangers.
“Even in the tragedy of all of it, there has been so much good,” she said in an April interview. “And we have been able to share the Lord with people that we would have never met, you know, sitting in those waiting rooms, praying with families that maybe didn’t have hope.”
Hille recently preached at his home church, sharing that he was “thanking God for all He’s done” and “just for His mercy and grace.”
Photo Courtesy: ©Unsplash/Zach Durant
Video Courtesy: 10 Tampa Bay via YouTube
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
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