Last month, I helped at a fantastic event in my church. We hosted the Life Exhibition, which was all about the life of Jesus. It was split into 3 parts: the prophecies of Jesus, what Jesus said and what Jesus did. I was in charge of what Jesus said. I talked about his parables primarily, and always focused on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I would ask the kids, what would you do if you were walking down the street and only one other person was there and they were walking towards you. That person is your best friend. If they tripped and fell, would you help them up? After saying they’d laugh first, most of them helped their best friend up.

Then I asked, if the same thing happened, but instead of your best friend, it was someone you really didn’t like, would you help them up then? Almost all the kids said yes, but I think they may have been telling me what they thought I wanted to hear. The truth is, if you see a stranger fall, or someone you don’t like, you probably won’t help them up. Especially a stranger, we live in such a cynical world, we believe that maybe something bad will happen to us if we stop. We do take on the attitude of the priest or the Levite in the story.

This week whilst at work, a customer had a panic attack in a screen (I work at a cinema). Another customer came out and told myself and my colleague that there was a man in the screen who needed a doctor. We called a manager and I went into the screen with the customer. My 2 managers were there, two members of staff who were watching the film as customers and the customer who had alerted me were round the man involved, so I stayed back, there if anyone needed me.

This customer, who had alerted us to the situation, then helped this man down the stairs and into our office hallway (a quiet area). This customer had not arrived with the man having the panic attack, he had just witnessed what had happened. Our manager asked if he was ok to return to the film, but instead he asked the man who had suffered if he was ok, and he would only return if he felt it was ok. Our manager asked him to talk to a member of staff when his film finished.

My manager was going to offer this Good Samaritan free tickets. But this man wanted nothing in return for his good deed. I saw him slip quietly out of the building. He missed 20 minutes of his film to help a stranger, wouldn’t leave the strangers side until he was sure he was ok. He was a quiet hero, an unsung hero. I can only hope and pray if something like that ever happened to me, that a Good Samaritan would be there to ensure my safety, and I can only hope and pray that I would be the Good Samaritan for someone else in that position.