The Goodness of God

Ryan Simms said the tugging feeling that he woke up to one Saturday morning last December was as real as if someone had been pulling on his shirt.

“I felt all day long there was just this odd pull—it wasn’t a voice, it was just kind of a pull—to donate,” he said. “It was there…morning, noon, and night.”

Ryan’s wife, Jaime, encouraged him to pray about it. He thought maybe God was telling him to give to a special collection, perhaps at church the next day, but there was no collection and the tugging remained.

When Ryan arrived to work at the Ford truck assembly plant in Louisville on Monday morning, he asked Leo Mejias, almost in passing, about his weekend. Despite not knowing Ryan well, Leo answered honestly, saying it wasn’t very good. He shared that his kidneys had been failing for years and at just 14% functionality, if he didn’t get a new one soon, he would need dialysis.

So, continuing to feel that same pull, Ryan that night prayed, “God, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I feel that this is important. Whatever this is, whatever is going on, just please, please give it to me to where I can’t mess this up.”

The next day, as his shift ended and Ryan and 3,000 other workers dashed to their vehicles, something stopped him in his tracks.

“I look over and there’s a bumper sticker that reads, ‘You don’t have to be dead to be an organ donor—Donate now,’” he said. “The hair on my arms stood straight up.”

In an instant, Ryan knew God had given him the answer he had prayed for. He knew he was supposed to donate one of his kidneys to Leo.

Jaime that evening told him to be sure before saying anything to Leo, but Ryan had no doubt that this was what he was being led by God to do.

“At this point, there was no holding me back. This is what He put in front of me,” he said.

“I look over and there’s a bumper sticker that reads, ‘You don’t have to be dead to be an organ donor—Donate now.’ The hair on my arms stood straight up.”

Leo lit up the next day when told by Ryan that he felt God calling him to see if he was a match to be a donor. Despite both men being in their mid-40s, it wasn’t certain they would be compatible, especially since Ryan grew up in Kentucky and Leo is originally from Cuba. Still, Leo was touched that someone, let alone someone who was at best an acquaintance, would be willing to make such a personal sacrifice.

“It is hard to express everything I felt when he told me, from disbelief to, ‘Wow! Thank you, Lord!’” Leo said.

While Ryan had no doubts, Jaime remained concerned, asking her husband, “You’re giving up a part of you. Are you sure?”

“In my head I was trying to understand it,” she said. “What a wonderful thing he wanted to do but also scary. That is a major surgery, and the worry was out of love and concern for my husband. I wanted him to be sure and understand what that meant for the rest of his life. There would be things he would have to modify with one kidney.”

Knowing that she needed assurance that Ryan would be okay, God worked ahead. On the same day that Ryan talked to Leo, Jaime went to a girls’ night at the home of the couple’s pastor’s wife, where a guest spoke about the benefits of alternative household cleaners and supplements. As she concluded, she mentioned that her full-time job was as a donation coordinator who contracts with hospitals to educate donors and recipients on life after transplant.

“I couldn’t help to get cold chills. I knew at that moment this was not a coincidence,” Jaime said. “God was moving, and He had me there to hear her speak so I could be educated and take care of Ryan. At that point I got it!”

From there, the process was relatively quick, though intense. Ryan underwent several medical tests on multiple days, including an all-day session at the UK Transplant Center, not only to determine if he and Leo were compatible, but to make sure he was healthy enough to live with a single kidney. He remembers the exact moment when he received the call a few weeks later informing him that he was a perfect match.

“I cried big boy tears like no tomorrow,” he said.

Ryan immediately called Leo to share the good news. He said Leo was in the parent pickup line at his son’s school and, hearing the ding of his truck door opening, joked there is a chance that Leo, so overwhelmed with joy, got out and danced.

“We shared a good moment right then and (have) shared many good moments since,” he said.

‍It was just a few weeks later, on the morning of February 27, that Ryan and Leo met at the UK Transplant Center for their surgery. They thought about driving together, but Ryan needed to be there a couple of hours before Leo. At Jaime’s suggestion, however, they wore identical shirts for a photo to commemorate the day.

Ryan went into surgery first so his left kidney could be removed and prepped for Leo. The procedure took about 4 ½ hours. As the transplant recipient, Leo’s surgery was a bit more complex and lasted six hours. When he woke up, he had a new lease on life.

“When they reattach a kidney, most of the time it takes hours, sometimes it takes days before that kidney starts producing urine. It started immediately,” Ryan said, adding the surgeon had “never seen a more perfect, flawless surgery.”

Ryan was in the hospital three days, while Leo was in five. Whereas Ryan’s first 18 hours post-surgery were miserable, Leo was standing up, singing praises to the Lord in both Spanish and English, and had to be cautioned to be careful not to bust his stitches.

“He probably hasn’t felt good in years because of his slow kidney decline. He probably doesn’t know what feeling good is,” Ryan thought to himself. Despite his own misery, he couldn’t help but smile knowing how good Leo was feeling. “If I can’t feel this way for 18 hours, then I probably need to pick my lip up off the ground.”

Although he has been hospitalized a few times because of infections, Leo’s body has been accepting of his new kidney and he feels—and looks—like a new man. No longer retaining fluids, he lost 30 pounds within just a few months of the surgery.

“My energy is up. I am walking four to five miles a day.…I am enjoying every minute of every day,” Leo said.

‍The experience—and how God worked every step of the way—has provided Ryan an opportunity to share his faith. While he grew up in the Catholic church, he didn’t really start reading the Bible on his own until he and Jaime began attending Southeast a few years ago. Because of that, he isn’t always confident sharing Scripture.

“We are supposed to be evangelical, but I don’t know Scripture enough to try to engage somebody.…Well, this is my angle to be evangelical, share my story,” he said.

And share he does.

“If I catch a guy at a red light long enough, I’m going to tell him my story,” he joked.

No matter how many times he shares it, Ryan is still overcome by emotion, noting, “I’ve told it 95 times. I’ve cried all 95 times.”

“It’s been so wonderful watching my husband go through this and him so passionately sharing with others,” Jaime said. “He’s so excited to share what the Lord did in his life, and I think it’s so unique because it took him being obedient to something scary that many people might have not followed through with. It’s inspired me, for sure.”

Part of the emotion Ryan feels when sharing his story is simply being overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of God and how He spoke to Ryan, while part of it is the incredible bond that he and Leo—and their families—have formed.

“If I catch a guy at a red light long enough, I’m going to tell him my story.”

One particularly sweet moment came before the surgery when Leo and his wife, Yadira, invited Ryan and Jaime to a Cuban restaurant. During dinner, Leo told his 12-year-old son, Sebastian, that he was sick, but quickly added that he was going to be okay because Ryan was giving him a kidney.

“That kid hugged me like I’ve never been hugged before,” Ryan said.

Leo knows that God orchestrated his healing, using Ryan and Jaime as “mighty tools so that He could work on me as a potter works on a vessel.” Like Ryan, he shares his story every chance he gets.

Forever linked because of the transplant, Ryan and Leo have only grown closer since their surgery. Leo called Ryan every day during his recovery to check in and recently came with Ryan and Jaime to Southeast’s Nelson County Campus, where the couple worships. The church had been praying for Leo and welcomed the opportunity to celebrate with him.

“I have to say that forever his family will be my family,” Leo said.‍

From the tugging feeling that he woke up to last December to the donor awareness bumper sticker he saw when leaving work to donating his kidney to Leo and the lifelong relationship that has come from that, Ryan said his and Leo’s story ultimately is a story about the goodness of God.

“God is going to work everything to His glory,” he said. “He is faithful.”

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