Children can be delightfully simple as my wife discovered when she challenged her nursery class to build a bird's nest. They failed, miserably, but young Ffion understood why: "We're not birds Miss" she explained.

Ffion was right. We shouldn't waste time wishing we were like others. We should focus on the things that we are capable of doing for we all possess a unique combination of experience, personality and God-given abilities. And if we took that seriously we could make such a difference.

Daniel Subanovic's story illustrates this truth perfectly. Daniel lives in Croatia and was born with a rare skin condition that imprisoned his hands in a sheath of skin. My friend John met Daniel in the early 1996. Daniel, who saw his mother shot dead when he was eight, was desperately unhappy, and John was deeply moved by the pain he saw in his eyes.

Following his return to Britain, John found a surgeon who specialised in skin diseases who operated on Daniel free of charge. Daniel now uses computers regularly and is living a full and active life. And all this happened because one man prayed, and then decided to do everything he could to help someone less fortunate than himself.

But God used more than John. He used a variety of quieter, often less prominent people who lovingly responded when they heard of Daniel's dire need. Alex Ferguson sent him some Manchester United souvenirs and three of the players' wives helped fund his flight. In addition scores of anonymous Christians throughout South Wales responded with gifts that enabled Daniel, another family member and his doctor to fly to the UK.

But someone else played a very quiet yet significant role too. I only became aware of his crucial contribution when I attended his funeral. Morton Davies rarely enjoyed good health but he possessed a strong Christian faith and was always eager to help others. Morton won the admiration of all who cared for him, and consequently consultants, even those here in West Wales, often asked him to visit their patients.

I now know that John turned to Morton for help, wondering if he knew anyone who might be able to assist Daniel. Three week's later a surgeon from St Thomas's hospital London called John and said: "I've got Daniel's notes. If you can get him to me I've got a slot in my operating schedule."

Daniel's operation would never have taken place but for Morton, but both John and Morton were simply links in a much longer chain of compassion that brought hope and healing to a traumatised and desperately needy young boy.

They also discovered that doing it proved infinitely more satisfying than building a bird's nest.

Rob James is Pastor of Westgate Evangelical Chapel Pembroke and can be contacted at [email protected]">[email protected]