Indiana pastor donates kidney to parishioner

PORTAGE, Ind. - Kelly Van Vleet was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease in 2019 and her quality of life quickly unraveled.  

"I had a catheter in my stomach where I would connect to the machine every night for about 7 hours," Van Vleet said.   

She was so desperate to find a kidney donor, she printed up thousands of prayer cards that her teenage son, Jacob, took with him to a summer youth conference, led by her Pastor, Sam Marasco. 

"Before each service, Jacob took those cards," Sam said tearing up, "And he was putting them in the pews at the youth conference to get the awareness out for his mom's need for a kidney.  

"I just saw a young boy that cared so much about his mom to get the awareness out about her," he said.  

Sam and the congregation at Portage's Life Point Baptist Church had been praying for Kelly for more than a year when he experienced a divine intervention.   

"I thought, ‘ah somebody else will do it.’ Somebody will jump to the opportunity. But then, I think, ‘God wants me to do this,’" Sam said.  

The decision had been made. Last November, the two traveled to an Indianapolis hospital to give and receive.  

"I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity," said Sam.  He is now preaching that maybe God gave us two kidneys so we could give one away.   

Kelly says she is forever grateful for the gift. 

"I don't think there's words in the English language that can explain how grateful I am for somebody like Sam."