SAVANNAH, Ga.--Pastor Alfred Banks of the Daniel Baptist Church is donating a kidney to a long-time friend and church member who was diagnosed with a serious kidney problem. According to a report from WTOC television, Banks considers it a gift from God.

"Since God had given me two [kidneys] and both of them belonged to God anyway, I would just let him borrow one from God for a while," he said.

Ken Biber will get his new kidney from Pastor Banks at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

The ties of friendship between Biber, a Sunday school teacher, and Pastor Banks became even stronger after Biber was diagnosed with serious kidney problems last fall.

"Tests showed that there was no hope for my kidneys," Biber told WTOC. "They don't get better. Kidneys just don't get better."

So, for the past several months, Biber has been spending his days at the Coastal Dialysis Center. "That dialysis machine saves my life. Three times a week," he said.

In January, Biber joined more than 60,000 kidney transplant candidates on the national waiting list. Most people have to wait one to two years for their transplant. But for Biber, all that was about to change when his pastor decided to become a living donor.

After extensive medical tests, the two men learned they were a match. "It's a miracle," said Biber. "It really is a miracle and I thank God that we have the knowledge to take a part from a human being and put this part over here and have two whole human beings. That's an incredible thing."

"My body belongs to God, according to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, every bit of me, body and spirit," said Pastor Banks. "I'm just glad Ken's going to get a part of it. I can laugh at him now and tell him, we're really brothers."

"I never imagined any other human being stepping forward and saying, 'here's life,'" Biber said.