JellyPages.com

July 14, 2013

We were helping deliver wheelchairs this week.  The chairs are distributed by Food For The Poor which is where we went to pick up the chairs.  It was not the best day to do deliver wheelchairs because it was raining just like we were on a tropical Island. Tropical Storm Chantal  was just passing over us.  Mom said a prayer after we picked up Tracy and before we started off to get the chairs. We have been having a lot of rain this week.    She prayed that the weather would be tempered so we could deliver and fit these chairs.  We often have to do this outside, so we needed dry weather. When we got to FFP the rain stopped until we got our load tarped, and held off as we delivered each of the two chairs. It rained in-between when we were traveling to the next appointment we had scheduled to deliver that day.; but not while we were fitting the chairs to their recipients.
 Sister Lindo is 101 years old.  She was very alert when we were there.  I felt bad when she closed her eyes for the picture! Her grandson will take her to church in her new wheelchair.   She said she was glad to be able come to church.  You can see all of her house in this one picture. I stood in the doorway next to the wall. There are no pictures of the other lady who got a chair did not want her picture taken.  She didn’t want the neighbors to know that she had it.   She was shy.
 The next day we drove an hour and a half toward the East end of the Island to a little town called Seaforth.     To get to the next recipient we had to drive down a narrow road which turned into a narrow path too little for the truck.  Getting in was not too bad but backing out was hard.  Mom had to push the Zinc fences back so the mirrors on the truck would not get knocked off.
 The zinc on both sides of the path act as fences for the homes behind.  We have a small truck and this was very narrow.  We backed up to here so we could get out and walked down the lane to deliver the Chair to Henry.
 Henry the man receiving this chair has diabetes and had to have one leg amputated.  The other leg is also bad and the will have to be amputated after the first leg heals. You can see that his other ankle bone is not attached to the foot bones.
 This last little girl who received a wheelchair is only 7 years.  Shantae was so excited about her new wheelchair, now she could go outside and go back to school with her friends.  As you can see she had her leg operated on and will need several other operations before she is done.  We wish her the best and hope she keeps her terrific smile.
 
It is hard to see the people in such need. But we are so thankful for the church for providing these chairs to those who will truly benefit from them.  It is an invaluable program we get to be a part of.
We are so thankful for all that we are learning here.  It seems like just yesterday that we were home and yet our mission will be half over in the fall.  We are working hard and praying like never before.  Too bad we had to wait to appreciate the value of some lessons in life.  Lessons like depending on the Lord in Every Aspect of our lives…Prayer, we always had prayer in our home but now we DEPEND ON PRAYER to get through the days.  It leads guides and inspires our actions constantly.  We thought we were doing fine before, but now we have a deeper, more meaningful  understanding of the Power of Prayer.  We took for granted our life style.  We always thought we lived pretty simply…nothing extravagant or fancy; but living here we see how simple life can be and see the happiness the gospel brings to those who truly have very little by our standards in America.  Sweet is the Peace the Gospel Brings is something we see every day.    What a marvelous  growing experience a mission is!
The Lord lives and loves us as his children. He watches over us daily.  We just need to learn to listen more effectively, and act on those prompting quickly.  We love you all and pray for you …
Mom and Dad
Elder and Sister Murdock
P.S. We have learned that my sister Sally is very ill and in the hospital.  We want her to know that we love her, pray for her, and thank my brothers and their wives  in Kentucky who are watching over her.