Okay, I know the church is true. That is completely irrelevant to what I want to say today. It’s just that there are certain moments in my life when I feel an overwhelming pride at being a part of my religion that has absolutely nothing to do with the doctrine that I love. Those opportunities have come quickly during the last, incredibly busy, week and I’d like to share a few of them.
It all began last Friday, one week ago. Around 9:30 I received a phone call from a friend in my ward. Her son had hit his head and needed stitches. I was pretty depressed when I heard because I knew we couldn’t help. Nate doesn’t have the supplies to do stitches at home. Surprisingly, she asked, “Can he do it if we can get the stuff?” Well, sure he could. I sent him over. My friend’s mom’s home teacher is a dentist. He brought over everything Nate needed to stitch the wound.
When Nate came home, I felt a surge of pride as I commented, “Isn’t it incredible? A couple of phone calls and they had a doctor and a dentist at their house.” It was only a precursor to what would come.
On Sunday, the youth and their leaders (including me) gathered at the young men's president’s house for a fireside on education. All the leaders hung out a few minutes after the youth had left, talking. The bishop suddenly announced that he was going home. I remember thinking that the bishop usually liked to chat a little more, but it wasn’t strange that he wanted to return to his wife.
A couple blocks away from the house, the bishop happened upon a horrible car accident that didn’t have any police or emergency responders yet. He stopped to help and soon discovered that it involved three of our young women, two of whom were unconscious. He called back to the house and asked for other priesthood leaders to come help give blessings.
The girls were sent to the hospital where Nate works. He was able to go in and help explain the situation to the parents. The bishopric went to the hospital as well. It’s amazing how quickly everyone stepped up. In addition to the little Nate could do, we had professionals from the church, in every area, offering their service. It wasn’t difficult to ensure that younger siblings had care while parents went to the hospital. Meals were delivered in the days after the crash. People who didn’t have a specific expertise that applied showed up in droves to visit the girls in the hospital. One of the parents told me that each visitor seemed to heal her daughter a little more, just by cheering her spirits. But, all of this is quite expected and didn’t seem that extraordinary.
What really impressed me happened when I dropped my kids off a friends house so I could go visit the girls. It had occurred to me that I wished Nate had already had the time to fix his dad’s old car. If he had, we would have an extra to give to the family that lost a car in the crash, until they could get something better. Just in casual conversation, my friend said she had told the family, when she was visiting earlier, that since her husband is in Afghanistan, she had an extra car they could use. I was so pleased to hear the problem had been addressed, but that wasn’t the whole story. My friend continued, “They don’t need it. Apparently, several other people have offered already. I did let them take one of my car seats, though.” Again, I felt that swell of pride. Several people had already offered cars? How often does that happen?
My final experience happened on Wednesday, the morning after the Haitian earthquake. I was looking through pictures of the devastation with my heart in my throat. In particular, I was bothered by one article that described the desperation of Americans trying to find out if their family members had survived. It occurred to me that we probably had missionaries serving in the area when the quake hit. I opened the church’s website and found this statement, “All missionaries serving in the country are safe, and we continue efforts to account for Church members in the area.” I found it incredible that they were able to make such a determination in a matter of hours.
Today, I read that the church, in addition to the supplies and financial support they have been sending, is sending teams of doctors to the area. I hope that someday Nate can be a part of such a team. I am so proud to be a member of this organization!
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