A Day in the Life of Our Mission

We haven't done a day in the life for a while now, but today was a day worth noting.  This day was planned yesterday when we received a phone call that a sister from Linstead was in the hospital at Spanish Town and needed a wheelchair.  Okay, time to put our wheelchair assessment procedures into place.  Clearing the delivery of a wheelchair with Food for the Poor, we arranged to pick up Tracy Meddow, our wheelchair monitor and certified wheelchair fitter, to devote her day to assessing Beryl Barrett, our patient.  More about Tracy later, and enough of the background that leads to today, November 11, 2010.

8:30 a.m.:  We leave home to drive to Yallahs, 45 minute drive east of Kingston, to pick up Tracy.

Tracy and Beryl at the hospital.

9:30 a.m.:  Leave Yallahs for Spanish Town -- this is 45 minutes back to Kingston and 35 minutes further west to Spanish Town.  On this drive, we get a call from Susan Moore, Medical Director of Food for the Poor.  She told us that she had received a call from a doctor concerning Vernal McLeggin.  Vernal was measured for a wheelchair at our training, but we couldn't give him the chair because he had a pressure sore.  The doctor said that He was working with Vernal to heal his sores but that the chair Vernal currently had was causing the sores and so he was requesting that Vernal receive the new chair that would fit him properly so he could heal.  Okay we said, not a problem (of course we actually said, "no problem mon").  "Where does he live Susan?"  She thought it was MayPen, about an hour drive west of where we were.  "Can't help him today".
 
11:30 a.m.:  Arrive at Spanish Town Hospital and visit with Beryl.  She is a member with a strong testimony and told us about her conversion -- basically she saw the missionaries walking the streets of Bog Walk and asked them "Whamefo?"  Interpreted means what are you doing here?  They told her and she joined and is one of the few members who is endowed.  Right now, she suffers from endometrial cancer and her entire lower body is swollen, thus the need for a wheelchair.  Tracy proceeds to measure her so we can get the proper size.  The hospital bed she is sitting on isn't ideal to properly measure to determine the size of chair because it's soft and Tracy determines that a 20" wheelchair is needed-- that's a large one.

12:30 p.m.:  Pick up wheelchair from Food for the Poor.  As we drive to the back to pick up the chair, we see a man in a wheelchair who is getting a rough rider chair and as we stop to talk to him we find it is Vernal McLeggin, who actually lives in Spanish Town just 10 minutes from FFP.  He was on his way home with his new wheelchair; he was going to wheel it home from his wheelchair.  So we loaded him and his two chairs and drive him home.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  We were there at the right time in the right place.  Vernal told us that when he sat in the Rough Rider wheelchair, he was so excited and so at home.  He was very disappointed that he couldn't take it home last week.  His friend here told us that this chair was all he has been talking about.  Today, he has his chair and he is thrilled!  "It is the first time I have sat in a chair and felt at home and comfortable in."

Vernal and his new rough rider.  This is in front of his home. He runs the internet cafe shown just behind him.

Lunch at Angel's Pizza Hut and then to Spanish Town Chapel to pick up some hygiene kits to surprise the staff at Spanish Town Hospital. 

2:00 p.m.:  We arrive at the chapel.  Elder and Sister Herbert and the full-time elders are there.  We visit and load the car --oh, just for good measure we throw in 3 boxes of newborn kits.  Now, back to the hospital to deliver the wheelchair.  We arrive, load the hygiene kits into the wheelchair (hey, we don't want to strain our backs) and push them to the ward.  The nurse of the ward sees us and smiles from ear to ear -- the social worker sees us and says are you the Humanitarian Missionaries?  We have been calling the Preeces for months now.  We have 4 babies on the floor and need diapers.  Do you have any?  Well, let's see, we have those 3 boxes of newborn kits in the car and a few other items.  Go figure -- were we in the right frame of mind or what?  Tracy sits Beryl in the wheelchair and you know what, the chair was too big -- she really needed an 18".  Okay, now what.  As Tracy and I are deciding what to do, Beryl asks me where Elder was; I say he will be here shortly (he was down getting newborn kits).  Then she asks if he would give her a blessing.  Remember the Herberts and full-time missionaries?  Yup, we call them and they tell us they will go get some oil and be there in 15 minutes.  We can't wait until they get here because we have to go back to FFP and get an 18" wheelchair before their warehouse closes

The new wheelchair.

3:30 p.m.:  We arrive back at Food for the Poor, they help us exchange the wheelchair.  We go back to the hospital.  Fit the chair; leave Spanish Town.  The Herberts have just left, the blessing went well.  It all just works out and you know why, because the Lord is in charge and is concerned about each of us individually.

We now drive back to Yallahs, drop off Tracy and then home to Kingston.  Arrive home around 7:00 p.m.

About Tracy.  You may remember the plane crash in Jamaica in December of last year.  She was the missionary returning from Atlanta, Georgia who was on the flight. You may have read her story in the Church News. We heard all the details; learned a lot of her life; saw her magnificent testimony.  That was the best part of the day.  There are days when you are around special people that just make the day a marvelous experience.  Today was such a day.

The best comment of the day was Theron on the way home -- "I can't wait to get back to Utah so I can drive on roads that aren't an obstacle course."  He spends all day looking at the road, dodging potholes dodging cars, and dodging people walking on the road.  It is an obstacle course.  I don't mind; I'm in the passenger seat.

Just a normal traffic day.  Anything goes.