The Right Place
Dear Readers,
No, we are not out in the mission field again. Believe it or not we have been home from Ghana for 11 months. I know, where has the time gone? We have been busy but still cherish the people that we met in Ghana and still hear from some of them occasionally. I think that you might be interested in the correspondence that we had yesterday from Wisdom, now Elder Oforikumah, serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints in Cape Coast Ghana. Wisdom, you may remember, was the young man that had the club foot that adopted Barry as a surrogate father. We helped him with his studies so that he could prepare for his final exams and got him his first real shoes and first pair of socks.
I posted about Wisdom in this blog on Sunday, April 12th, 2015. You can refer to that if you wish.
Anyway, Wisdom did get a mission call to the Ghana Cape Coast Mission. He has been serving there for several months now. Missionary work is not easy. There is a lot of walking and many hours of it. There is one partial day for rest, usually Mondays. But that is also a shopping day and a wash day, think two buckets, not a washing machine, and a letter writing/email day. We have been corresponding with Wisdom on many of these Mondays. The following is his email from yesterday, March 6th, 2017:
hello, i am doing great and my week was great too, we had two of our investigators that were at church and it was wonderful.
I met Elder Warner and he is the Assistance now.
I am suffering a lot of the leg and i can not stay in the apartment too not even 2hours but i continue doing his work, but
Please the is some miracle that is happening to me now i cant even explain the full of it, we just find out that they can fix the leg and the Surgery will take place on Wednesday and i will stay at the mission home for three month and i will go home.
Elder Warner, one of the Assistants to the Mission President, is from Gilbert, AZ. He grew up in our daughter Kristen's ward before she moved to Texas. We were at the Ghana MTC when he arrived in Ghana to serve his mission also in Cape Coast. Yes, the world is getting smaller. I contacted the Warners and this was the response that I received from Elder Warner yesterday:
wow!! this literally all happened today...this morning our mission president drove him (Wisdom)out of the mission to meet with two foot surgeons in a city! they are doing something here for people....all things are free! they are members! soooo they assured him that they could fix his foot! sooooooo this Wednesday is his surgery! they will be snapping and stretching his Achilles tendon. breaking almost every bone in his foot, and putting in many plates and screws...all fo
r free! it's crazy! he was getting close to being released because its sooo painful everyday! and all of a sudden this opportunity came up! sooo our president hopped on it! its an answer to a lot of prayers! i'm so happy for the guy! it will be a long recovery! he will be in our apartment for three months and cant leave....he will receive new companion every week! we are in charge of it and have to choose who to be his companion. soooo its gonna be a crazy 3 months.
As I was messaging Elder Warner's dad he (Elder Warner) and his mother were emailing at the same time so I was grateful to get this quick and informative text message from him. He took the time to let me know about someone I care about. The world is small, technology is unbelievable but this was the hand of the Lord. We met Wisdom, he persevered until he was able to go to serve a mission, he worked through pain and suffering while serving and now he has been connected with knowledgeable doctors that give of their time and talents. It won't be easy for Wisdom but with our thoughts and prayers he will make it. It's been 20 years of pain and he has pushed through. He will again. The fates aligned so that he was in the Right Place but it was truly the Hand of the Lord. Our Savior knows each one of us personally.
If you have a few extra minutes tomorrow will you say a prayer for Wisdom? I know that it will be appreciated. Thanks, I'll keep you posted.
