Another enjoyable week has flown by. We have settled into such a routine that it's hard to report on anything that seems note worthy.
It was load-out week at the Food Bank again, and we love working with the good people there. I overheard Will, the manager, explain to a new volunteer, "It's not everyday that a Catholic, a Baptist, a Muslim and a Mormon hold hands and pray together, but it happens here all the time! This is a faith-based organization."
We love hearing the prayers of gratitude from the Deacons, Pastors, Ministers, etc. who come to collect food for the needy people in their areas. Their prayers are from the heart. Every once in a while, they ask us to pray. I wish they all wanted to know more about our beliefs. We have so much to offer!
We have grown to love Billy, a faithful volunteer at the Food Bank. He was born in 1925, the same year Rod's dad was born, and is 93 years old. His 94th birthday will be in November.
We were blessed to be assigned to a "pick team" with Billy this week. Billy insisted he and Rod would load the cart and that I was to push it. Some of those cases of bottled drinks and frozen food are very heavy, but that didn't slow Billy down. He kept right up with Rod. I heard Billy joke later, "When I get old, then I think I'll start slowing down. :)
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| Billy and Elder Merrell on break at the MidWest Food Bank |
Billy always has a story to tell. Listening to him brings history to life.
He remembers the moment he heard that Pearl Harbor was under attack. He said he was playing a touch football game with his friends out in a field in Milledgeville, Georgia when a young boy came running with the news that Pearl was really getting beat up bad. The boys asked, "Who is Pearl?" The boy said, "I don't know, but my Daddy is really upset!"
Billy joined the army at age 17. He was transferred from base to base for various kinds of training to become a navigator in the army air-corp. On one occasion he found himself in SLC hitch-hiking home to Georgia. He said he had three eye-opening revelations on that trip home.
One, he couldn't buy cigarettes in Utah until he was 21 years old.
Two, the family that picked him up were "Mormons" who had a son on a mission in Georgia. He couldn't believe that there were missionaries in Georgia because his church sent missionaries out from Georgia, so why would Georgia need any missionaries.
Three, in a town square somewhere in the midwest he saw a civil war statue of a Union soldier and since Sherman's army had burned his hometown of Milledgeville, GA, he was quite upset that anyone would erect a statue to a Yankee soldier.
Billy's great-aunt told him stories of the civil war. She told him about when she was 6 years old and stood on the porch next to her mother. Her 4-year-old sister stood on her mother's other side and her mother held her 2-year-old sister in her arms. They all stood together and watched as the union soldiers took all the food from their home and tromped their crops and garden with their horses. It was November.
Billy also said to Rod, "I think I can talk religion to you."
Rod, "Sure you can, Billy!"
Billy told him, "I have a copy of your Book of Mormon, I've even read part of it, but I still don't believe it."
Rod told him, "Keep reading, Billy, keep reading!"
Billy just smiled.
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| Our Wednesday Pick Team Back: An Agency Rep, Billy Sister Merrell, Pam, and an Agency Rep |
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| Wednesday Loading Team Elders Crook (Star Valley) Inskeep (Blackfoot) Sisters Hart and Nebeker and two more volunteers |
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| Thursday Pick Team Janet (retired airline stewardess) Agency Reps, Elder and Sister Merrell and Nadine (retired nurse) |
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| Thursday Loading Team Sisters Nebeker, Williams, Toole, and Hart |
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| Thursday Loading Team Sisters Nebeker, Williams, Toole, and Hart (Sister Hart would like to be taller) |
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