DIRECTOR'S DESK . . . . . . DWIGHT JARBOE

Twenty years ago this month my wife, Rena and I arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia to serve there with Wycliffe Bible Translators. My responsibility was to maintain a DC-3 that was a transportation and supply link for the mission's work in Northern Bolivia.

I'll never forget seeing a young man in a wheel chair as Rena and I went to the market one Saturday. His wheel chair was made from a rough sawn board just large enough to set on with ball bearing assemblies nailed to each corner. Evidently he had suffered some accident and had lost his legs from just above his knees. He sat on a cushion on his wheel chair and moved it by pushing on the pavement with his hands. I was amazed by his agility in the market crowds; especially since his wheels were for straight line rolling only.

I admired his courage and ingenuity and wondered what it would be like to live life at knee level. I also wondered how a normal wheel chair would change this young man's life and how such a chair could be made available.

As far as I recall I never saw him again, but he came to mind recently. Missionary Fights International president, Dick Snook, told me of a DC-3 flight to the Dominican Republic in which they carried 96 wheel chairs. Missionaries there would see that the chairs, donated by Wheels for the World, were received by people who needed them.

Dick also told us that the wheel chairs were used ones that were given to Wheels for the World and have been repaired to to like new condition. During the winter months a group of Iowa farmers get together and restore wheel chairs for this purpose.

I like being a part of this. By helping Missionary Flights with major maintenance on their planes we help them deliver wheel chairs in the name of Christ to people without enough resources to get one any other way. Many times as Christ's love is shown in these tangible ways, the good news of God's grace gains a hearing. That's what we want isn't it?

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." I Corinthians 12:4-6

FOTO FOR FUN

When it came to checking the rudder pedals, Chuck decided to use his head.

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