LEPROSY
Almost every age has had its social outcasts, people barred from normal society whether through physical illness or national origin. One person who stepped across these barriers in India was pioneer missionary Mary Reed. Already working in India, Mary visited a leper colony and was deeply moved by the people's plight. Later Mary contracted leprosy herself and went to work with the lepers, eager to tell them that she knew firsthand their pain and trauma. She became head of the leper colony she had visited, and in the years following many were saved and a church built. Mary retired at the age of eighty-four after many years of faithful service to these social outcasts.
Today in the Word, January, 1990, p. 24.
Once upon a time there was a man who was struck down in his early thirties who was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had a wife and young children and a promising career. Suddenly all of that was swept away from him. He could barely talk or walk. He was in constant agony. His friends and his family, except for his wife and mother, avoided him. The doctors shook their head. It was too bad. He was a nice man and deserved longer life. But there was nothing they could.
At last he went to a very famous doctor who offered to
operate on him, even though everyone else said the tumor was inoperable. The
doctor warned the patient and his wife that he could very well die during the
operation, though he (the doctor) was pretty sure that he would survive and
return to health. They decided that they should take the risk.
After nine hours of surgery, the doctor came into the
waiting room, grinned at the man’s wife and said, “Got it!” The man recovered
and went on to a happy and successful life. Twenty years later the surgeon
died. We should go to the wake, the patient’s wife said. I’d like to, her
husband replied. But it’s on the weekend and I have an important golf
tournament.
Andrew Greeley
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Does Everyone Do That?
The story is told of a farmer who went into town for a
little breakfast. As his meal was set before him, he bowed his head and offered
a silent prayer. The man at the next table derided him, "Hey, does
everybody do that where you come from?" "No," said the farmer.
"The pigs don't."
Frank Lyman