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Pure Religion: And finally, new slippers
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August 25, 2001
The little grandmother, old beyond her years,
stood defiantly in
front of a crumbling shack that served as her home. She seemed sick and
weighted down with unspoken and perhaps unfathomable cares. Nine
barefoot and poorly dressed grandchildren stood by her side. The
oldest, a 19-year-old girl, cradled an infant on her hip.
"Who are you and what do
you want?" she asked.
Elder Doug Hansen and Sister Karen Hansen of Iona,
Idaho,
Humanitarian Service missionaries for the Church, approached her. They
had been visiting needy families in Voronezh, Russia, all day,
accompanying Mataska Svetlana, the wife of a Russian Orthodox priest —
a woman who worked tirelessly helping needy families in her area.
"These people are here to help," Mrs. Svetlana
told her.
Mataska Svetlana is known as the Mother Teresa of
Voronezh. As
economic conditions deteriorated and many Russians suffered from hunger
and cold, she organized groups to help. She feeds and clothes thousands
of people in Voronezh each year.
The Hansens were so impressed with the work she
was doing, they
submitted a request for a grant for $7,500 through Latter-day Saint
Charities that would help her organization. It was approved.
With that money, they purchases school supplies
for children who
had none, and blankets, sheets, pillows and mattress pads for those who
were cold at night. They bought soap and towels and light bulbs and
shoes. They bought sacks of food and 500 pairs of socks and tights, and
still had money left.
Their final visit was to this family who lived in
this little
shack. The mother had died leaving nine children. The father was
working away from home, trying to provide an income for his children.
So the children and grandmother were left to survive as best they could.
As the Hansens brought out sacks of food and
placed shoes on the
feet of all the children the grandmother began to weep. Finally, the
old, worn slippers were pulled away from the grandmother's feet and
replaced with new ones.
"It was one of those times," Sister Hansen later
wrote, "when you
truly feel that the Lord is well-pleased — even when it involves
something as insignificant as a new pair of slippers."
— Neil K. Newell, Welfare Services
Another in the series of "Pure Religion" showing the principles
of welfare service at work.
Illustration by John Clark.
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