Sacred Ground/My Hero Part 2

While serving in the Texas San Antonio Mission, I had the opportunity to go to a meeting just for us missionaries with Elder Richard G. Scott. It was one of the most amazing meetings of my life. Not necessarily the most spiritual moment of the meeting, but a lesson that really stood out to me, was when he was talking about heroes. He said that we should all have heroes in our lives--people that we can look to as we are on our path towards being like Jesus Christ. None of us will be perfect in this life, but we should choose heroes to put in front of us on our path and as we try to emulate their Christlike attributes, we will grow closer to our ultimate goal.

I have had many different heroes throughout my life. Over the past few years, this one keeps coming back. Harry Mardy. It was only about six weeks before the earthquake that Harry was called to be the Bishop of the Petionville Ward. For those of you unfamiliar with the LDS church and this "calling", it is one of the most demanding jobs that you could be asked to do. We have no paid clergy in our church, so this is a completely volunteer position. Basically, you are asked to be the "father of the congregation". You have many jobs, not the least of which is to take care of the welfare of your flock and that includes all the people living within the assigned boundaries of your congregation, not just the members of the church. This is a difficult job anyway, but in Haiti it requires an extreme amount of faith, determination, and hard work.

When I expressed to Harry that I knew he would be a marvelous bishop, he responded, "Thank you so much for your support this is one of the calling I wished not to be nerver happen to me as you know you can't say NO."

Indeed he did not say no and when the world fell apart in Haiti on 12 January, hundreds if not thousands of people flocked to the Petionville church and looked to Harry to save them.As you can imagine, he has been extremely overwhelmed. His home (an orphanage where he lived with his wife and two children and cared for the orphans under his charge) had been damaged so he was living at the church with his family, the orphans, and hundreds of others who had lost their homes. When I received this short email from him (5 days post quake) confirming that he had been able to meet with a dr friend of mine, it made me cry:

"Hi Shannon ...I'm so glad I can buy the food for our kids and the needs.I feel very tired I need to laydonw. Thank you Shannon." I thought, if anybody needs to "laydown" right now and rest it would be Harry. But I'm afraid that did not happen. These photos were taken by the Deseret News. Here Harry is trying to hang up some tarps to provide additional shelter for all of the people on the church grounds.

When I think about Harry and how he had been called to this position and accepted such a short time before the quake, I think of the story of Esther. My sister, Nancy, reminded me of it and it reminded me of Harry.

Esther is a beautiful, young queen. She is also a Jew. The prophet Mordecai comes to her and explains that some crazy stuff has been going on and that a manifest has been made for all of the Jews to be killed. Mordecai asks Esther to go in and talk to the king to see if he can fix things. Esther tells him that she can't because there is a law that you cannot go in unto the king unless he calls you and he hasn't called for her in over 30 days. If you go in with out being called by him, he can kill you.

Mordecai says to her that she must do it, "...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

Esther then agrees. She asks Mordecai and all the Jews and her maidens to fast with her and says that she will do what has been asked of her and says, "and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16) Luckily the king accepts her into the court, listens to her, and the Jews are saved.

I wrote to Harry about this story and said, "The reason I share this with you is because I have no doubt that the Lord knew what was going to be happening in Haiti and that he called YOU to be bishop at “such a time as this” because he knew you were the one who could do the work He needed. You can be trusted by the Lord, just like Esther. Also, although the burden is on your shoulders, we share it with you. Like the Jews and all of Esther’s people, we fast with you and we pray with you. And we will do all that we can to help."

I forgot to mention that in addition to the burdens he has on his shoulders, Harry also lost his mother and sister in the earthquake, as well as the loss of friends and other extended family members. Yet a month later, Harry continues on, diligently, faithfully, determinedly, and with hope. The following is part of an email I received from him today: "Thank you so much my friend and sister... I have a need is tents, water filters blankets for my members and other people like the non-members they keep asking me thing because they know I'm a bishop that make me feel very bad because I can't effort to help them all....

Your friend and brother

With love Harry."

Did I happen to mention that he is probably the most humble person you could ever meet? I am so grateful for people like Harry. I have definitely placed the image of him in front of me as my hero. I have no doubt that as I try to become just a little bit more like Harry Mardy, I will grow closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.

The following are some photos that Deseret News took at the Petionville church:

I am so amazed at the resilience, hope, and beauty of these people. I don't want to help them because I want to do something good. I want to help them because I love them and I respect them and they AMAZE me. How do you go through what they've been through and still smile, joke, read your scriptures, help babies laugh, keep yourself clean, do your friend's hair, hug and encourage another? I don't know where these amazing spirits came from. But I'm sure it can't hurt that they are standing on sacred ground.