I want to tell you a story that has had great import in our lives and fills us with wonder and joy.
When we first came on our mission, one of the temple missionaries pointed out a Chinese man in the Hung Hom MTR Station (subway), saying that it didn't matter what time of the day and night, he was always there. I have to admit that I found it a little troubling because he looked unkempt and strange. One day he was gone and we presumed they must have turned him out. But then we saw him walking slowly on the promenade, hunched over and looking at the ground, pulling his little cart with what appeared to be all of his belongings. We saw him at random times and always he looked the same, not engaging anyone, seemingly lost in his own solemn world, shuffling slowly along without happiness or purpose.
One day, on an impulse, I leaned into him as he walked past and said good morning in Cantonese. He looked up, startled and confused, and didn't really know what to do. I nodded to him and smiled and then we went our separate ways. Every time we saw him after that, we would greet him and then we noticed a change. He no longer walked bent over, and his eyes now looked forward, scanning the distance. This has been going on for a year and a half and our mutual greetings are now bright and happy. When he sees us, he waves vigorously and we all smile broadly as we approach each other. We cannot talk to one another at all except to say good morning in Cantonese but it doesn't matter. This man has become transformed because of love. And so have we. Our hearts are filled with joy every single time we see him. We love this man. And he loves us. We can see it in his eyes.
During the Christmas season, Church Public Affairs spearheaded a service project in Hong Kong making 2000 fleece blankets for the elderly and others in need. We were all involved in cutting, fringing, and packaging the blankets. Arrangements were made with a variety of local organizations to distribute them. Dave had the presence of mind to grab a blanket for our little homeless man. Of course, we never know when we will see him but Elder Macbeth kept it with him and just before the really cold weather struck, we were able to give our friend more than a smile--we were able to give him a blanket too and a brief message about Christ that was also in the bag. What joy filled our hearts!
And so it continued, month after month. The little man's cart had been in constant motion throughout most of our mission. Elder Macbeth observed that the wheels and frame were wearing out and that tape was holding it together. It didn't appear that it could last much longer ... and then what would he do? My beloved husband took it upon himself to find a sturdy, durable hand truck to replace the failing handcart. I thought it was a great idea but couldn't imagine how we would be able to make it happen. After all, we didn't ever know when we would see this man and it didn't seem reasonable to haul the hand truck everywhere we went. Dave just said that it would work out.
And so it did. We saw our homeless friend one day as we were almost at the ferry. Dave tried to tell him that we would meet him the next day at 10:00 a.m. by the clock tower but, of course, he couldn't understand. I started asking numerous people around us if they spoke English and finally found a man who was willing to translate for us. We told him what to tell the homeless man but we weren't really sure that he or our homeless friend understood what we wanted him to do. We had to just hope he understood.
The next morning Dave got the cart ready with zip ties and bungee cords to assist in changing out his old cart. We took the shuttle from the complex where we live and as we approached Tsim Sha Tsui about 9:40 a.m., Dave indicated to me that if our friend wasn't at the clock tower at 10:00 that he would begin searching for him beginning at the Art Museum plaza. He gestured with his hand and I naturally looked out the window ... only to see our homeless man walking in the opposite direction from where we were going to meet him. I just can't believe that it was coincidence that right when I looked out the window, I saw our friend! We would never have found him otherwise. And, that day of all days, the shuttle didn't stop at the regular stop but stopped short of the normal location by a couple of blocks - which put us closer to our homeless man. We took off like crazy and the first light was green. Everything was working in our favor.
We finally caught up with him and Dave pantomimed that he was giving him the hand truck. The man looked happy but we weren't totally sure he really understood. Dave showed him the zip ties and he put them in his little cart. I found someone who, once again, could interpret but we don't think our friend understood until Dave showed him how the handle extended, then lifted up the old cart and placed it right on the base of the new hand truck. Dave tipped the hand truck with the old loaded cart on top of it - and then the man really smiled!! I took a photo as he walked away, pulling the cart on the hand truck. I expressed surprise to Dave that he didn't help transfer the belongings from the one cart to the new one but he said that he was sure the little man would figure it out and that he needed to do it himself. (I snapped the accompanying photos as all of this took place.)
Three days later, we saw our homeless friend again as we walked on the promenade to work. He proudly showed us how he had transferred everything over to the new hand truck (the old cart was gone) and "made it his own". And then ... HE LAUGHED RIGHT OUT LOUD.
We hope to do one last thing for him before we leave our mission in four weeks. We want to give this dear man a Book of Mormon and pamphlets about "The Plan of Salvation", and "Jesus Christ", and "The Restoration" written in Chinese. (We know he can read because we saw him reading a newspaper one day that he pulled out of the garbage.) We will have one of our Chinese staff write our testimony in Chinese characters and we will tell this man in words and not just facial expression how much we care about him. It is because we love him that we want him to have the greatest gift of all -- the gospel. We have not been able to figure out a way to have the young missionaries who speak Cantonese talk to him since we never know where he will be. That would be the best of all but we do know that God loves this man, that He has allowed us to play a small part in his life, and that He will continue to have an influence in this man's life. We trust him to God as we have to do with so many that we have grown to love.
