The following story is from our Program Manager, Whitney Billen, who recently returned from a mission trip to Peru:

We had delivered nearly 300 wheelchairs in Peru in five days and seen so many wonderful transformations, but the very last wheelchair we gave away had a beautiful story to tell, that I will never forget. 

An earthquake hit the town of Pisco, Peru, on August 15th, 2007, killing over 600 people and leaving over 100,000 people displaced and out of a home.  Visente Sr. and his son Visente Jr. were two of those victims who were displaced during the earthquake. They were living in a tent outside their home, because their home was too dangerous to live in.  As our team approached Visente Jr., he began to clap and his contagious smile lifted all of us above the shambles that were surrounding us.

Visente Jr. is 24 years old and was born with a deformity that has left him unable to walk on his own.  He had a wheelchair as a child, but outgrew that several years prior and his father had been praying for a wheelchair ever since. The gratitude of this father and son humbled each of us, Visente Jr. continued to smile and laugh, and as Jim Franklin our Chairman of the Board at FWM pushed him along, he beamed with dignity and pride in his bright shiny new wheelchair.  His father cried tears of joy as we circled around them both and prayed for their family. They will be going to stay in one of the camps that our Distribution Partner, Camino de Vida, is setting up to assist the families that lost their homes. Visente Sr. is grateful that now he will be able to take his son to church and know that his prayers have been answered.