New Zealanders Rick and Diane Wood are serving as senior missionaries with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Ghana, Africa.
Through their missionary service they have gained the love and gratitude of a family who desperately needed their help.
The retired couple—known during their 18 month-long missions as “Elder and Sister Wood”—are assigned to serve in a rural community about six hours north of Accra in the Ghana Kumasi Mission.
In April of 2016 they met the Ayala family. Through the ensuing friendship, they have significantly blessed this humble family.
Elder and Sister Wood learned about the family’s story when they visited Sister Lucy with the missionaries, Sister Nafuna and Sister Peprah who were concerned about the Ayala family. Through Sister Peprah, who speaks Twi, they were told the family story.
Lucy, is dedicated, sacrificing, and hard-working. “She was the only member of the Church and was baptised in 2015, and loves her family and the Lord,” Elder Wood said.
Lucy has seven children. Eric, who is the eldest child, is 20. Queen Elizabeth, 17 (actual name), Linda 14, Eugene 10, Kate 8, Josephine 3, and Emmanuel five months.
The father is a hardworking man six days a week at a hospital where he does maintenance work. He earns about three cedi’s an hour. A loaf of cheap bread is four cedi’s and a bag of rice is 33 cedis. His wages are far below providing a level of income for his family to provide them with the necessities of life.
On Sundays he works on a small plot of land, about fifteen kilometres from their home, planting black eye peas and yam. He later harvests the crops. When the vegetables are ready for picking, all the children, with the exception of Eric, move to the farm and labour there.
In 2008, Lucy and her son Eric, who then was 12, were standing at the side of the road when they were hit by a passing car. Lucy’s leg was seriously injured, and because it was not properly set after the accident, the leg is deformed and she suffers from constant pain and is unable to walk for any great distance.
Eric suffered severe spinal injuries from the tragic accident and is a paraplegic.
Along with their mother, the children help provide personal care for Eric. They also support their mother in other ways—sacrificing an education in the process of doing so. Like many families in Ghana, the children do not attend school because they have no money for books or uniforms.
In addition, for many months the family has not attended church services because of their humble circumstances and Eric’s physical challenges. “But,” Sister Wood says, “Their faith and testimonies are strong.”
In addition to his wheel chair, Eric gets around on a dilapidated trike. Since his accident he has developed pressure sores resulting from his limited mobility.
The sores have now become infected, and treatments for the severe ailment require that he pedal his way to the hospital, a distance of some 10 kilometres. There are no district nurses, no home help or free medical assistance in Ghana. The wounds are raw and painful. Taking a taxi to the hospital would be the perfect solution, but with no money for a fare, it is not an option.
Eric’s trike was basically trashed. The seat was hard, torn and the padding worn down and damaged. All three tyres were each different, with little tread on any of the wheels. It had a broken frame and a broken steering column. The hand brake operated only one of the wheels.
When Elder Wood first saw the trike he knew instinctively (because of his engineering background) that he could help.
With Eric’s hesitant permission, he loaded the trike on his truck with a promise that it would be returned just three days later. Even so, Eric was uncertain and apprehensive as he watched his independence being taken away.
Elder Wood worked with love and care on Eric’s trike, and the result was nothing short of fantastic!
When the trike was unloaded with the family watching, Eric’s younger siblings ran and squealed in delight. Their faces beamed as they happily clapped their hands with joy. The trike was as if it were brand-new. Eric and his mother, Lucy, were speechless.
Elder Wood’s kindness and personal skills have meaningfully blessed and improved the lives of Eric and his family.
Having successfully rebuilt Eric’s trike, Elder Wood then took Eric’s wheelchair and performed a similar “miracle,” by completely rebuilding it as well.
Eric wanted to be baptised in 2015 when his mother was. The hospital he visited for the pressure sores on his buttocks did not want him to be baptised. They felt the risk of further infection would be too great.
Elder Wood spoke to the president of the Church’s local Kumasi Mission who is a doctor by profession, Michael Cosgrave, and he said there was no reason why Eric couldn’t be baptised.
Elder Wood found a huge bottle of Dettol disinfectant, wrapped Eric in plastic, taping his legs and waist so no water could get into the wounds. The font was filled and the bottle of disinfectant was emptied into the water.
On 26 June 2016 Elder Wood carried Eric into the font and his wish to be baptised a member of the Church was realized. Elder Wood said, “It was a very touching moment for all who witnessed this occasion.”
Since then his sister, Linda, was baptised, and on Sunday, 7 August, Queen Elizabeth also was baptised.
Thousands of senior couples, like the Woods, are serving as missionaries around the world with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They find people to help, and get to work. They also teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to those who wish to learn.