Who Packed Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Mariama Kallon was a typical teenager—excited about girlfriends, family, and boys. But what should have been one of the best times in her life quickly turned into horror. Her parents were shot and killed, her brother was abducted and slain, and she saw her sister get her legs brutally cut off. It was 1992, and civil war ravaged Sierra Leone.

"My family was constantly on the run, trying to escape the rebel soldiers," said Mariama. "It was terrifying every time the rebels came through a city. Someone would see their torches approaching in the night, warn the others, and we would run for the bush, grabbing whatever we could along the way."

One day Mariama arrived in yet another village to live with a friend. As she was telling her story, one neighbor said, "Mariama, we don't have anything to offer you except an invitation to church tomorrow. That's where we find safety. That's where we find hope."

Mariama decided to go.

"My first Sunday in that Latter-day Saint branch was a day I'll never forget," said Mariama, who soon joined the Church. As the war continued, the Church sent food and humanitarian kits. "Everyone was so grateful even to get a small bag of rice or beans," said Mariama. "I received a blanket and a hygiene kit that included a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, a comb, and a washcloth."

Soon, the rebels hit again and set fire to the house Mariama was living in. "As I was running to escape the flames, I took time to save only two things—my scriptures and my hygiene kit, she said. "We had to live on the run for a while, and I used my hygiene kit to help those around me. I would go to the river and carefully pass my bar of soap from person to person. The blanket too was invaluable. It sheltered us for many days until I used it to wrap an old woman who had died."

Mariama eventually went back to her home and decided to go on a mission. She was called to the Temple Square Mission in Salt Lake City.

"I arrived in Utah with practically nothing," said Mariama, "but I insisted on bringing my hygiene kit. One day, we were taking a tour of the Humanitarian Center and I recognized a blanket with an embroidered Relief Society logo—just like the one I'd had in Sierra Leone. I then saw hygiene kits like mine and familiar bags of beans and rice, and I began to cry."

"This is where they came from! Tears streamed down my cheeks as I remembered what these things meant to my friends and to me in Sierra Leone. I was so grateful to the Lord for preserving me, for bringing the gospel into my life, and for allowing me to serve a mission. I knew that His angels truly had been round about me, to bear me up."

This story actually continues on. I heard this woman speak at a women's conference. She did not spare the details of her experiences. All the women had been raped and all had their legs cut off outside the shadow of the house they had been staying. Mariama's legs were the last to be cut off. Representatives of the Red Cross arrived at this moment and took her sister and the other women to a hospital. Mariama was left alone.

Now alone, she traveled to find any remaining relatives alive. She found her 10 year old sister and two year old nephew. She became their guardians.

When she made the decision to become a missionary, the branch president offered to care for the children while she was gone. Mariama arrived in Salt Lake City in the dead of winter wearing an African dress and sandals. She had no coat, boots, or any other clothing but she carried with her a plastic bag containing her most treasured possessions; the hygiene kit.

A few months after arriving (and she had been properly outfitted for the harsher elements using female missionary cast - off clothing), she was called into the mission president's office where she was introduced to another African couple who had immigrated to the states. They had heard of Mariama and her devotion to her hygiene kit and wanted to meet her.

In the course of the conversation, it was discovered that the couple wanted to adopt an orphan from her home country. Her heart jumped for joy as she told them about her 2 year old nephew. The couple looked uneasy and finally admitted they had hoped for a girl. She then told them about her 10 year old sister. The couple smiled. They knew they were about to meet their new son and daughter.

That was 12 years ago. Mariama never returned to her war torn country. Her living family, consisting of her sister and nephew, were now a part of a loving family living in Texas. The older sister who had her legs amputated lived less than four years and died in her old country.

All from one little Ziploc bag filled with a few hygiene items. Who packed her parachute?

The family assembling hygiene kits

Each kit contains four toothbrushes, one tube of toothpaste, 6-8 oz., two bars of soap, two hand towels (not kitchen towels), and two combs (no sharp edges).

When all 15 hygiene packs were assembled, I realized my metaphorical parachute felt pretty sturdy. Who packed my parachute?

These kits will be taken the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Center. They have warehouses filled with this kind of stuff and other kits. If they don't make it to Haiti, they will make it to Sudan or some other country where good hygiene saves lives.

We chose this project to get our children involved and experience the strength of service. There are also many organizations that take cash donations as well. Check your church, The American Red Cross, and Unicef (who we used earlier this week).

My estimates place the cost of each kit just under $7 each. According to Miriama, it was the greatest tangible gift she could obtain.

For her, it represented Hope.

*This service idea spurred by reading http://mylitterofsix.blogspot.com/2010/01/making-hygiene-kits-for-haiti.html