Young Mormon missionaries volunteer to serve for two years. When one is forced to go home early due to medical issues it can create great personal disappointment. Such is the case for Elder Christian Appiah-Knudsen whom I took to the airport this morning. Elder Appiah-Knudsen has chronic back spasms and is in need of immediate care from a physiatrist or back specialist. As I write this posting to my blog, he is enroute to his family in Virginia. Christian Appiah grew up in Ghana, close to the western border with the Ivory Coast. He is the oldest of three children and has never met his birth father. As a young boy he lived in poor villages and found it necessary to hunt for food to feed his two younger siblings. At age five he learned how to hunt lions as a source of food. He tells stories of hunting and killing lions and other animals, using slings and spears.
At age 12 his birth mother took him to Belgium. She abandoned him there and she later passed away. An older man, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, somehow found Christian and allowed him to live in his home. Because he was an illegal immigrant, he could not go outside during the daytime hours. So for 3-4 years as a teenager he stayed indoors and avoided the police, for fear of deportation.
While living with this LDS man, Christian was taught by local Mormon missionaries and joined the Church in May 2004. Later a senior missionary couple named the Kimballs befriended him and found a tutor who taught him to read and write English. This couple had such an impact on Christian that he now uses "Kimball" as his middle name.
Then an LDS family from America, the Knudsens, were working in Belgium and adopted Christian and his two younger siblings in April 2005 (I don't yet know how the siblings got to Belgium). The Knudsens now live in Virginia. Christian's first opportunity in his life to attend school was the year following his adoption. He has not yet finished the equivalent of high school nor has he earned his GED.
Elder "AK" (as we call him) arrived in the Philadelphia Mission in March of 2007. He expected to stay for two years. He did not know that an angry man would physically throw him off a front porch, crumbling onto the cement sidewalk. Nor did he anticipate the bicycle accident that would have him flying out of control over his handlebars and smashing his tail bone on the ground. His apartment that he shares with Elder Toone is a dilapidated one bedroom flat in an area of town that you will, most likely, never desire to see. But this is where he and his companion work every day -- greeting people on the street, knocking on doors and teaching the story of the restoration of God's church.
In seven short months, Elder AK has become a masterful teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ -- he has dedicated himself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually to this work. And in so doing he has been transformed. He is a new person. Through his many trials and disappointments -- both before and during his mission -- he did not end up angry, cynical or bitter, but became empowered by the love of God. Being a personal witness of this miracle is one of the great events of my life. This is why Christ invites all to, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (St. Matthew 11:28-29)".
If you have an extra moment, please offer a prayer on behalf of Elder "AK" -- that his back might heal and that he might be able to return to Philadelphia to finish his mission.
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