Ok this is the last of the day, I PROMISE!
<SPAN id=postcolor>Bobbie Helton's Story
Life has never been too easy for me. You see I am confined to a wheelchair because I was born without any legs. I have spent the past 16 years feeling sorry for myself. This past summer my parents decided that it would be good if I went to summer camp. Can you believe that they would send me, an invalid, to summer camp! I was so mad at them. I felt as though they were taking away my life. After all, wasn?t camp just a bunch of perfectly normal healthy kids running around and having fun without a care in the world?
This camp that they sent me to, was called Camp Hope. When we got there I saw the most unusual thing; all the kids there were just like me. It was unbelievable. I was put into a cabin with 4 other girls that were all in a wheelchair. Toni was the girl that was in the bunk right next to me. She was so pretty, her hair was blonde and she had blue eyes, and always wore a smile. I wondered how could she be so happy all the time when she is confined to her wheelchair.
Toni was to become my best friend. We did everything together during our time at camp. Toni has cerebral palsy, and that is why she is in a wheelchair, but she had something else that always kept a smile on her face. As the week went by we went swimming (I had never done this before), painted, planted flowers in pots to take home to our mothers, and had a wonderful time. Though the whole time I still wondered why Toni smiled. I must admit that I was glad that my parents sent me to this camp, I now know what it means to have fun and live life.
Late one night Toni asked me if I knew where I would go if I died tonight. I had no idea. She then told me of this man who could heal people and he could make people walk who had never been able to. I wanted terrible to know this man that she was talking about. I had never heard of anyone living or dead who had been able to do the things Toni said that this man could do. I asked Toni if she could give me his address so that I could write to him and tell him about my problems. Do you know what she told me? She said that I could tell him about my problems right now if I wanted to, and she did not have a phone with her!
Toni told me that this man was the Son of God and that his name was Jesus Christ, and if I wanted to I could ask him to be my friend and he would be with me for always. I asked her if it was because of this man that she was always smiling. And she said that yes indeed it was because of Jesus that she always smiled. I wanted that. I asked Toni how could I ask him to be my friend, she told me to pray. She even helped me pray to him.
I smile a lot now, too. When it was time for our parents to come and pick us up, I gave Toni my address and asked her to write to me more about Jesus. When my parents came to pick me up from camp I told them all about Toni and of this man they call Jesus. I was so happy and full of life that my parents went and found a church so that they could learn about Jesus to.
A couple of months ago I got a letter from Toni saying that she was going to be going home to see Jesus soon. Right after camp Toni found out that she had a tumor in her brain and they couldn?t operate on it. I was so sad. Why did God give me Toni if he wasn?t going to let me be her friend for very long? My parents took me to see Toni in the hospital last week, she looked so thin and frail, I just wanted to cry, but I couldn?t because she was still smiling. Why if she is going through all of this pain and suffering can she still smile, it made me so mad that she could be so happy when God was making her so sick. But it wasn?t God that was doing this to her, as she later told me.
Toni died last night; she is now home with God. She told me once that when she got into heaven that she would be able to run and play with the angels. Toni I hope that you are having the time of your life up there.
Written by Bobbie Helton 11-22-02
I love Christ and horses, how 'bout ewe?
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him they shall have everlasting life."</SPAN>