Garden City Telegram from Garden City, Kansas • Page 6

LENTEN GUIDEPOSTS What the Mountain Did to Me By BEN B. FRANKLIN Toptka, I was 18 when the mountain turned on me. Until then I had been its master. For Climbing was my great love and avocation. Otherwise, life was fairly bland.

Bu! I really started to live when summer enabled me to hunt greater challenges on the slopes. They had, in fact, become my But on April 14, 1963, I fell. With two fellow freshmen from the University of Colorado I was scaling a perpendicular facing when my rope frayed on a jagged ridge. It parted and I pitched backward, plummeting the equivalent of seven stories to the canyon floor. My first sensation was floating within black wool.

Through the pain all I could think of was: What happened to my rope? The voices of my companions, who had frantically rappelled down, filtered dimly through to me. By the time the rescue squad had arrived I'd become de- 'Only 25 Days Left Henry Block has 17 reasons why you should come to us for income tax help, Reason 4. ff the IRS should call you in for an audit, go with no additional Not as ft legal representative but we can answer all questions about how your tax return was prepared. THE INCOME TAX PEOPLE 107 E. FULTON OPIN p.m.

wwMoyi Sot. 276-2577 OPEN APPOINTMENT NECESSARY liriow. I was carried down the canyon to an ambulance which screamed the 30 miles into Denver. Surgeons pieced together my scattered pelvis and labored for hours on my back which was broken in four places. Many days in intensive care followed.

Then, as my pain muted and I became more rational, the agony of my spirit began. The sheet over my body wouldn't move. I could wriggle my fingers and twist my wrists; but with mounting terror I learned that my body was dead from the waist down. Anger charged me. Those legs were mine; they would move.

I twisted every emotional fiber in me to will my leg to move. Nothing. BenB. Franklin dragged by. I straggled for hope and then my wil melted into despair.

"Why?" I cried. "Why had I gone climbing that day? Why had the rope broken? Why hadn't God done something to help me?" A spark glimmered within me when the doctors said they'd try a special operation. Surely surgery would have the answer. But it didn't. My spinal cord had been too damaged.

Now a wheelchair sat next to me, awaiting my surrender. Days went on, and my legs began to wither. The doctors introduced me to a new life style how to roll over and sit up, and they fitted a steel back brace to me since my chest muscles wouldn't support me. And I began to pray pray desperately to the God I was 3 Days Only Thursday, Friday, Saturday Spring into Spring with Multi-Purpose rubber back Carpeting As Low As You can carpet a 12x15 room for less than $60. (Iiufdlarlon not Included.) Open Thursday, till 8:30 Discount Carpet Gallery 205 N.

8tn. 276-7444 getting to know. Surely He would help me. Hadn't Jesus said, "Ask and ye shall I asked but did not receive. When the sixth month was removed from my bed table calendar, my last drop of hope went with it.

Even my hate and bitterness drained out of me. My spirit was as dead as my lower body. It was in this crisis of utter hopelessness that I surrendered myself to God. At night, alone my room, I spoke to Him: You know that I want to walk again. But I can't do it.

I don't have anything left, dear God. I've tried as hard as I know and have only discovered that my will means nothing. If not my wil, then, Thine be done." I drifted into a deep, relaxing sleep. My feeling of helplessness was gone. In that agonizing prayer when I turned all control over to God, I bad accepted my accident.

In so doing I had relinquished my will to His. And I didn't have to fight anymore. The next evening I moved a toe. I stared in terrible fascination at that point of the sheet, afraid Page 12 Garden City Telegram Thursday, March 22. 1973 to try again.

Then, very cautiously, I did try. Again the sheet moved. I exploded into ecstatic joy, laughing and shouting. I poured out a grateful prayer to God, with thanksgiving streaming down my face. Eight years have passed since that nigfat, but my happiness I am still partially paralyzed.

But after only a year in the wheelchair, I progressed to crutches with leg braces. And I am grateful for each step I take on my For each sunrise I get to see. I am even thankful to the mountain. For it was through my accident that I discovered deeper joyis than climbing. Through my relationship with God I have learned compassion, the abundance of beauty and the tremendously rich power available to me when I place my band in His with complete trust.

I'm happy I was only 18 when it happened. PONYTAIL bo. 19ft. VTaOA "It's so hard to decide between both Focus This Week Is On Wildlife "Discover wildlife it's too good to miss." That is good advice for Kansans and all Americans in today's fastnpaced life, a way of life in which natural resources are being used heavily and the environment is being fouled. Appropriately, this proverb is also the theme of the 36th annual National Wildlife Week, SAVE $3.02 IN THE JOCKEY 'THREE WHITES AND A BRIGHT" OFFER SAVE $1.51 You get three white plus one fashion blue T-shirt of the Jockey Designers regular $7.50 value for only SAVE $1.51 You get three white Classic Briefs plus one fashion blue brief from the Jockey Designers regular $6.50 value for $4.99.

Ofcr QMMWta Utf. THREE WAYS TO CHAfpt March 18-24, 1973. The event is sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, At the local level it is being ob served by local sportsmen's clubs; Kansas Wildlife Federa tion; county conservation dis trict; Sol Conservation Service Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission; and loca wildlife groups, Robert H. Fuller, SOS District Conservationist at Garden City suggests that this special weel be a time for a new discovery perhaps rediscovery, of wildlife While observing and 'learnini more about wildlife, it is a goot time to think about What each of us can do to maintain healthy environment. Much can be done to Improve wildlife habitat in small spots on Kansas farms ranches, and on idle land, ad vises Jack Walstrom, SCS biologist, Salina.

Conservation practices such as contour strip cropping, crop residue manage orient, crop wildlife planting, and proper range use encourage wildlife, he adds. Wildlife and a healthy environment are interrelated and programs to improve the enfiron ment must consider al aspects Thomas Kimball, executive vice-president, National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D. C. puts it this way: "A world that has natura places for wild creatures 1 is a better world for all living tihingis." Western Cattle Inc. widtr buyiag all clasMt of stacker md Will Mil on com.

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