By
G.G. Vandagriff
All
Photographs by Vicki McDonald
The Miracle
09/12/01—the day after the World Trade Center Bombing,
will remain etched in Kendon Eakett’s mind forever. That is the
day that he didn’t die and his whole world began a complete change.
A painting contractor by trade, Kendon was doing a lacquer spray
job in the basement of a large home in the Provo Riverbottoms.
It was past nine o’clock at night, but he was determined to get
the job done. He took his son Rob with him, and they arranged
for masks, proper ventilation, regular walks in the fresh air—all
the precautions needed when spraying such a noxious and potentially
lethal substance as lacquer.
Kendon
and Rob went down into the basement to finish the job. The next
thing Kendon knew, he was lying down surrounded by some brown
curtains. His wife was on the outside, crying. His daughter
was in the room and, seeing that he was awake asked if he wanted
the bishop. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but said,
yes, if she wanted to, she could call the bishop. Very disoriented,
he finally realized there was something really wrong. He was
in his paint clothes. He was in a hospital. He was seriously
injured.
His
wife, Rae takes up the tale then. She was very worried when Kendon
didn’t come home by midnight. At 12:30, she finally knew something was wrong and decided to take
two of her grown children with her and go over to the house.
When they went through it, they started smelling the lacquer and
became very frightened. If they were where the lacquer was .
. . they were. Rob was lying with blood all over him and all
over the walls. He was barely conscious. Kendon was lying curled
up in the closet with the sprayer still on, cold with no pulse.
Rae, a nurse, made a split second decision. She told the children
to call 911 and then proceeded to get Rob out first because she
though Kendon was dead. She had to physically drag him through
all those fumes. By the time she came back for Kendon, a large
man, whom she hauled by the heels, she was hallucinating with
the fumes, believing she was hauling bodies from the World Trade Center.
Finally,
the paramedics came and both men were taken off in ambulances
to the hospital. They said that if the men had remained in the
basement just fifteen minutes longer, they wouldn’t have been
able to be revived. The bishop gave a wonderful priesthood blessing,
and though Kendon needed to spend two to three days in intensive
care, he was going to be all right. It was a miracle. They figured
he had been unconscious from the fumes from two to three hours.
Why Has My Life been Spared?
As
Kendon came out of the hospital and looked up at the pristine
purity of the Wasatch Mountains, he knew suddenly that his life
had been preserved for a purpose. He didn’t know what that purpose
was, but he knew with complete surety that the Lord had a specific
work for him.
He
talked on the telephone to his lifetime friend in Colorado, who
told him he had been thinking of setting up a humanitarian organization
called Family to Family Humanitarian Expeditions. He envisioned
families from the states going to some poverty stricken area and
devoting their time and means to helping the people—to give them
hope. He thought it would work to the benefit of both groups
of people. Kendon liked the idea. They decided on Mexico as a likely place as it was close.
He
had a new neighbor who was a former mission president and temple
president in Mexico, named Nephi Trevino. He thought perhaps Nephi could
give him some suggestions where to start looking for an area in
Mexico for them to begin their project. Nephi said, “It’s
funny you should call tonight. My parents just returned from
their mission. I’ll let you talk to them.”
The
Trevinos were overcome with his offer to help their people and
suggested one area in particular that was very poverty-stricken.
The missionaries would have to sleep at one house, bathe at another,
and eat at another, because one family was too poor to provide
all these services for them. It was a place called Torreon, Mexico
in the Monterrey Temple District. Kendon did much checking with
the temple president, the mission president, the church humanitarian
department and made sure he wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes.
Everyone told him that Nephi was the best tour guide he could
have, because he knew absolutely everyone.
And
so it proved. However, once they were down there, Kendon and
his partner were much discouraged. Between them they had few
resources. They hadn’t yet set up their foundation. They saw
poverty in abundance all around them, but no means of alleviating
it. There were no vehicles, no equipment, no resources. They
felt completely defeated.
Then
they went to church in the local branch. It was in an old house
with a dirt floor. They held priesthood outside. The Catholic
church was ringing a bell on one side of the street and a freight
train was going by on the other side of the building. Kendon’s
head was reeling from the noise. But he looked and saw that everyone
was concentrating on the speaker. He was a visitor from the district
presidency and was delivering them the message that “all the Lord
requires is a willing heart and mind and the blessings of the
earth will be yours.” The spirit told Kendon in that moment that
this was what the Lord had spared his life for. He was to help
the Lord keep his promise to his people.
The Miracles Start Happening
Kendon
still found himself without means or time. However, the mission
president took them down to a little village of Bermajillo. He
visited with the prosperous owner of a Junkyard and his sons.
This man was Brother Casteneda. Kendon later found out that he
was a church legend in the area. President Hinckley had even
referred to him at General Conference as one of the great benefactors
of the church in that region. He and his sons had given land
and church buildings to the Church. They were living consecrated
lives. They essentially said to Kendon, “Mi casa, es su casa.”
All that I have is yours.
Suddenly
the expedition seemed possible. They had homes to stay in, equipment
to use, vehicles to drive. Of all the people in this whole Mexico
experience, Kendon maintains, the Casteneda family has influenced
people the most. Through them, he was able to get his foundation
going in Bermajillo. He has no idea how he’s done it. He’s a
self-employed painting contractor who has taken 12-15 groups down
to Mexico in the last three years, pouring concrete floors for
houses, building roofs, building bathrooms. He knows it hasn’t
been his doing, but that the Lord has prepared the way and made
the funds available in every instance. He has been the instrument
in the hands of the Lord to give them hope, to raise their standard
of living, and to start to break out of the cycle of poverty.
One man looked at his new roof, new bathroom, and new floor in
his two-room home and said, “Brother Eakett, you have given me
my dream home. I never thought I would have anything this nice.”
When
anyone wants to go to Mexico with him (he takes BYU students and
other families), he always tells them that if they just have the
faith to go that the Lord will provide the money. In every case,
something miraculous has happened. One student found an old check
that had been lost that was the exact amount she needed to go
to Mexico. Another student received a back housing deposit from
the year before that she had completely forgotten about. Together
with the change her father had been collecting for several years,
it made up just the right amount for his trip. Other people have
been the recipients of anonymous benefactors who approached Kendon
and said they would like to make contributions to his project
so that people could go down and help.
It
takes approximately $75.00 to pour a cement floor for a house.
One little widow in his ward saved $15.00 per month until she
could save up the money to pay for a floor. It takes a little
over $300.00 for a bathroom to be built. This money has been
donated as well. Most donations have come as a result of word
of mouth publicity. Kendon has not had the money or resources
to organize his foundation on a professional scale. The needs
arise and somehow the money is there.
Future Projects
The
President of the Monterrey Temple has recently made Kendon aware
of some needs that exist in the Monterrey area. Widows are still
cooking on open fires on the ground for they do not even have
ovens. They would like to build ovens. An older man lost his
tailoring business due to thievery and hence lost his livelihood
and house. They would like to build a new house for him. Also,
they are very keenly aware that the way to break out of the cycle
of poverty is increase the level of education. Children in that
area of Mexico must pay a $60.00 per year fee for education.
Their families are not able to do so. The branch president has
said that if Kendon’s organization should come up with half of
that, the other half could be made up in fast offering funds.
We’re on the Right Track
Goals
have been reached. Families have been touched. They were able
to build the first bathroom in a community where a family of nineteen
was sharing one small house. Another young girl was given a scholarship
to a community college that filled her heart with joy. She needed
a laptop computer, however, or she would never be able to attend.
A family who had been down on a former expedition heard about
her need and sent her a laptop that they were going to upgrade.
She was ecstatic. Now her dream could come true.
Kendon
doesn’t know how he’ll get through the year. He doesn’t know
how the miracles will be accomplished that need to be accomplished,
but he knows that they will because he knows this is what the
Lord has called him to do. People have been very generous in
their contributions of time and money.
What the Young Adults say
Aaron
Russell, one of the participants in the last expedition said with
tears in his eyes: “The defining moment of my visit was the last
night we were there when we were having Family Home Evening with
the Casteneda family. I saw how happy those people were and I
recognized it was from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Alyssa
Charrier asked herself the question: “Who is serving whom here?
Did I serve them or did they serve me?” She said, “We learned
to love these people by seeing them the way the Lord sees them.
They served me by teaching me this.”
Barbara
Boone asked herself the question: “What makes these people so
firm in the faith?” The answer that was given to her was that
they had an understanding of who they were and that Heavenly Father
loved them, no matter what. It was instilled in her, in the midst
of all that poverty, that the Gospel is the only thing that matters.
Aaron
Taylor said the reason he decided to go was that he knew the experience
would be the equivalent of a short-term mission—a life changer.
Mexico was a reminder to him that the necessities of the Gospel
are the key to the only true happiness. He said that returning
to Provo, it was easy to forget the essential basics of true Christlike
happiness, because you become so involved in things that benefit
yourself.
Without
exception, all the young people felt that they gained far more
from the experience than the service they gave to it. It was a
reminder of the true principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
at their most basic level. Heavenly Father loves everyone equally
and we are happiest when we are doing His work.
Would you like to know more about this?
If
you are interested in finding out more about Family to Family
Humanitarian Expeditions, you can visit the website at FFHE.org
or contact Kendon Eakett directly by e-mail. His address is Keakett@comcast.net.
