LDS Freedom Forum

Contemplating what to do, if I was starving, [would I clean the dugout] if my neighbor was out of food...would I come running? Do I hear?
Amidst the terrible hostilities in Missouri that would put the Prophet in Liberty Jail and see thousands of Latter-day Saints driven from their homes, Sister Drusilla Hendricks and her invalid husband, James, who had been shot by enemies of the Church in the Battle of Crooked River, arrived with their children at a hastily shaped dugout in Quincy, Illinois, to live out the spring of that harrowing year.

Within two weeks the Hendrickses were on the verge of starvation, having only one spoonful of sugar and a saucerful of cornmeal remaining in their possession. In the great tradition of LDS women, Drusilla made mush out of it for James and the children, thus stretching its contents as far as she could make it go. When that small offering was consumed by her famished family, she washed everything, cleaned their little dugout as thoroughly as she could, and quietly waited to die.

Not long thereafter the sound of a wagon brought Drusilla to her feet. It was their neighbor Reuben Allred. He said he had a feeling they were out of food, so on his way into town he’d had a sack of grain ground into meal for them.

Shortly thereafter Alexander Williams arrived with two bushels of meal on his shoulder. He told Drusilla that he’d been extremely busy but the Spirit had whispered to him that “Brother Hendricks’ family is suffering, so I dropped everything and came [running].”17

May God, who has blessed all of us so mercifully and many of us so abundantly, bless us with one thing more. May he bless us to hear the often silent cries of the sorrowing and the afflicted, the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the poor. Indeed may he bless us to hear the whispering of the Holy Spirit when any neighbor anywhere “is suffering,” and to “drop everything and come running.”

I also know that the gospel of Jesus Christ holds the answer to every social and political and economic problem this world has ever faced. And I know we can each do something, however small that act may seem to be. http://lds.org/ensign/1996/05/a-handful ... l?lang=eng
The Lords Storehouse includes the time, talents, skills, compassion and financial means of faithful church members. Pres Monson.

Welfare is not a program of the church. It is the Church. It is the application of the teachings and principles of the gospel.

Of course there are two lessons to be learned. Having run out of food, they quietly made preparations to die. I wonder if the spirit would have prompted the neighbors to bring help, if they had been planning ways to steal from their neighbors, by violence if necessary. Some on these forums have somewhat advocated that if a family is starving they are almost within their rights to do ANYTHING necessary or at least they would be somewhat jsutified or it could be understood no matter what they did to provide for their family. I think this story provides a better example both to those who are in need as well as those that have a bunker mentality and do not intened to help others inasmuch as they are able.

Being the Lord's hands and assisting each other is certainly very central to what the church is all about.

dennis wrote:Contemplating what to do, if I was starving, [would I clean the dugout] if my neighbor was out of food...would I come running? Do I hear?
Amidst the terrible hostilities in Missouri that would put the Prophet in Liberty Jail and see thousands of Latter-day Saints driven from their homes, Sister Drusilla Hendricks and her invalid husband, James, who had been shot by enemies of the Church in the Battle of Crooked River, arrived with their children at a hastily shaped dugout in Quincy, Illinois, to live out the spring of that harrowing year.

Within two weeks the Hendrickses were on the verge of starvation, having only one spoonful of sugar and a saucerful of cornmeal remaining in their possession. In the great tradition of LDS women, Drusilla made mush out of it for James and the children, thus stretching its contents as far as she could make it go. When that small offering was consumed by her famished family, she washed everything, cleaned their little dugout as thoroughly as she could, and quietly waited to die.

Not long thereafter the sound of a wagon brought Drusilla to her feet. It was their neighbor Reuben Allred. He said he had a feeling they were out of food, so on his way into town he’d had a sack of grain ground into meal for them.

Shortly thereafter Alexander Williams arrived with two bushels of meal on his shoulder. He told Drusilla that he’d been extremely busy but the Spirit had whispered to him that “Brother Hendricks’ family is suffering, so I dropped everything and came [running].”17

May God, who has blessed all of us so mercifully and many of us so abundantly, bless us with one thing more. May he bless us to hear the often silent cries of the sorrowing and the afflicted, the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the poor. Indeed may he bless us to hear the whispering of the Holy Spirit when any neighbor anywhere “is suffering,” and to “drop everything and come running.”

I also know that the gospel of Jesus Christ holds the answer to every social and political and economic problem this world has ever faced. And I know we can each do something, however small that act may seem to be. http://lds.org/ensign/1996/05/a-handful ... l?lang=eng
The Lords Storehouse includes the time, talents, skills, compassion and financial means of faithful church members. Pres Monson.

Welfare is not a program of the church. It is the Church. It is the application of the teachings and principles of the gospel.

Thank you Dennis!!! Really touched my heart.

Do your best to never be in that position, the threat of starving to death.

You who have companies, move them to Utah. We have a 7.2 unemployment rate here and lots of willing workers. Utah will soon be overrun with thousands more. It'd be wise to move here and partake of all this available talent before it becomes impossible to move.

You bet we'll share, but some may get very tired of a constant diet of wheat.

Bob