| Working as a team of four, the
limb shop over the coming years was to give independence and new
life to hundreds of leprosy patients, polio patients, victims
of other disease and trauma through the manufacture and fitting
of arms and legs, special footwear, and other devices. During
the early 1990s Mr. Choi was instrumental in training two men
sent from mission hospitals in Kenya for prosthetics and orthotics.
With a special heart for children, Mr. Choi has always had a
hearty smile and an encouraging word to go with his verbal Christian
witness to the many who came under his care. He was an active
deacon in the local Presbyterian church, rising before dawn on
Sunday mornings to drive the church van on a sweeping pick-up
of members, who were often handicapped ex-leprosy patients needing
transport to church.
In 1995 Mr. Choi made a trip to see our rehabilitation work,
which had moved by that time to Kenya. On returning home he soon
made the decision to leave his post at the WLC and come with his
wife to join us in the work in Africa. His rural home church where
he now served as an elder pledged sacrificial support with funding
and a lot of prayer. Over the years other support has come from
the Leprosy Center and Rehabilitation Hospital in Korea, friends,
relatives and Korean churches in the United States.
About five years ago one of the Choi’s two sons made the
move from South Korea to join a team of fellow Korean missionaries
in Manchuria. Like father, like son, this man is making limbs
for amputees in that part of the world where Christian witness
is restricted and closely monitored.
During his seven years in Africa, Mr. Choi has not only served
hundreds of amputees but has also given leadership to the Kikuyu
Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Center of the Presbyterian Church of
East Africa. He has trained men and women from other mission hospitals
in the area, including the establishment of a prosthetic service
in rural Tanzania. He has made numerous trips by plane to the
dangerous society of Somalia where a Caucasian would be at even
greater risk. There, amputees with gunshot and landmine injuries
are measured and their limbs constructed at Kikuyu Rehab Center
to be fit on the return trip at which time another dozen or more
victims are seen. Unable to speak their language and forbidden
by law to share the gospel in that land, Mr. Choi has left his
witness with each patient by inscribing a cross in the socket
of the limb with the accompanying words, “Jesus loves you.”
New limbs, new life. Mr. Seo Dong Choi is another example of
a faithful and unique witness for us to emulate. In this man we
are given yet another reason to ponder our calling.
Sincerely yours,
Stan and Mia Topple
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
45
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