Stories:
The Joy of Changing Lives
Oklahoma, USA
August 10, 2005
This letter was received from Russell Turner, a parole officer in Oklahoma. Mr. Kenneth Behring: I am reading your book Road to Purpose and find it very enjoyable and fascinating. I have supported your organization for the past year and a half since seeing you on the "Hour of Power". I would like to be a part of your organization in a more personal way when I retire as a parole officer in the next couple of years. I'd like to help deliver the chairs and pick those folks up and set them in it - like you say on the video - just to see them smile. I teach a class on a regular basis to inmates in prison here in Oklahoma and to everyone convicted of shoplifting in Tulsa. I always tell your story of success to illustrate that it was not just your making a lot of money that brought you fulfillment in life, but it was your using your money to change others' lives for the better that became your "road to purpose". After telling your story, I then show your picture and the book you wrote. Later in my program, I show the video of the Wheelchair Foundation. I give them a chance to be a part of the changing lives (for in the changing others' lives we change ourselves). I make your brochures available to all who wish to take one. There are always some taken. After my last class in prison, I received checks in the mail from the inmates who had taken a collection among themselves. Of course they get only about $10.00 per month but were so moved by the video that they came up with $75.00 including $5.00 from the instructor. He has also donated $75.00 in addiction for his own purchase of a chair. Please send one of your photo/certificates to him and wife (address on his personal check) and another on in the name of new directions class #05-03 and #05-04 and send this one to Mr. Johnson as well. Last month, he shared the Wheelchair Foundation need with his church and several donated enough to buy 3 or 4 chairs. Well, Mr. Behring, I thought you'd like to know how you are changing more than people's mobility, but by giving them a chance to give, they are getting the very thing they need the most, which is an improved self-image. That is so important to offenders. I hope to meet you in person some day and help to carry on your work. If you happen to have any reason to be in the Tulsa area, my classes are the 2nd Saturday of every other month - October, December, February, etc. I'd be honored to present you to my class, which is usually about 50 young adults. May God continue to bless you. Russell Turner
