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| "Life's only handicaps are the ones we put on ourselves." |
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| About Bob Mortimer |
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Choosing a Different Road (Cont., Pg. 2 of 2)
Bob Wasn't Moving
When Tom came upon his brother, Bob wasn't moving. Tom figured Bob was dead, so he sat on the side of the road and wondered what to do next. Then Bob moaned. Tom pulled him free and kept him alive until help arrived.
The next morning Bob woke up at Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle and signed a release to amputate his left arm. Two weeks later doctors took his right leg. He kept his left leg several months before surrendering it.
Returning to Drinking and Drugs
Bob endured six months of recuperation and rehabilitation at the Seattle hospital while doctors grafted skin over his burns. Following his release, Bob returned to the only world he knew — drinking and drugs. This time around, he drank beer and smoked marijuana to blunt the pain of being a triple amputee.
He was twenty-five when he met Darla Hollis, who was babysitting his sister's children. They were chatting one day when Darla said, "Would you like to go to church with me sometime?"
"Hey my life's messed up, why not?" Bob thought.
The Good News
That Sunday in church, Bob heard the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time. When the pastor invited listeners to allow God to take control of their lives, Bob thought back to the decisions that had framed his life. When he chose his own way, he lost his limbs and burned his body. When he allowed others to choose his path, he lost his dignity and pride. "What more can I loose? Why don't I let God lead the way?"
Bob didn't think twice. He rolled his wheelchair to the front of the church. That morning Bob repented of his party lifestyle and hard heart, and he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.
Wedding Day
Six months later Bob rolled his wheelchair down the church aisle once more, this time waiting for Darla, dressed in a white wedding gown.
Nearly twenty years later, Bob can't speak about Darla without smiling. They live near Tacoma, Washington, with their thirteen-year old daughter, Nicole, nine-year-old son, grant, and toddler Chanel.
Bob travels around the country, speaking several hundred times a year to school assemblies, community organizations, and churches, ministering with a message of hope borne out of horrible tragedy.
To all who mourn …He will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair.
For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.
—Isaiah 61:3
It's A God Thing — Pictures and Portraits of God's Grace
Published by Doubleday, a Division of Random House, New York, NY.
Copyright © 2001 Luis Palau, Used by Permission
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