LDS Marathoners Tell Their Stories

LDS Living ^ | April 17, 2013 | Rhett Wilkinson

[greyfoxx39]

Some ran an additional eight miles beyond the marathon just to reunite with loved ones. Others were spared after receiving VIP tickets that placed them across the street from the explosions. All are grateful for the miraculous blessings that kept them safe and sound.

Cell phones and VIP passes convinced Heather Ekola and her husband Josh that they had been uniquely blessed by the Lord in helping to be preserved from the savagery of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The Springboro, Ohio, couple was among many Latter-day Saints participating in Monday’s world-renowned race who found themselves safe after the worst attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001—many of whom attributed their fortunate condition to divine blessing.

The twin blasts on Monday killed three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and sent 183 others to the hospital, some of whom were marred by bombs loaded with ball bearings and nails. Thirteen had limbs amputated, according to hospital officials.

In her nine previous races, Ekola wouldn’t have felt her phone vibrating 24 miles into the 26.2-mile marathon because she had never brought it. But for this trip, for some reason she decided to take it. And just a couple miles shy of the finish line, her phone was suddenly bombarded with 204 new messages.

Two blasts, resulting from heavy devices made out of pressure cookers in dark-colored nylon bags, had just exploded--just across the street from where her husband was, and exactly where he should have been.

The only reason he wasn't there was because Ekola and her running partner, Libby Brown, had unexpectedly been given VIP passes that morning by a manager of Team Hoyt—the charity group supporting Dick Hoyt, who has pushed his 51-year-old quadriplegic son Rick in some 1,000 races across the country.

Josh is adamant that had he, along with Brown’s husband, Brian, not used those passes, he would have found himself on the wrong side of Boylston Street Monday afternoon. “I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I don’t know why and how everything that day unfolded, but I’m very grateful that not more people were injured and I pray for those that were, and their families.”

Ekola, who met up with her husband after running 10 more miles (for a total of 34) after being rerouted through the city, mentioned President Hinckley’s injunction that fear and faith cannot co-exist. “What happened is shameful, it’s wicked, it’s cruel, it’s pure evil in its truest form. But I feel very blessed through all of it,” she said. “This will not dampen people’s spirits. People will mourn and people will grieve, but you can do anything you set your mind to do. . . . Whatever it is, you have a choice: you choose to sink, or you choose to swim.”

Shelley Coutu hadn't trained as well for the race as she should have, and the Cottage Grove, Minn., resident had traveled 25.5 miles before finding herself stacked behind about a dozen people near Massachusetts Ave., where the trail begins to bottleneck normally. Coutu believed someone had fallen, and posted to Facebook asking about the holdup. That was how she learned what had really happened.

“Then I heard big bangs,” she said. Texting hardly worked because of the suddenly heavy traffic load, and individuals began to cry and panic after finding legitimacy in the word “bomb” permeating the crowd.

“Once that hit me, I was a bit stunned and didn’t know what to do,” she said.

After managing to take a taxi to meet her husband at their hotel, she realized that running at her normal speed would have placed her at the finish line exactly when the bombs exploded near the finish line. Her lack of preparation for the race had possibly saved her life.

“I feel like this was in the works for a long time, like that’s how it was supposed to be,” she said. “This has certainly helped me realize that the picture is much broader than I ever knew. Things just get put in place months and years in advance, and you are just watched over.”

Coutu said she doesn’t know why she was preserved and others weren't, acknowledging a scripture from the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount that our Father in Heaven “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). But she is grateful nonetheless for factors in life magnified by tragedy.

[greyfoxx39]

Have to wonder what faiths were protecting all the OTHER survivors of the blasts...

[greyfoxx39]

Ping

[Gamecock]

Or if a Mormon died, what did they do to deserve it??

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

They probably weren’t tithe payers or associated with Gentiles.

[reaganaut]

were they wearing their garmies?

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Leave it to the LDS cult to immedietly suggest in a tragedy that their religion kept them safe. More specifically, they probably think their sacred garments (underwear) was the charm that did it.

[Tennessee Nana]

One of the little children who was murdered in Newtown was a Mormon..

[fungoking]

HOLY UNDERWEAR!!!!!!

[Colofornian]

From the article: Some ran an additional eight miles beyond the marathon just to reunite with loved ones.

(Next thing ya know the Mormon church-owned Deseret News will be using the above to "verify" the verse from the Book of Mormon, "You are saved by grace AFTER all YOU can DO.")

[Tennessee Nana]

Lots of apostates were safe also...

outnumbered the Mormons 100 to 2...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

How cool is that ???

[Colofornian]

From the article: Coutu said she doesn’t know why she was preserved and others weren't, acknowledging a scripture from the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount that our Father in Heaven “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). But she is grateful nonetheless for factors in life magnified by tragedy.

(Note the self-Mormon presumption of "good"; even Jesus said we should have a self-"check" about touting that):

He said: "'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good--except God alone.'" (Mark 10:18).

Jesus wasn't saying He personally wasn't good; but He was addressing the misguided presumption behind the comment: That man is good…[I believe Jesus is addressed man’s isness at root…]

Jesus levels the playing field before the cross by undercutting any spiritual pride that presumes anybody from any religion doesn’t need Him as our great physician ("It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick...For I have NOT COME to call the righteous, but sinners."--Matthew 9:12)

Jesus is for the person who understands their personal cancerous diagnosis of sin.

******************

The apostle Paul added in Romans 3: 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

[ForAmerica]

Leave it to the LDS cult to immedietly suggest in a tragedy that their religion kept them safe. More specifically, they probably think their sacred garments (underwear) was the charm that did it.

They will call this "faith promoting" or being "persecuted for their faith"!

[elcid1970]

Running 26.2 miles in garmies usually leaves a rub rash that lasts for months!

[US Navy Vet]

Hey MORMANS 2 words for ya, “Mountain Meadows”.

[Colofornian]

From Mormon journalist Rhett Wilkinson in this article: Texting hardly worked...

Hmmm...That's interesting...

Was does a text read like where the sender was under a "hardly worked" environment?

Does that mean only certain letters or numbers come thru? (And others are evaporated from the screen?)

Does that mean you can receive texts but not send them?

Isn't texting pretty much cut & dried -- where you can send them or you can't send them...with no "hardly" about it?

[DouglasKC]

Thanks for posting the article. What a tragedy the bombing was and thank God for protecting the vast majority of people there. It’s a shame that politicians would use this tragedy to push their agendas. Thank God there are no Christians that would be so crass, unfeeling and hate filled as to exploit this tragedy to tear down others.

[Colofornian]

Would Luke 18 ... especially v. 11 ... size up how you felt when you posted this last post?

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.'

[svcw]

Bingo

[svcw]

When did that happen?

[DouglasKC]

Would Luke 18 ... especially v. 11 ... size up how you felt when you posted this last post?

No my friend I'm deeply aware of my own faults. I'm just thankful that Christians aren't exploiting a tragedy where people were scared, injured and died...including an 8 year old boy. Some people, like politicians, who have cold hearts and little love, would use this tragedy to push an agenda...wouldn't they?