Wheels of Love

Richard Stepan, a medical supply sales representative and a member of Hope Haven International Ministries, has found his calling by donating wheelchairs, crutches and other medical supplies to suffering countries around the world. Stepan and Hope Haven will be holding a fundraiser Feb. 6, called the Frosty Frolic to help raise money for his next journey to Israel. Helena man helps provide wheelchairs to needy children in West Bank, Gaza

Richard Stepan sat in the basement of his Helena church listening to Galei Tzahal, a Middle Eastern radio station broadcast over the computer.

While the weather in Helena hovered at zero degrees, the temperature in Jerusalem, a deep and sultry voice announced over the radio, was 63 degrees.

That balmy Mediterranean weather has Stepan looking toward April, when he leaves for an evangelical mission to Israel, where he’ll equip 300 disabled children with wheelchairs.

Not just Israeli children, he says, but Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank — Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. When it comes to doing the Lord’s work, he said, love trumps one’s allegiance to other things.

“We profess a love for those children,” he said Tuesday, rushing from one task to another. “They know where we’re coming from and who sent us there. It’s an amazing way to evangelize. Our actions speak louder than words.”

Stepan, a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a manufacturing representative for Hope Haven International Ministries, has worked with handicapped children for more than a decade.

A fast-talking man full of animation, he tells the story of how he landed a job rehabilitating used wheelchairs some 12 years ago when a Spokane, Wash., manufacturer sent a load of supplies to Guatemala.

Stepan, a North Dakota salesman whose twin brother farmed beats near Williston, went along for the job and found what he now refers to as his true calling.

In fact, Stepan was so moved by his experience in Guatemala that he shifted his focus to missionary work for the physically disabled, traveling to Kenya, Peru and Jordan to evangelize and deliver wheelchairs on behalf of Hope Haven.

Stepan’s travels have taken him to the West Bank of Gaza six times. He plans to return this spring with 10 other missionaries interested in the work.

“By giving and showing love for a part of the world that sometimes doesn’t get a lot of love, our program can do nothing but grow,” Stepan said. “I have no doubt that this will inspire the 10 people who come along to bring on more pilgrims to go and continue this work.”

The Hope Haven program doesn’t attempt to conceal its primary mission, which its brochure calls empowering the “Global Church.” The organization, in fact, encourages Christians around the world to reach out to their neighbors with disabilities and share the “Good News of God’s Love.”

Stepan tells a story about Hope Haven founder, Mark Richards, who went to Guatemala three decades ago. There, he saw a woman suffering from polio crawl from a cardboard box, drag herself across the street, and attempt to find food in a large trash container.

In that moment, Hope Haven was born.

“It was so touching. Mark went and found a wheelchair and it changed his life and the woman’s life just like that,” Stepan said with pride. “He moved his family permanently to Guatemala.”

By Stepan’s own estimates, there may be 20 million people in developing countries around the world in need of wheelchairs. As many as 6 million of them are children, he said.

While it may be impossible to supply that many chairs, Stepan said, the program finds ways to make an impact. Program volunteers in Rock Valley, S.D., start by refurbishing old and broken chairs collected by the likes of Stepan to near-new condition.

“If they’re missing wheels, or the back is gone, or whatever part is gone, we’ll take the parts,” he said. “If they’re in good shape then they’re refurbished. If they’re in really bad shape, they’re taken apart and we use the parts.”

Inmates at the South Dakota State Prison now manufacture new chairs suited for the Hope Haven mission. A manufacturing plant in Guatemala has also bolstered the system, building several thousand wheelchairs for worldwide circulation.

As of last year, Hope Haven literature says, as many as 75,000 wheelchairs had been distributed to 104 countries around the world. While Stepan has traveled to several countries to distribute the chairs, its Israel, Gaza and the people of the Middle East, he says, that keep him coming back.

“I’m a Christian and I feel the Lord is going to make us wise and take care of us,” he said. “We go into Palestine and the people are so hospitable. The only thing you really have to express is your love, and the rest is for them to determine.”

Source: Helenair.com