Choir Notes

Rescuers Along the Trail

From Music and the Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4323

More than 150 years ago, tens of thousands of pioneers crossed this country headed west. They were searching for a place of peace and refuge, a place to build a community of faith. Their stories are remarkable and heroic, filled with faith in every footstep. But many of them would not have survived the harrowing journey without the countless rescuers who came to their aid—compassionate souls who, shortly after completing their own journey, left their homes and families and courageously returned to the plains to help bring their weary fellow travelers home. 

Daniel Jones was one of these. He and other rescuers were sent to save a company of suffering handcart pioneers who were caught in a winter storm and "had nearly given up hope. 

"Many declared that we were angels from heaven,” he recalled. "I told them I thought we were better than angels for this occasion, as we were good strong men come to help them into the valley, and that our company, and wagons loaded with provisions, were not far away.”1 

Today we have no pioneers traveling across the country in wagons and handcarts, but we have even more people in need of rescue. So many of our fellow travelers need a lift, some hope, some help along the way. Fortunately, there have always been angels among us, rescuers who seek out the less fortunate and sacrifice their own comfort and their resources of time, energy, and money to lend a hand. In every case, the selflessness and compassion of rescuing angels creates a heroic legacy that inspires others to do the same. 

 As much as ever, we need those angels among us, those kind souls who are willing to go out of their way to be rescuers along the trail. 

1 In Andrew Olsen, The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers (2006), 343.