Jimmy Patterson/Midland Reporter-Telegram

It took Don LaBombard a full 60 years to realize that God had a purpose for
his life. Armed with that realization as well as a brand new heart, LaBombard still had one missing ingredient. Though he knew God had a purpose for him, he was still unsure precisely what that purpose was.

Described good naturally as "The One That Got Away" by a local hospice that cared for him in what he and his doctors figured to be his final days, LaBombard -- suffering from congestive heart failure -- was given a reprieve when he received the heart of a 34-year-old Garland woman in 1999. But even then, even with a new heart and a string of new days, weeks and months ahead, LaBombard still didn't fully understand why he was supposed to be here, although his trust in God certainly began to take a turn.

"After the transplant was over, I couldn't understand, and I'd stand in front of a mirror and ask the Lord, 'Why? Why would you take the life of a 34-year-old woman and put it in a dying, 60-year-old man?' That's when a friend of mine told me that I was left here for a purpose and she was taken for a purpose, even though she left three children behind. My friend told me, 'I would suggest for you to find out what your purpose is.'"

LaBombard began doing volunteer work for the Southwest Transplant Alliance, visiting VFWs, colleges, civic clubs and schools encouraging people to become organ donors. Over time, his stress mounted and doctors were finally forced to tell him they didn't give him a new heart just to watch him kill himself. So he cut back on the visits but continued doing testimonies at churches, something he continues to do.

His testimonials would lead to work in a prison ministry, and soon enough, through his visits to the Launauga Unit near Fort Stockton and the Texas Youth Commission's Sheffield unit, it would become apparent to him that prison ministry was one of the purposes God had intended for him.

"I feel the Lord is calling me to do that and he's using me in a mighty way," he said. "It makes me feel good. If you'd have told me 10 years ago I was going to be doing prison ministry, I'd say you were nuts. No way was I gonna minister to a bunch of prisoners. But you know, they're human and they make mistakes. The Lord said, 'I was in prison and you visited me'"

Later, LaBombard was encouraged to attend a Walk to Emmaus by a friend who convinced him that the spiritual weekend would change his life. In fact, it
not only changed his life, it would also become obvious that what grew from LaBombard's walk may in fact be another reason God chose not to take him before his transplant.

After LaBombard's walk, he began making crosses, focusing on smaller ones he
makes for everyone who completes their Walk to Emmaus. LaBombard estimates he's made 700 to 800 wooden "Jesus" crosses that are frequently seen hanging from rear view mirrors in cars driven by those who have been on a walk.

But he makes others, too, from pine and oak crosses unique to particular denominations, to crosses made from mesquite wood, all of which are unique because of the differences in every piece of mesquite. In all, he figures he
and his scroll saw have fashioned more than 1,000 crosses. His favorite is one of a cowboy who has climbed off his horse, hat in hand, and is kneeling at the foot of the cross.

"I started to make the crosses after the walk," LaBombard said. "I'd always been handy ... and I always did a lot of woodwork. I sit down and make these crosses and I pray over every one of them, and I sign them, 'Prayed Over by Don LaBombard.'"

LaBombard works so hard on cross-making that he wore out one scroll saw in just eight months. Not a scroll saw blade -- the saw itself. His work in prison ministry and as a cross-maker for the Emmaus community and others may seem like enough in terms of LaBombard's suddenly found purpose. But there was one other piece to the puzzle that was put in place earlier this year following the death of Permian High School student Kimberly Turner. A week after returning from the Rose Bowl Parade with the Permian band, Turner was involved in a traffic accident and later died.

Turner, it turned out, was a multiple organ donor, and when LaBombard heard that the 16-year-old girl had given her organs to others, he knew he had to do something. He had never met the woman whose heart he had received, and knew he wanted to do something for someone so unselfish as to be a multiple organ donor like Kimberly.

LaBombard's wife of 47 years, Amy, had a plaque of an angel. LaBombard fashioned that design into one of his woodwork creations and took it to everyone in the Permian Basin who had received an organ from Kimberly Turner. Each of the recipients signed the back of LaBombard's creation, and he took it to Turner's family.

When the LaBombards took the plaque to Turner's parents, they showed Don and
Amy a video of Kimberly's life, from shortly after her birth to when she returned from the Rose Bowl Parade.

"When we got there, they told us, 'We'd like you to meet our daughter' and we sat there and watched that video and we could hardly hold it in,"

LaBombard said. "We've stayed in touch with each other. Her mom told us that we would always be a part of their family, and they told us the angel on the plaque looks just like Kimberly."

LaBombard says he is grateful for however much time he has left, but admits he'd love to live to 75. "I always wanted to make it to 75," he said. "I think I'll make it. Life's been a blessing to me -- when you can do something like I've been doing, with my scroll work. People say, 'I don't know how you do it,' but it's just me; it's just what I do."

Regardless how many more years LaBombard has, he will likely go on doing what he does best -- ministering to prisoners, making crosses, and preaching the benefits -- no, the necessity -- of organ donation.

"When I talk to people about organ donation, I ask them how many of them are donors, and I usually get a few people raise their hand," LaBombard said.

"And then I ask them, 'How many of you would turn one down if you needed one?' and nobody raises their hand. When you're gone, you don't need your organs. Your body is not going to use them anymore. It says right there in the Bible, 'Go forth and help one another,' and I think we can do that even when we die."