I had several "being the right place at the right time" moments this week. On three different occasions, people came too late to get their thanksgiving baskets, and came over and found me in the Clothes Closet. The first one picked up the last Thanksgiving bag available. The next two, I gave bags packed with assorted items from the food pantry that were left out by the office doors (probably by Diane Newhouse) for just such an occasion as these. They were all extremely gratefull for whatever they got. To us it's such a minor thing, but to them, well, you can see the gratefullness in thier eyes! They all said I was their angel that day. Thats not a bad feeling to have!
Their storys:
Now the first lady that came to find me, brought along a friend that had suddenly showed up on her doorstep. She had escaped an abusive situation along with her four year old son, and they literally left with the clothes on their back. When they came to find me about their food, they saw the clothes closet and asked me "if we sold clothes here?" I said "no, we give them them away to people who need them." She said "What kind of Church is this!?" I told them that "this was the Church of Christ and we were non-denominational." She said "this is the kind of Church I've been looking for!" Anyway, she had been wearing the same clothes for three days, and was asking for clothes she could go on job interviews with to start her life over. She was so emotionally overwhelmed, she kept breaking down trying to talk about her situation. I just gave her a big hug, and I had to go pick things out for her, because she was just too overwhelmed to think. She left with warm clothes for her son, work clothes for herself, and some casual clothes too, because her friend reminded her that "she wasn't going to be on job interviews all the time!" Once we found all they needed, I took them back over to get their Thanksgiving bags. Her friend got her basket, and she left with a Celebration, and also Kirk Norris made sure she got information about the youth group too, because she had a fourteen year old daughter too that she wanted to get plugged in with a good youth group!
The second lady who came by, was too late to pick up her Thanksgiving basket. The bags I gave her, looked and felt like they held alot more than the Thanksgiving baskets, so she didn't seem dissapointed at all! She was very grateful!
The third person that came in for her Thanksgiving bag, a day late, caught me as I was pulling out of the parking lot. She asked me about the bags, and I told her "they were all given out, but I did know of a bag with assorted items that was left, it was'nt thanksgiving food, but it was food." She was so happy to have it! She also had recently escaped an abusive situation and is now living in a barely habitable trailer home, but at least she is safe. She seemed to be doing well with her new life. She had a job as a realtor, and small, old car that got her around, but she did mention that she only had 3 dresses. I told her to come back over sometime and see if we had anything that would do in the Clothes Closet. She left very happy.
** Donating food and clothing is such a small and easy thing to do. But it makes such a huge difference in peoples lives! Especially people who are trying to start their lives over after awful situations. Just for them to know that there are people out there who care about them. It's enough to give them hope.**
12/6 ** I wanted to add a note about the 3rd story. She came back to get clothes to work in. She has a difficult size, but was still able to put together a whole wardrobe for her job. She was so unbelievably thankful, that she was nearly in tears! It was truly a life changing day for her! She is a very sweet lady, happy to be safe, and determined to do well. We hope to see her in church soon!
