Yesterday's devotional from Our Daily Bread really spoke to me. This is not a new concept and we often speak about our blessings and I know that I have abundantly more than a lot of people in the world. But sometimes seeing it firsthand is more powerful than just hearing or reading about other people's poverty.
As a church, we have been trying hard to reach out to our local community. In an earlier blog, I wrote about the children that we have been interacting with. In this blog I am going to talk a little bit about their parents. I have gradually been learning to know them better and am finding them to be kind and thoughtful and appreciative of what we have been doing with their children. They truly love their children and are doing the best they can to be good parents to them.
We have been communicating specifically with three families. Here is a brief sketch of some of the things they are dealing with. All names have been changed and some situations as well to protect their privacy.
Tom and Beth have 5 children of their own. Beth operated a daycare for years but was forced to discontinue it around 2008 because of her own personal health issues. She and Tom adopted a brother and sister (ages 4 & 2) that had attended her daycare who were going to be put in foster care. To me, this shows that she loved and cared deeply for the children that she was in charge of. Both Tom and Beth have severe health issues and yet they adopted these two little children when their own children were practically grown. In talking with them, they are strapped tight for money, with a lot of it going for prescription medicines (Tom is diabetic and also needs extra oxygen) and other medical expenses for themselves. The boy and girl are now 10 and 12 years old and they have been coming to our kids club. The parents were so appreciative when the church financially helped to send them to camp for a week. Beth told Steve that it would have been impossible for them to come up with the money to send them, and they are so thankful that their children can have this opportunity.
Greg and Cheryl live with Greg's two daughters in a mobile home in a mobile home park. They are both on disability so on a very limited income but it is obvious they care very much for the girls. I have had the privilege of texting back and forth with Cheryl and have found her to be a very easy person to chat with. When the girls went to camp she sent me their address and asked me to pass it on to others from church so we could write a letter to them. Greg and Cheryl were very excited about taking the girls to camp and agreed to drive them there themselves, however, they had no gas for their car until the next disability check came. We were able to loan them some money, so they could make the trip. Another thing I have noticed about this family, is how Greg tends to his small yard. He is obviously a skilled gardener as beautiful flowers are planted around the mobile home and around the tree in the yard as well as the porch.
Sue lives with her fiancé Mark and 2 daughters in the same mobile home park as Greg and Cheryl. Their mobile home dates back to 1966 and is in great need of repair. Mark works full-time as a baker and Sue has just completed online classes and received a BS in legal studies so is searching for a job as a paralegal, administrative assistant, or legal secretary. Meanwhile she is on welfare, until she can get herself back on her feet. I admire the way Sue took the initiative and earned her degree so she can hopefully have a better life for herself and her daughters. However, of course, she now has student loans to pay back so it will be awhile before she can make much headway, and obviously, the first thing she needs to even get started is a job. There was water damage to the ceiling and walls of the trailer and Sue and Mark needed some paint and other materials to patch things up. Stretched as they are to make every penny count, there was no money for these necessary repairs and we as a church were able to help with purchasing the materials they needed. They were so grateful and Sue keeps asking what she can do to repay us (not monetarily, but through service or some other way).
These families amaze me. To me they have not complained about their lot in life and they are not looking for a free handout. They state the facts the way that they are and they are dealing with their situations as best they can. They have so little and I have so much. Of course I do not have an unlimited money supply, but I would not think twice about writing out a check to send my child to camp. At the gas pump, I simply swipe my card and don't even consider whether I can afford to fill my tank. If the house needs repair, we go and get the materials that we need to fix it (unless it is a major renovation like replacing the porch!). Yet I will complain that I haven't gone on a vacation for years, that I have too much yard to mow, that the house is too big for me to keep after, or that I am so busy working I don't have time to do something else that I would enjoy. How SILLY! I need to stop and look around me and see how I can share the blessings that I have with others. I need to change my attitude from "I don't have time to deal with other people's problems" to "I need to take the time to listen and to help others who are dealing with major life crises."
Working with these families has opened my eyes to how many around us live on a very meager income and just barely scrape along and sometimes can't even afford what we consider the necessities of life. I have no idea why I have so much and others so little (life isn't fair). However, maybe I have been put in these people's lives for such a time as this. If I am available to listen to them, love them and their children, and pray for and with them, God is able to do much more than I can ask or imagine in all of our lives. My prayer is that I will keep my eyes and ears open to ways that I can bless others and that I will keep my mouth shut when I am tempted to complain about some minor inconvenience in my life.
~ We don't need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful. ~ Bill Crowder
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