As I have been working with the Pantry the past several months, my eyes have been opened to how desperate some situations are and how a little act of kindness can be the difference between someone having food or going hungry.
Teresa* had filled out an application to receive help from the Pantry. On Tuesday, Sherri* and I met with her to interview her. Teresa explained that she and her boyfriend and her 30-year old son live together and their situation is dire. She has had numerous back operations and is unable to work. She receives a small disability check that barely covers the rent and $100.00 a month in food stamps. Her boyfriend and son work part-time for a company catching chickens but the little money that they bring in doesn't go far either. They often go hungry. Her son had received a free turkey but she had no way to make it because her oven needed a new element and her landlord told her it was her problem to fix it. Teresa wondered if maybe the Pantry could give her a bag of charcoal so she could try grilling it. She so desperately wanted to make a Thanksgiving meal but she just didn't know how she was going to do it. We asked her if she had other food in the house and she said she had potatoes and vegetables but no milk or butter but she would manage without that and would just use water instead of milk for mashed potatoes. If she could just figure out how to get the turkey cooked, she was sure she could put a decent meal on the table.
Sherri and I looked at each other and we were both trying to think what we could do to help her. Suddenly I remembered that I had a roaster oven that I had never used. It had been my mother-in-law's and I had gotten it this spring when their household goods were disbursed. I had put it upstairs and kind of forgotten about it. Now that I thought about it, it would have been nice to use for my own turkey but I quickly told myself that I hadn't used one in my life before and another year without one wouldn't make a difference to me. I offered to let her borrow the oven. Her eyes filled with tears and she gave me a big hug. "You are such an answer to prayer," she said. I left her and Sherri to go to my house to get it and bring it back for her. I decided that I would also buy her some milk and butter but when I got back Sherri had already taken that into her own hands and purchased it for her.
I put the roaster oven into the front seat of her rickety car and told her she could bring it back after Thanksgiving. "I can't thank you enough," she said. "I can taste the turkey already and it will make the house smell so good. I was so afraid we wouldn't be able to have a real Thanksgiving meal but you have made it possible."
I was sitting at home a little later and my phone rang. It was Teresa. "I just wanted to thank you again for loaning me your roaster oven," she said. "You have no idea how much this means to me. I promise you, I will handle it with the utmost care and return it on Friday." I thanked her for calling and wished her a Happy Thanksgiving.
Later as I pondered this, I kept thinking how something that seemed so simple and was so easy for me to do meant volumes to her. If my oven wasn't working I would probably view it as a minor inconvenience until I got it fixed. For her it was an insurmountable problem. I have problems in my life that at times seem insurmountable. Maybe to God, they aren't problems at all, just things that in His time and in His way He can easily fix.
Happy Thanksgiving!
*Names have been changed
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