Day 21 - Donate food, clothing, money or time to those who are helping those in need.This will be short today. I hope everyone did the challenge today or if you couldn't will sometime this week.
There are many local churches and ministries that are collecting items to help those that need some extra help during the holidays. Some of the ones I know of are:
- Grace Family Church
- Faith Outreach Center
- Salvation Army
- Metropolitan Ministries
We go to Grace Family church and they have a truck at every service that is taking all donations of food, toys and gift cards. So our goal is to take something to every service, even if it is a few canned items.
Well, we are down to our last week. My dear friend Juliette send me a list of some suggestions for challenges so with her help this is next weeks challenge!
Sunday - Do you have a special place you meet with God at? If not, today start one, or if so then spend some time there today.
Monday - Compliment or affirm someone today
Tuesday - Tell 3 friends how important they are to you (you can do this through e-mail,a card, or phone)
Wednesday - Notice a way that God has blessed you today
Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! Let's just spend this day with Thanks and Gratitude once again.
Friday - Give something today - perhaps a gift, your time, advice (if asked only!)
Saturday - Celebrate someone or something today
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. Proverbs 28:27
Tomorrow: Do you have a special place you meet with God at? If not, today start one, or if so then spend some time there today.
2 comments:
I am catching up a day late on this one. I started my Saturday in the garden, again expecting to not be focused on this challenge, thinking I had donated earlier in the week and I would slough this one off. Our thoughts many times do not take into consideration how God will have us fulfill His plans. This made the experience all the more exciting once I realized who was in charge of the plan.
I want to tell you about Curtiss, the owner of Curt Dog Tree & Landscaping Handyman Service. In his own words – he does it all and “No Job is Too Small.” I got to know firsthand his motto – “We go out on a Limb for our Customers.”
After about four hours in the garden working nearly on top of my head in deep holes, a man walks up and asked if we would like help trimming our palm trees and that his rates were very cheap. I braced myself for Bill’s typical ‘no thanks’ response. He didn’t answer quickly enough so I just replied that Bill trimmed them for me for free. Curtiss was very affable and continued chatting with Bill about some other things in our yard and the work that he had done for other neighbors as I observed. They walked toward the street observing our very large oak tree. There are many individuals in the neighborhood that do yard work and stop frequently offering to trim our palms. We never take them up on it so I knew Bill wasn’t going to budge. I followed them and was mysteriously moved to say that if Curtiss could get the moss out of our weeping elm, I would watch and see how good a job he did and then we’d see.
You see, no one has ever been able to do that because it is very tall and has thin, very flexible limbs – nothing to hold on to nor can you reach it. The tree was being slowly killed. Well Curtiss said he was like a monkey and could easily do it and for a ridiculously cheap price. We paid a professional four times the amount before and they did next to nothing. I was more concerned for Curtiss’ safety as I watched him in the tree literally hanging on to limbs no bigger than my wrist as they bent under his weight. I kept walking around the tree watching him work. He was an expert in what he saw and could do.
As I circled around I glanced into the beat up van he was driving, side window missing. It looked unusual. I came back around, pretending to look at the tree again. Taking another more detailed glance into the van, I realized that he was using it to sleep in and store what meager belongings he had. I walked over to Bill and said that I wanted Curtiss to do the palms too and was that okay. Then I told him about what I saw. We gave Curtiss more money than he asked for and he is coming back on Monday to do some more work for us.
He is a true handyman. He did everything very well and was very conscientious. What was important to me was that he did what he said he would do and didn’t skimp on the job. He is someone you can trust with his word. If you were to judge by his overall cleanliness and missing teeth, you might have easily just dismissed him because he fit a stereotype in appearance. And had I not listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I would not have seen passed that and would have been the one that missed out on a blessing.
I did not realize until the end of the day and Curtiss was well gone, that God indeed had given me an opportunity to donate. I freely gave more than what was asked. I know the challenge was to donate to those who are helping those in need. We have always been very diligent to bring food weekly to the basket at our church, never knowing who it might help. That was more of a service obligation. Today I got to donate directly to the one in need.
Mark 10:21 give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
Juliette,
This was so good! The only thing better that donating to a cause that helps others it actually getting to help that person yourself. It is so personal. Bless you for being able to see beyond what someone looked like and seeing them as Jesus sees them. Plus what a great solution to your tree problem!
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