Connecting as We Lift our Lamp
Last week my neighbor’s daughter sent out a thoughtful email. It was to all of the households on our street and detailed how she was helping with an organization collecting monetary donations to help provide healthy food to those in need. The plan was very hands on, which I liked. The teens would collect the monetary donations and then go shopping to buy ingredients for healthy meals which they would then sort into bags and deliver to designated families.
As a recipient of government money through the pandemic stimulus package, I felt this was the perfect opportunity to give back. Plus, I wanted to be a supportive adult and help my young neighbor experience the joy of serving others. So I sent her a generous donation. That is not my word—generous—it was hers. She thanked me for my generous donation. By email and with a nice handwritten card popped into my mailbox the day following her experience. She was very excited to share how much food they had collected and how many families they had helped. She then thanked me again for my generous donation.
That night I got a text from a friend of mine who I know through a local faith community where I serve. She is currently out of work because of the pandemic and has some significant health challenges. She shared with me that she had enjoyed the nicest dinner—so healthy and so delicious! She had never had food this good! She had received a bag of groceries from the very organization that my neighbor’s daughter had helped with the day before.
It is not every day that you see the small efforts of people around you manifest so immediately in the lives of those you know.