Let me tell you the story of these three photos and how God works all things to His glory… In the first pic is the Money Tree that Labelle Performing Arts put together to help a family in need… On Saturday morning I got a text from Jeannie (head of Labelle) that they were looking for a family… At exactly the same time I got a Christmas wish from Joseph the manager of Good Morning Mattress Store on Davis Hwy… The wish went like this:
There was recently a customer that came in here and needed help with a mattress set, well while talking to her I was informed that she is having a really hard time finding a place to live. Her name is Ida, she is 65 years old and recently was put on cancer preventative medicine and goes back to the dr on January 6th. She went through remission but last week her doctors told her it came back. She has spinal problems is why she came into my store. She is on disability and doesn’t get much from her disability payments. Her organs are shutting down, she has no food, and is short $250 to pay her rent and will have nowhere to live if not paid before Christmas Eve. Please help…
So Labelle decided that is where their Money Tree should go… Monday morning they dropped it off and we called Ms. Ida to let her know someone had nominated her for a Christmas Wish and we were going to help with her rent. What we found out is that she has been admitted to Sacred Heart for a heart attack and was under going stress tests etc. So, Candy and I grabbed Santa Paws and went over to visit her and bring her some cash… Before we left we counted the Cash… I called Jeannie and asked how much she though they were donating… she said she wanted to be sure to cover the rent so she put a $100 on the tree and thought it might have been about $400 bucks… When we got to Sacred Heart we got to visit Ms. Ida… and told her we had enough for her rent… In fact we had about $670 (Surprise Labelle… you raised a lot of cash on your tree)… Ms. Ida broke into tears and we were blessed to be the vessel for the blessing… But that is not where the story ends.
Ms. Ida looked at us and said “can you help Joseph?” We looked at her blankly, this caught me off guard. Without hesitation Ms. Ida grabbed her phone and called the person that put the wish in for her and said “how much did you tell me you need to keep from being evicted?” He told her and she hung up with out a word. She proceeded to pull $290 out of the cash we had delivered and asked us to take it back to Joseph saying “I got more than I needed, please go help him too.”
So we went over to see Joseph and as we relayed the story… We asked what made him put the Christmas Wish in and he said it was all could think of to do. He said Ms. Ida had called him to tell him how much she appreciated it… That’s when we got to tell him we were in the room when she called him about his needs and sent us back with the $290 he needed.
Candy hugged him for a full 2 minutes and today we are reminded that God moves people to help each other and in the end provides.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. (Ps. 145:15-16)
For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. As the nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers and children. We develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people.