A couple months ago, I had the privilege of helping out with VBS at the church we attend. Nothing really significant or outstanding, but I played a small role by helping with decorating, painting, and working at the registration table welcoming the kids as they arrived each evening. I also had the privilege of helping with the missions project. It was a fun week.
Last week we had some bananas that needed to be used, so I made some banana bread. This time I decided to see what would happen if I offered slices to random strangers. The first taker was performing a routine heating/AC maintenance service call at my in-law’s house. At first he declined, but with just a tiny bit of coaxing, he accepted a piece. 
Next I drove to our local Kroger store. My first goal was to share with the employees since I often run into them stocking shelves at early hours. After 5 employees adamantly declined for various reasons, I decided that it must be company policy not to accept gifts from customers and not a reflection on my poor baking skills! 🙂 I started looking for customers who looked like they may accept my offer. I found a mom pushing one of those huge car carts shopping with 3 children – a hero in my mind! 🙂 I thought they looked like they deserved a treat. Chatted briefly and she accepted 4 pieces – tho she wanted to wrap them and wait until they were in the car to eat them so crumbs wouldn’t fall all over the floor in the store. My only hope is that she didn’t throw them away and waste delicious bread. However, would I have accepted food like this from a total stranger and allowed my daughter to eat it? I don’t know. Either way, I trust that she felt a bit of appreciation as a mom and may have seen a ray of God’s light shining into her day.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to volunteer for Kate’s Kart. They were hosting a fun event to celebrate 5 years.
Kate’s Kart is a unique ministry who gives away new books to children in several area hospitals. Check out their website for more details of their story and the reason for their existence. We personally know the founders of this organization, so if you decide you want to contribute in some way, I can assure you that your donation will be handled appropriately.
Many companies had donated FREE ice cream, rides, inflatables, music, etc. Plus, there was a Scholastic Book Fair. This is where folks could purchase books for themselves with 40% of the sales being contributed to Kate’s Kart, or they could purchase books & donate their purchases to Kate’s Kart. I volunteered to work at the book fair for a short 2 hours.
The highlight of the day was hearing the many stories of families who had been recipients of books from Kate’s Kart in their moment of need, and now they were excited to choose & donate books out of gratitude so others could be blessed as well. I was blessed by their generosity and kindness.
On my way home this past Tuesday, we drove past a horse who had managed to back up into a barbed-wire fence and sit down on top of it. That couldn’t have been anything good. Granted, I don’t know much about horses, but this just didn’t seem normal for a horse to be sitting down like that, especially on painful wire. We stopped to find someone at the nearest farm – no luck (only a dog & beware of dog sign). We drove to a 2nd farm – no luck. On my way to the 3rd farm down the road, we saw someone riding bike who turned into a nearby driveway. We chased her down and told her what we saw. It turned out to be her cousin’s farm and she took off to inform someone who could remedy the situation. I can only hope that the horse is OK.
Today was a day of gratitude and blessing for our church leadership and staff. I’m thankful for all they do and for the many ways they minister to me and so many others in our church family and community.
Blessings to all those minister and bless others.