Worth Passing Along

[Guest guest]

[a repost]

Waiting For A Memo

I'm new to church, any church, but chose 12Stone about 10 months ago to

assist me in my journey. I was excited about the opportunity to

participate in the Intentional Acts of Christmas activity. In the weeks

between the announcement of the activity and the actual money, I was

consumed with worry about how to best utilize my portion of the money.

Immediately upon receiving the $100, the worry stepped up a notch. I

took the advice of several friends and family members and began praying

about how best to spend the money. Being new to the whole prayer thing,

I didn't know how and when I'd know what to do. I knew of families in

need, families where the money could be put to use but those families

didn't " feel right " .

So on a Wed.morning ,early in the month, on my way to work, I again

prayed about how to spend the money and the thought to call the City of

Sugar Hill popped into mind. So upon arriving at work, I called. My

thought process was that if they gave me any guff, it wasn't the right

place. When the city employee answered the phone, I told her that I had

$200 (the church's 100 plus my match) and I wanted to help someone with

their heating gas bill. She asked if I would be open to helping four

families at $50 each. I said " however it's best used " . She asked if her

supervisor could call me back. I said yes but felt that this was the

guff I was expecting and felt no one would call me back. To my surprise,

within 10 minutes I got a call from the gas dept. billing supervisor. I

was shocked at her words...she said " All the staff here in the office

were talking not more than 15 minutes ago about these four families that

are really struggling to pay their gas bill and how we'd all help if we

could afford it " . I knew that was my answer, that is what my friends had

been telling me, pray and you'll know the answer!

I told the city employee that I would be in the next morning with the

money. The next day as I arrived with the cash, the supervisor asked

" don't you want to know who you're helping " . She was shocked when I said

" no, all I want is to have you send this note to each family " . The note

just told of their blessing from 12Stone church and included one of the

little cards from the church. The employee said that city employees were

going to be hand delivering the good news that afternoon and they would

take my letter along. She asked if I wanted a receipt or anything. I

said " no, I've done all I need to do " .

Another example of a blessing is that I randomly bought someone's gas at

QT. The shock and confusion on his face were amusing. I gave him a card

and " do something nice for someone else " before pulling away. Upon

getting home and telling my husband of my intentional act of Christmas,

he said " great, that guy will probably leave the pump open all night and

we'll have thousands charged to our card " . So I called QT credit office

the next day to see what kind of charges I had. The lady on the phone

asked " Why did you do that? " I explained what our church was doing and

she said " Well, I'll pray that this person doesn't take advantage of

your kindness because you deserve to be blessed for this kindness " . So

the next day, I was telling my very skeptical husband that it didn't

appear that we had any excessive charges on our account when he slyly

said " I bought the person's breakfast behind me this morning at the

drive thru " . I said " feels pretty incredible, doesn't it? " His response

" Remarkably, it does " . So not only have I learned a lot about the power

of pray and my value in God's eyes but maybe four families and one guy

at the gas station had a little of their burden lifted and my husband

might come around after all. All in all, a great experience ! And I know

now what the " memo " looks and feels like. Thanks for the opportunity.

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LivingOnLove

http://livingonlove.ning.com