Crown Molding

Below is an email that I recieved from one of The LOT Project Volunteers. I just thought it says alot about how God works in our lives!

Walking with Crown Molding
I'm a newbie volunteer to a local ministry that serves as a conduit for food, clothing, personal items and other various basic living items to the poor and the outcast in downtown Anderson. On Tuesday afternoons, the ministry opens its doors and a hundred or so forgotten members of society come into the donation center and have access to clothing, shoes, toys, and a freshly prepared meal. As a newbie, I am still in the "what am I supposed to do?" stage.

I'm looking around, literally wondering what I'm supposed to be doing. The initial rush of guests had slowed and I notice an elderly gentleman sitting alone, with no items that he has chosen to take home and no food. It's a hot day; surely he could use an ice cold bottle of water. So I sit down next to him and, trying not to feel guilty for sitting, I began to ask if he wanted anything to eat or perhaps water. He quietly comments that he will probably take a bottle of water with him when he leaves. He had me to try and guess his age and I learned he is in his mid 80's. He shares a few secrets with me on how to stay young and how to stay out of trouble. We share a few laughs. I asked him his name and he asks mine. After learning my name is Debbie, he tells me has a daughter named Debbie. So I asked if his daughter lived here in Anderson. "Oh nooooo, she's passed on." He shares this quietly and peacefully. He then introduced me to his friend. There is obviously a strong bond of affection between this man and woman. They seemed quite contented and happy with each other.

Our conversation was cut short when I noticed another elderly lady, alone and trying to juggle her bag of clothes, food and soda. So I say a few parting comments to the lovebirds and let the woman have the seat I had been occupying. I'm looking around, literally wondering what I'm supposed to be doing.

My eyes are immediately drawn to a very tall, elderly person. At this point, I am uncertain if the person is a male or female. I did notice, however, that she is having great difficulty walking and is using a short piece of crown molding as a cane. Both ends of the molding have a cut mitered edge. One pointed edge is pressing into the floor as she walks; the opposite pointed edge is pressing into the palm of her hand. There is a small stepdown that she is trying to tackle. My heart is exploding inside me for I can feel her struggle and I can imagine how incredibly challenging it is use a piece of crown molding as a cane.

Without thinking, I walked over to her and asked, "Ma'am, would you like to have a cane like this?" She immediately responded affirmitively and showed to me the palm of her hand where the pointed end of the crown molding was digging into her flesh. She had a piece of tape on her hand, trying to soften the impact. I helped adjust my cane to the length that would accommodate her. In a state of shock I walked away from her, trying to remind myself to simply breath. At this point, she shuffled past me on the way to the shoes. I looked down at the shoes she had on. The shoes were enormously too big for her. She displayed a torsional deformity with her toes pointing outward, almost in opposite directions. I hoped that we had a better fitting pair of shoes for her in the back and asked one of the more experienced volunteers to help her. I waddled upstairs and into the bathroom to finish shedding the tears that by this time were flooding down my face.

Finally when I had somewhat regained my composure, I reappeared back onto the ministry floor to find a staff member sharing with her that God wants to have a relationship with her. As she is walking away with a new pair of shoes and a new cane, she tells me that her name is Elaine.

How long Elaine has had to walk with the support of crown molding, I have no clue. But I do know that she walked out with more support and stability than she walked in.

How long you and I walk with the support of something less than what is really needed is just as big a heartbreaking circumstance for Almighty God and loving Father to witness. Just as you and I view a disabled person struggling to accomplish the simplest task in life, so the Father sees us all.

Crippled. Twisted. Hurting. Needy.

What do you need from Him so that you can walk with power, with stability and unhindered by the obstacles of life? What have we been holding onto, like the lady with crown molding, trying to hobble along as best we can when the Great Physician has what we need?

Comfort

This last week we had Kid's Day, which was absolutely fantastic! Although this young man did get some new clothes he also got his fingers pinched in the door! He was crying, and screaming! It was pretty awful to see him in such pain! Being able to bend over and pick him up was easy! I was able to hold and comfort him for a few minutes until his mother got over to check on him.
Looking at this picture reminds me of so many times that I have "pinched my fingers," and God picked me up to comfort me! It makes me so thankful that I know that no matter how alone I feel, how much pain I am in, or what kind of trial I am under that I can always count on God to be there by my side, and remind me that everything is going to be OK! Isaiah 66:13 says "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you..."

According to His plan~

Andy

Special Day

Most of the time we want to remember the good moments, and how they impacted our lives. However, this was just the beginning of the darkest period of my life. 3 years ago today I had a stroke at about 9 p.m. I was paralyzed on the entire left side of my body for about 12 hours. Sitting in my hospital bed that first night, and someone taking my left leg off the bed. I sat there and stared at it and it didn't move an inch. I remember laying there thinking "move" and nothing happened. I adventually went to sleep that night, and when I woke up in the morning I was fine. I ended up going to 3 hospitals in the 1st 24 hours, and spent 6 days in the hospital. It was miserable being poked and proaded with needles, tubes shoved down my throat, and spending what seemed like an eternity inside an MRI machine as they took pictures of my brain.

On the outside everything seemed like I had the life by working, going to school full-time to complete my master's, but in reality I was going insane. The guilt, shame, and comdemnation that I felt from my past poor decisions were eating me from the inside out. I didn't have a way out. My cousin ended up giving me a interview with Tony Dungy, and he quoted a verse: Matthew 16:26 which says "What is a man to gain the entire world only in the end to loose his soul." This said to me that I could have all the money, cars, booze, drugs, and girls that I wanted, but I was still going to die and go to hell.

I was then given the chance to go experience some of the world and was given an opportunity to serve at an organization called New York City Relief. They have 2 school buses converted into portable soup kitchens. Where we took about 1000 meals a day into New York City to serve the poor and oppressed. I figured that this was the time to really figure out for myself "Is there or isn't there a God?" I also had a roommate named Eric, who has been instramental in my life. He told me from the day I walked in the door that there was nothing I could do that would make him love me less. I didn't know what that meant? He told me this everyday for the 1st 3 weeks, and finally I broke. James 5:16 says " Confess your sins to each other so that you may be healed, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." That night I told Eric things that I had never told anyone, and he gave me a hug and said "Andy, there is nothing that you told me that makes me love you less." My life has never been the same! That night he showed me the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage anyone has ever dealt with the things that I have talked about that there is answer to my orginal question: "Is there a God?" I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is, and He is amazing!

Please Start!

I get a phone call last week saying that our short bus is having some issues and won't start! So, yesterday I was able to get our mechanic department, also know as Ernie Johns, to the bus to get it in driving shape. We paid a total of $1,300 for it early last year, and it has turned out to be a good investment. However, anytime you pay $1,300 you can't count on it to run forever!

So, a majority of my day went to fixing the bus, or should I say "supervising" Ernie get the bus going. It took a couple of hours to even get the batteries charged to get it started the first time. Than we set off for the local Carquest to make sure the batteries were still good. They were put out a good charge, but when we shut it off it wouldn't start back up. We (Ernie) than decided that there was too much starter drag and changed out the starter in the Carquest parking lot. I have always heard stories of these types of things happening, but never part of it. The bus immediately started right up! I was excited that the bus was back in action!

I drove the bus back to our building, and started to back it in to it's parking spot when all of the sudden it started driving funny! One of the caliper's clips broke and now we had to fix that. After H.O.P.E at the 302 we went back out to the bus, and Ernie was able to get a new caliper on! If you look closely at the picture on the right you will see two people. One is Ernie and the other is his son, Keegan, who is 3. He was right there beside his dad saying "What is that?" or "How does that work?" It was awesome! I can see 20 years in the future, and it will be Keegan as our new mechanic department at The Lot Project.

So, that was my day, and I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our volunteers just like Ernie and Keegan, who God has given gifts to use. With out you willing to give your time and talents things would never be where they are today!