It snowed last night and I was out shoveling the drive and reflecting on how nice it is to have a nice warm house, hot coffee and a loving wife. After I went back inside I got a cup of coffe and sat down to read the Sunday paper. On the 2d page of the paper was a picture that literally brought tear to my eyes. I have lived quite a while and have saw things that were terrible but for some reason this was was truly touching.
What was this picture? It was a photo of a little boy, maybe ten years old waiting in line to served a hot meal at one of Klamath Fall’s soup kitchens. I thought to myself what kind of world do we live in where children are treated like this? I contacted the lady down the street who is the pastor of a local church which runs one of these kitchens. She told me that you would be amazed at the number of needy children and mothers who come to her kitchen for a hot meal. Times are tough and these kitchens do much more than feed drunks & druggies.
So if you feel you can spare a few bucks for the children’s sake please make a donation to your support a kitchen in your area.
The Missoula Food Bank serves an ever growing need in our community. Almost half the people who benefit from this organization’s work are children.
If you have a food bank in your community and you can afford to help out, please do. Believe me, it is a rewarding way to honor Thanksgiving, year round.
Spent the day yesterday with our boys night out group delivering food to those less fortunate than we are.
Our group has been doing this for many years … This is all run by out local St Vincent De Paul
our groups leader and the person responsible for roping me in on this is John Emmett one outstanding gentlemen
he has literally given the shirt off his back to some folks in need,
I am always humbled by actions like this…
All I want to say besides what I have said is get involved you are disparately needed anytime , it dose not need to
be much money or effort on your part to make a difference…
Great thread to start thanks Tim!
ps:
One other thing, I have gotten my Son involved with various community events without
much on my part except my minimal actions with such… never nagged him even once
You will be surprised how things just work out! For me Michaels involvement
has been my reward… and I certainty was not expecting any… how cool is that!
Just a thought for those that are fortunate to have children…
I am not affiliated with them, just a customer and a former employee but I have one thing to say to you all. Shop at Target. They donate a very generous portion of the profits from your local Target to the local Salvation Army and local relief charities. Where you do your shopping makes a difference.
I am a deacon at Shadowbrook Baptist Church in Suwanee, GA. We had our quarterly meeting yesterday afternoon. The Sr. Pastor and staff have not had a rasie in 3 years and actually cut salaries last year but next Sunday there will be several of us handing out bags to our membership who will return them filled and hand the out in their neighborhoods to be returned to our Christmas program, “Christmas in the Park”. I have been told we are the smallest of the large Baptist churches in the area but we maintain a food and clothes closet for those in need. Our new ministry appears will be providing basic service for the autos of widows and single moms. We also have our “Angel Tree” to provide Christmas gifts to needy families. If you check you will find churches in your area doing similar things that need your support.
If you happen to be in the north metro Atlanta area December 10 -12 stop by our program, it’s a Dickens’ Christmas themed program on the square in Suwanee. If you find Suwanee you can’t miss it. I will probably be parking car or driving a bus, something that doesn’t require talent in the usual sense.
Great thread, Tim. As John said, no apologies required.
The church my Dad belongs too is pretty small, but the last couple of years each family would take a need youngster shopping. The first year a deacon in his church had a little boy about 4 or 5 years old. The kids got clothes and were allowed one toy. When they were through with buying the clothes, Larry, (the deacon) asked the little fellow what kind of toy he would like. The little guy asked him if he could have a pack of underwear instead. That breaks my heart every time I think about it, and makes me want to go in there and hug my little guy and makes me thankful for what we have. Thanks for starting the thread Tim, it makes me more thankful for the little we have, and reminds me, I need to do more for those that are less fortunate.
I have signed up for the “secret santa” game and had thought about posting a “wish” that whoever my secret santa is could just send a donation in my name to FAOL to help with expenses. Which would be fine by me, but perhaps a needy child would be a better way to spend a few bucks. I can always send Deana a few bucks on my own.
I agree , great thread. I get more out of volunteering than I could posibly recieve. It just helps me at a deeper level . The other volunteers are fun , happy people that are nice to be associated with and the smiles from the people we help is better than gold. And if you 've never been involved , I highly recomend it, it’s addictive.
Fred
Most churchgoers are familiar with the Shoebox Ministry - just in case you haven’t heard of it, it is for children and was started I believe by Billy Graham’s son Franklin. Simply it is filling a shoebox with some essentials and some goodies for a little boy or girl and returning it to a central pickup. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/ We have been involved in this one for some time. It is really worthwhile, I think the deadline was this past weekend for the boxes themselves, but money is always welcome to get the boxes delivered.
