Feb 08 2009
The Power of Communities
Working as a pastor in a small community can be a rewarding and a discouraging job all rolled up in one. See, for many of us we look at what God does in so many larger communities and then wonder why he chooses not to work the same way he does over there. Adding to that, I suffer from bi-polar disorder and some times I just want to run into my bedroom and lock the door never to reamerge. But, that is not an option when called to serve in this profession. Last Friday night was not one of those days. To see God work in such a grand way was something that I just needed to share with the world around me.
When I started preaching at this small church there were many challenges that lead the way. With a small church there are only so many folks there that can help with the work, and those folks at times get real tired, real quick. After a while there was a family of ranch hands that worked to bring a spark into every thing they did. The husband taught the adult Sunday School class, his wife was working tirelessly to create a spirit filled worship service. And to top it all off they had a wonderful daughter named Denalli. She was a bundle of joy that filled the sanctuary with a quiet joy that just moved through the adults like a breath of fresh air. Then with out warning they had to move back to South Dakota and take this great family of servants away from the fold. As a pastor you think, shucks. But for every action that God takes there is a reason that he is taking it.
Shortly after moving to South Dakota the family had baby number two. Things looked as though they were going to have a great family, filled with adventures of never ending love and joy. That was farther from the truth when they found out that Denalli suffered from SMA type II. SMA is a spinal muscular atrophy that affects the larger muscles in the child’s legs, preventing them from developing fully. At this time there is not a cure for this disease and for the most part it is also fatal. We listened in horror as the news was brought to this church. Why in the world would God choose to blight this loving family with so much hurt when things were looking so grand? While I will never know the answer to the fullest, I am grateful to the members of the church standing up and saying “How can we help?”. Well there were numerous ideas that were flooding through the minds of those around us as to what we could do to get the ball rolling. We decided to do a benefit dinner at a local high school game to see just how much we could raise to help with their medical bills and treatments. This is were things just went crazy and God took over to make a grand success.
See in Wyoming there are a few games that seem to bring out the biggest crowds and we choose what should have been one of those games. We bought the food and planned to feed 100 people dinner at $6.00 a plate. When I got to the game my heart dropped there were maybe 50 people there if you counted every person that was playing and sitting on the bleachers. I looked out and just shook my head and said to God its in your hands now, I guess what ever you bring us is what we are supposed to get. As the dinner started folks were really getting discouraged. In the first hour or so we maybe served five meals and packages of nachos rolled out of the booster club concession stand like they were on fire. Then without warning the wave hit, five meals became ten. Ten became twenty and so on. The movement was staggering we were serving food as fast as we could as I was getting excited after washing each and every lunch tray that was brought back. Oh I forgot to tell you, the High School let us use their kitchen, trays, cooking utensils, warming trays, everything they had at our disposal. Well while I would like to tell you that we served all hundred of our meals that would be a lie, we fell short by around 16 or so. So the real amount of money that we should have seen was around $504 big ones. Not bad for one nights worth of work, but just not grand either. Then we started counting the money and hearing the stories that were being told by the ones taking the money.
See, we also had a bake sale going on at the same time, and was able to get a little more money from that as well. But the other thing was a donation jar set up at the table as well and more and more people were dropping more money into that and just walking off. Never really paying attention to what was dropped in until later we realized there were your normal $1, $5, and then a few $20’s, and even more $50’s. It was exciting to see what folks were dropping off to help this little girl many of them have never met. Even in these tough economical times folks reached into their much guarded billfolds and gave from the heart.
But one story stands out from all the rest. There were two adults that came into eat and bought two dinners. Total cost was $12 bucks, and they payed with a $100. When the lady running the cash box began to get them their change they smiled and said keep it. Keep It they said. While I am a type of person that tips extremely well for great service I have never given someone a $88 dollar tip for six tacos, some rice, beans, cake, and a small glass of drink when I didn’t even get a refill. They even had to pick up their own dishes and bring them to me so I could wash them. This was truly one of those wonderful experiences where we were able to see God’s full movement from a persons heart. After counting all the money given we were able to raise $1017.71. And even more donations are planning on coming in as the days move forward.
If you would like to see more of what is going on in this child’s fight against SMA check out her web-page at CaringBridge . Here is a picture of her as well riding a horse with her daddy. I hope you too, can experience the joy from this family with this one picture, like I have each time I pray for this little child.
She is adorable there on the horse. I’m reading your article like I experienced it all with you…actually I have. I am not a minister, in fact I don’t even attend church. I have during other times in my life. I question why does a loving God do this or that; but to read that you question, makes me feel better.
Though my last post doesn’t talk about charity, 99% of my knitting and crocheting is for charity. I hope you’ll read all the posts to see where I’m coming from. There aren’t that many, I’ve only just begun here.
My niece, a beautiful 15 year old girl at the time was diagnosed with Osteoscarcoma, told she needed to loose her leg, in order to have a chance to save her life. She was one of 400 people diagnosed with that. Bright, caring, young high school girl who’s hopes for college rested on a soccer and or track schlorship. She was nationally ranked, really quite atheletic. This is a very long story, but the short version is, she opted not to have her leg amputated, she took massive amounts of chemo, had multiple surgeries, spent a year in the hospital, her last year of high school. The pain was so severe, the treatment so extreme she was often put in a medical enduced coma. Her kidney’s shut down, she went blind during these times as well. I reached out for support. What I received still brings me to tears (several years later). People from all over the globe sent cards, notes, pictures, gifts to help me send her a “spirit” package every week or so. And yes, even though I’m not a regular church goer, prayers. She made it out of the hospital briefly for Christmas, her mother a single a mom struggling asked me about Angels for a Christmas Tree. She just couldn’t bring herself to decorate. Still working full time, spending as much time as possible at the hospital etc. Again, I sent out a request. My niece, Janet received Angels from all over, her entire Christmas Tree was filled with angels, angels of hope for the future.
She, being a very bright young gal, was able to graduate with her class doing make up work from her hospital bed when she physical able, she’s now a sophamore at The Unv. of Texas, Austin. She’s not passed the first 5 year milestone, but we all have such hope for this young lady. She’s said to me over and over, having so many people who didn’t know her support her for that long year is what made the difference. For me, it proved despite the ugly things we see on the nightly news; people are good and they have caused me to believe that goodness does overpower the bad things in life.
I try to give, with the skills/gift I was given of knitting and crocheting for worthy charities. Searching the word charity, is what brought me to your page.
I wish you, your small church community and your special family all the best.
Sandy
You have a nice blog. You seem like a person commited to doing good
Thanks for the opportunity
This is a very inspiring and thought provoking Blog. I do believe community is the way forward, so many of us though feel displaced that we have to carry God within us where ever we go. I pray to God though that we can all consider ourselves and one another as part of a global village.