Pay It Forward

I am starting a thread to "Pay It Forward". Recently, I was sent many seeds for relating a story. So I would like you to relate your best Christmas ever. I will read and judge them, and the winner will be sent a package of seeds. This would be good, especially for the newbies. This thread will close on December 11, 2005, at 12:00 noon. I will post the winner then. I am looking for stories that show the kindness of folks around you, or a kindness that you have done for someone less fortunate. I will also post this in the "seed trading" forum. Now let's hear those stories.

This message was edited Dec 5, 2005 10:38 PM

I posted my story on the seed forum. I too am looking forward to hear other inspiring stories. Come on you guys. You know you all have one.

Ooooh, I remember a story from Christmas a few years ago. I was driving home from work on Dec 23 and it was sooooo cold. The temp had started out at about 60, but by 4 p.m. it was below freezing! And we were expecting snow.

As I drove down the highway towards home, I saw this little old lady with two bags of groceries walking along the highway not far from the grocery store. It was so cold I couldn't imagine anyone being out in it. So I stopped and offered her a ride. No big deal, really. But to her it was.

The temp had dropped rapidly while she was in the store and she lived about a mile away. She said she wasn't sure she would have made it home had I not stopped. Already the bags were heavy and her feet were frozen. But she had company coming for Christmas and wanted to prepare them a feast. Having no transportation and not being able to afford a taxi, she decided to walk, hoping to beat the storm. She was ever so happy to climb up in my nice warm truck and thaw out.

BC

What a nice story. It was nothing to you, but to her you were her salvation.

I work for a nonprofit here in Sioux City. Part of my job is sending out direct mailings to raise funds for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner for people in need, and a Christmas Shoe Party to be held later this month for needy children. I have a large mailing list and there are many donors that have retired and moved south. I intended to pull a letter from Biloxi because I knew it was a person that possibly lost everything in the hurricane. Well, I forgot to pull it. But the donor sent a nice gift for Thanksgiving, I asked my boss to write her a personal letter to thank her. I went ahead and allowed the shoe party mailing to go to her. I received another check and a letter from her two days ago. She related information how her family was touched by our agency years ago with food and clothing during difficult times and she wanted to do the same for other people. And, she had in deed suffered great loss in hurricane Katrina. She, her son (adult), and their puppy were in the attic for 5 hours with water raising up to 6 feet before it started to recede. She says she was not really afraid. She trusted God to get either get her through or to take her home.

Brought tears to several eyes where I work.

This woman is fortunate, although she lost most everything, she has associates that put money in an account for her and her home is slowly being worked on while she lives in a FEMA trailer.

This message was edited Dec 6, 2005 7:22 PM

One Christmas years ago, while attending Bible college in TX, my husband (now my ex-husband) and I found out that a family who were also attending Bible college had no furniture at all in their home. They did not even have a table to sit at to eat. And they had a teenage daughter and younger son. So we started asking people to help us help this family. We gathered all sorts of furniture for them, including a very nice sofa and one day while they were at church, we went to their house and set up all of the furniture that we had gathered. When they got home and opened the door, there was all of this furniture. It was so neat. The funny thing about it was that we were homeless at the time and were living with a member of our church. It was a single lady that had allowed us to live with her until we got back on our feet. She originally lived in CA and went home for Christmas and we had the whole house to ourselves. So we invited this family to have dinner with us on Christmas day. And we bought presents for them and wrapped them up and placed them under the tree. I don't think I have ever been as excited as I was to see their faces as they opened their gifts. I learned that year that giving really is better than receiving. And I also had my daughter help me with this so that she could learn this same lesson.

This year we have a very close friend that lives in Michigan and she does not have much money for presents for her 3 children, so my husband and I have bought several gifts for her and them. I have not shopped for children in many years, since my daughter has grown up. And I have been so happy shopping for the 3 kids. I sort of adopted them as my grandkids, since they have no grandparents. It just makes me so happy shopping for them. For the first time in years I am able to do this since now my husband has a job and is making a halfway decent salary. I keep telling myself that I have enough for them, but I just can't help myself. Every time I go into a store I see something that I know they would like and I just have to buy it for them. They have no idea that I will be sending a very large box of presents for them and I am so excited for them. I only wish I could be there with them to see the looks on their little faces as they open their gifts.

JesseK

JesseK, what a neat story about the furniture, and what a thoughtful thing you are doing this year. I learned long ago, that giving is better than receiving.

Thank you.

You know, around this time of year, people often go home and find out everything has been stolen! A friend of mine's house was broken into recently and money and things were taken. How disappointing to open the door and find you've been robbed. But in your case, can you just imagine what those people were thinking to open the door and find that little elves had delivered furniture while they were gone? That's incredible! That's a Christmas they'll never forget.

BC

I just posted on the Seed trading forum the winner of this Pay It Forward. The story was submitted by hmstyl. If you are interested, go to that forum and read her winning entry.

Here's the link
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/561015/

Thanks Darius.