December 14th - the goodness of God in the land of the living

This past year Ive been working for a local charity - Via Wings.  It is a small concern with a big heart and basically it exists to meet any need in the local community.  So we run a food bank, projects for kids and vulnerable young adults, people with learning difficulties, the elderly and run counselling and mentoring sessions as well as trying to help people fix up their houses.... the list goes on and on.
Because of the nature of what we do we get to hear sad stories about the difficulties faced by individuals and families, and of course at this time of the year when most of us are looking forward to a big feast and lots of presents and time off work, the hard stories can be even harder to hear.

But the amazing thing about working for Via Wings is that we also get to see the most outrageous acts of kindness and goodness..... and yesterday I witnessed one of those which Id like to share to make you smile and restore your faith in humanity

Two ladies knocked on the door yesterday with about five bin bags full of brand new toys which they wanted to donate to our Christmas appeal.   In the bags was a large Star Wars Lego set, which unbeknown to them  had been on the top of one wee boy's christmas list this year.  There was also a brand new child sized electric guitar in a case.  Amazing.  We were really thankful and were able to tell the ladies that their gifts were an exact answer to a couple of children's specific requests - and they were blown away by that.  I offered to show them round our new building - and they gladly followed me round becoming more and more wide eyed as I showed them the work we had completed to date, told them about all the projects we run and then showed them the work still to do ( our charity shop and cafe are just empty shells at the moment as we are in the middle of renovating an old pub we have just purchased).

As I showed the ladies the foodbank they met some of the young adults with special needs who were in the kitchen baking biscuits.   I told them about the training programmes we run for these great youngsters and how their cooking skills are used to make meals for the foodbank clients and for the
cafe.   I then explained a bit about our Compassion Christmas where we give Christmas dinners ( turkey, ham, veg puddings and the works) to families who would otherwise be having beans on toast. plus presents for those who need them.  I mentioned that yesterday morning we had had a phonecall from a social worker who was overseeing a child leaving care and going home to her mother for the first time in ten years.  The mother was desperate to be able to give the girl what she wanted for Christmas, but the girl wanted an X Box and a pair of Nike Air trainers , and that was way beyond the Mum's means.  In fact pretty much everything was beyond Mum's means.    The ladies looked at each other and one of them pulled £100 out of her purse and said  'I'd love to give you this so that you can buy whatever you need for the families you work with'   The other lady immediately did the same.    I was humbled and very thankful and assured them that every penny would go straight to a family in need at Christmas.  They went off saying that they had no idea what we did before looking round and that they would be sure to tell everyone they knew and support us more in the future.

Half an hour later one of them phoned us and said that the two of them had gone away and had a chat and decided that they would like to buy the X Box for the girl leaving care.   By the end of the day someone else had bought a pair of Nike Air trainers.

For all the stress and Brexit hassle and gadget addiction and economic downturn and all the other bad news we hear all day every day you need to know that the world is full of exceptionally kind, generous, good, lovely people who really genuinely want to do whatever they can to improve the lot of their fellow man.   Today I saw an extravagant example of that.  Two weeks ago a lady phoned us and said  ' last Christmas I was in a really bad place and you helped me out - this year I'm in a much better place so Id like to give some help back to someone.  Ive got six bags of coal for you to give to anyone who needs it'.    Every bit as extraordinary and moving as the two ladies yesterday.

Christmas really is a time for giving and loving and sharing and helping.   Today I challenge you to see where you can make a real difference and go and make it.  Don't put it off or think someone else could do it bigger or better than you.  Every kind gesture really does change the world.  This Christmas be a world changer.