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What did you leave them with?

//Here is a post from Tessa, a student whose in Appalachia with her youth group this week. I chose it to show to you because after I read it I wondered how my actions affected those whom I’ve never seen again.//

My group worked with a local ministry called “Stepping Out” and they provided assistance to the local government housing areas.  Chelsea, Austin and myself were in a group going door-to-door promoting a block party that they are having Thursday night.  We approached a lady sitting on her front porch and I asked her how she was doing.  She said she was okay and I asked her if she had every heard of Stepping Out.  She said “Oh yeah…I’ve heard of them!”  I took that as a hint that maybe they had helped her before but she quickly corrected me and said they had never done anything for her…and she used some profanity I might add…so I apologized on behalf of the organization and asked if there was anything we could do for her.  She said no but started talking to us about her health.  By the end of the conversation, we were praying with her and she wanted to make sure that we went next door to talk to her daughter!  Later, we met up with another group of 3 from our church and Haley said, “that old lady over there sitting on her front porch is soooo nice!”  They had approached her not realizing we already had…

It was such an awesome feeling to know that God’s love had spoken through us to soften her heart to the others that would come her way that day!


Last week when I was up there I ran around with a few others to look at a few houses in need of repair to determine if our groups could help them or not. Honestly, my mindset was “get in, get the info we need, determine if we can help or not, and move on to the next as fast as possible”.

At our first house we met Gabe and Sandy (not their real names). Gabe is a man in his 40’s who has some sort of mental handicapped. He could speak well and you could tell he thought well but was alittle lack in personal care. So his older sister was there. She said that she needed to care for him since their mom passed away a few years ago. She took a deep breath and said “and we lost 2 uncles this year, and my other brother is in the hospital today about to have surgery because the cancer came back and this time its in his throat…” 

Boom. Bombshell. She started to sob as she was speaking but couldn’t anymore after “in his throat” as her sobs grew louder.  My heart sunk with grief over this woman’s loss. One of the ladies, Merci, rushed in and held her as Sandy sobbed. I moved closer to her and but my hand on her back and started to silently pray. 
Gabe then called to the over 3 who had come to check out the house “Hey! Hey ya’ll come pray for her. Her brother is sick!” 
The others look puzzled for a moment and then “rushed” a few feet over to Sandy, Merci and I. We prayed over Sandy for a bit and then spoke truth of God’s unfailing love for us, even when things are awful and sickness is part of the equation. He is still bigger, sometimes He heals, sometimes not. But He is.

One comment

  1. Awesome stuff Corey! Now you have me wondering how my actions today will affect those around me that I know and don’t know.
    I sure love you and Laura! See you soon!
    xo

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