Good News - February 2020

What act of kindness have you witnessed recently that stopped you in your tracks? I recently attended a church here in Broward County where they stopped in the middleof theserviceand invited thecongre- gation to pray for the needs of two other neighboringchurches. Iwasdeeplyencour- aged by the growing tangible expression kindness and generosity that is developing between churches in this region! Alan Platt, Doxa Deo / City Changers Over the Christmas holiday, Kathy and I contracted this cold going around the community. This cold bug was not your normal cold bug and it put both of us down for the count. One morning, we got a call that a very close friend of the family had made us a large pot of chicken soup. Homemade chicken soup with everything but the kitchen sink in it. Both of us had not even left the apartment except to go to the doctor's office for an- tibiotics. Over the next two weeks, she continues to make more special homemade soup for us and it quite frankly brought us back to life. Doing unexpected things for people in a loving way has a profound impact on the receiver. I am always amazed when people do things for others without question and watch over you to ensure your safety. Nancy was a blessing indeed. Andy and Kathy Mitchell , President and Founder, The Fairwinds Group and Operation Lift Hope This fall Jane and I were privileged to travel to Guatemala with Les Feldman and the representatives of Hope Haven to observe their facility where adjustable, versatile and durable wheelchairs are constructed and distributed to children who otherwise must be carried by their parents or spend the rest of their lives in bed. We participated for a full day along with the staff of Hope Haven actually working to adjust the chairs for 12 children. The adult Hope Haven employees that build the chairs and work to fit them perfectly to the children are themselves all in wheelchairs. See- ing the joy in these employees as they sang Christian songs and served these chil- dren and then the joy of the mothers that walked in carrying 3-5 year olds and left with them sitting up in wheelchairs literally "stopped us in our tracks" as we were overwhelmed with emotion. William “Bill” C. Davell , Director, Tripp Scott Attorneys at Law A few weeks ago as I was desperately trying to negotiate peace in the backseat; Rivers (5), Nora (2), Summer (1) were all fighting over something really important, like a Pokemon. Pulling into traffic, I realized too late, I cut someone off in the worst way. As I was emotionally preparing myself for an onslaught of middle fingers and profanities, the victim pulled alongside me and gave me a kind smile and mouthed, 'don't worry about it.' He drove away and probably not realizing he changed the trajectory of my entire day. Bob Denison, President, Denison Yachting There is a man who comes to our church and also First Baptist FtLwho ministers to kids from the inner-city. There are between 50 and 60 of them that he picks up regularly throughout the week, taking them to various activities, including church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. He helps these families in many ways, including paying for their light bills and other expenses if they fall behind. Every Christmas he gets each child three gifts, wraps them and has a Christmas party for themwith all their favorite foods, and then he goes and collapses for a cou- ple of days, spending Christmas by himself. This past year he has had some major health issues, and has had to stop work- ing. As a result he’s now on early retirement Social Security, which is a severe reduction of his income. Still, he enlisted the help of members of First Baptist and First Christian in Fort Lauderdale for the kids, and he was able to get a lot, most, of the gifts the kids had asked for under $20. What he couldn’t get, he made up for by purchasing $20 gift cards, so the kids could purchase what they desired. This year did not go well, because though a couple of the mothers helped him wrap presents, someone apparently helped themselves to the gift cards intended for the kids so that a number of the kids did not get gifts they wanted and there were no gift cards for them to buy their own gifts. He didn’t realize this until he handed out all the gifts. One family in particular had come up short, but it was too late. Christmas was upon them, and he had nothing with which to make up the shortfall. He was, needless to say, despondent. The next day, which was the day after Christmas, he had $20 to his name. He decided to go to Lester’s Diner and treat himself to breakfast. While he was there he saw another attendee to one of our Bible studies who asked to join him and who gave him $20 to pay for his breakfast. That generous person has a fat dog, and when he noticed two women in an adjacent booth not having finished their break- fasts, he asked if he could take their leftovers to his dog. He is a little rough in ap- pearance sometimes, and apparently they suspected that he was going to take the food to eat it himself. They acquiesced and also gave him $50. He in turn gave the $50 to the fellow with the children’s ministry. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the restaurant, when it was realized that some other generous patron had managed to gather all the checks for every- one in Lester’s at the time and had paid their tabs, wishing them all a hearty “Merry Christmas!” Pleasantly surprised, and freshly heartened by the generosity of others, the fel- low from children’s ministry then drove to visit the family who had not gotten much and gave him the $70 that other people had given to him. This whole story of gen- erosity blew me away or as you phrased it, “stopped me in my tracks.” H. Collins Forman, Jr., P.A. Recently a bailiff in court handed me an envelope containing a note wishing me a great 2020 and included two mini chocolates. I smiled and was quickened to re- member how a kind and simple gesture could make a difference in someone's day. We are afforded daily opportunities to bless someone with a kind and simple gesture, I pray I don't miss those opportunities. Cynthia J Arevalo-Bialy, Esq., Law Offices of Cynthia Arevalo Amom from my church and her husband both lost their jobs at the same time. Since they were behind on their bills, and they hadn't shared their plight with anyone, they received notice on Friday that their electricity would be turned off at 5 pm on Monday,.The mom went to a prayer meeting Monday morning at a friend's church (whose husband was the pastor). This friend greeted her with, "It's you!" and handed her a envelope that a man, who had never attended her church before, had given her Sunday, saying, "You'll know who to give it to." He had driven two and half hours Wants to Know… Andy & Kathy “Bill” C. Davell Bob Denison Mitchell William Alan Platt Collins Foreman Cynthia J Arevalo-Bialy Deborah Cusick