Good morning…
One month ago today, I filled our car with generously donated items and drove the requested “snacks and drinks” to PAWkids for New Year’s Eve. Homemade cupcakes, cookies, and oatmeal packets. Waters, juices, cocoa mix and milk. Chips, protein bars, and paper goods. The day before, I had also made a big batch of homemade turkey/vegetable soup to share. The policemen in the Grove Park area planned to hold open the Blue House on the PAWkids campus to welcome in homeless people or those from the neighborhood in need of safety, nourishment, and companionship as time ticked from 2021 to 2022.
I had woken that morning to a fun email. “Hi Sue,” a friend from church wrote. “The children in our family made up about 20 hygiene bags at our family Christmas celebration for us to take to PAWkids next week. Would these bags be a good addition to tonight’s event? We also have a few odds and ends left over from the bags as well as a couple packs of diapers and wipes. Let me know if you think you can use these tonight, and I’ll bring them to your house. Happy new year!”
“Oh, yes!” I replied. “That would be wonderful. What a great idea. I will take those down with the refreshments tonight as God’s love expands through our community. Thank you so much and happy new year to you and yours!”
Then I prayerfully thought, “God, what am I to do with the money donated for this PAWkids project?” (Some who were not in town donated money through the Gratitude Gift tab on our SueToYou website.) Along with a few other needed supplies, the Spirit spurred me to purchase the ingredients for six homemade Stromboli. Three types of meat and three types of cheese. Spices and pizza dough. Sauces to heat up and drizzle over the warm, oozy delicacy.
I enjoyed a whirlwind of a day. Generous people dropping off donations. I shopped and cooked with joy in my heart. Eventually I packed up the car, I drove twelve minutes downtown to PAWkids, and I unloaded the goodies with staff members I love. It made my heart happy to hear one say, “We have a few large families who could really use the soup and Stromboli. Is it okay if I deliver these homemade meals to people we serve who need it most?”
With joy, I beamed, “Yes.”
The whole day was a big, fat “Yes” to God’s fun invitation. For such a time as this, we are privileged to nurture a deepening sense of community in our city, from affluent Buckhead to poverty stricken Bankhead. Hands on ways of building bonds cultivate authentic friendship, two-way street relationships that are vibrant and mutually-beneficial.
What I love most is that New Year’s Eve was not a one time event. This afternoon from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, a group of us will go to PAWkids as homework helpers and, because of the growing interested, we have opened up additional slots on Wednesday afternoons for volunteers in this after school enrichment program. Each Tuesday morning, I look forward to attending our therapeutic community group at PAWkids. Black and white, men and women, honest sharing does all of our souls such good. Also this month, driven by my own uneducated curiosity, I met for two hours with the director and the founder of Grove Park Restoration so that I can begin to catch a vision for how affordable housing might be protected in this area of our city as gentrification forces change.
I truly sense that God is up to something very important as we begin this brand new year. We are pushing past old inner barriers that unconsciously separated us. Together, we are freely falling into the deeper, abundant love God feels for all of us.
…Sue…
