During Kingship’s Father's Day gathering, I had the opportunity to bid on a silent auction item to help a local resident in need, and low and behold I and another church member won this honor to share. It took a couple months to coordinate everyone's schedules, and then the happy day arrived in September. I'm often anxious about meeting someone new. Will we hit it off? How will our conversation go?
When the front door opened a warm welcome greeted me in the form of a man named Will. He was an open and engaging gentlemen who shared his story with me without any promoting. He was just honest and wholesome about his health challenges over the past couple years that had led to me being there.
I had learned Will is a big-hearted man, a family man, who loves the outdoors, enjoys boating, camping, and motorcycling. He's been a DIY guy for as long as he could remember, and now sometimes even the simple things are difficult to tackle. So, I was there to help with some of those chores and ease the burden. Some rototilling, shoveling, and grading of a flower bed, plus haul a derelict BBQ grill away. Rian my co-worker shows up with our rented rototiller, and Will fills him in on what he's missed, sharing a somewhat abbreviated story, and then we get started. It's really interesting to hear him tell what led to his health difficulties.
It was a little more work than we had bargained for, which made the helping effort of it all the more rewarding. Will kept us engaged in conversation most of the time we were at it. He couldn't stand for long periods, so he got his camp lounge chair out. It was like he was working along with us, actually he was, he was picking up some of the mess we were making at times. I could tell he wanted to be part of the action. I really enjoy him being there because it was much more relational that way. He kept our minds engaged with conversation asking about our families, our interests, our jobs and laughter.
By the end of the afternoon and things were cleaned up we all felt like we had made a new friend. This wasn't just a job, a routine volunteer effort at the church. Will and his wife were folks who we could connect with in heart felt thanksgiving of the Lords leading of this opportunity. They in accepting assistance; we in giving of our time. I know it's not an easy thing to ask for help, thinking I can do that myself. And on the other side of things, we too often say I'm too busy, sorry. Slowing down, listening to the Holy Spirit's leading has blessed results if we let it in. I know I was blessed by my meeting Will. Appropriately we all embraced in a hug and prayed together at the end of a perfect day.
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