Blessings

"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered." ~Proverbs 11:25

The first week of March I felt in my heart that I should venture down to Petal, MS, to help with the tornado cleanup in the area. I am still unemployed and felt that I should do more with my life than sit at home on my couch like a bum perusing the internet for exercise physiology job openings. Even though I had only gotten home the week before from a three week stint in New Jersey, I had an itch to get back on the road again to serve because I had the ability to donate my time, since I don't have the ability to donate money. Thankfully my mom believes in helping to fund missionaries, and since she now considers me a missionary, I had funds to travel down to Mississippi. I thought that was blessing enough, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. About three days before I was to leave for Mississippi, I was conversing online with a member of my Samaritan's Purse family. At the moment, he doesn't have the ability to deploy to any of the disaster relief locations, but he told me he was proud of me for my willingness to sacrifice my time in order to serve others and asked if he could serve me by providing gas money for my excursion. I was honestly dumbfounded and honored that he wished to assist me and felt very moved by his kindness and generosity. It was definitely an amazing blessing and relief to have some additional funds for my travels so I could be more focused on the work, rather than stressed over money.

When I was in Mississippi, the people were very warm and welcoming. This one woman, Mary, was kind enough to help me put a lunch together on my first day and later in the week, she told me to look her up in the phone book if I ever returned to the area because she would love for me to stay at her house. On top of that, my team members became great friends. I met some lovely people from Michigan who were very entertaining throughout the week, though to them, I looked like an angry sunglasses wearing German who laughed too much. Other than not being friends at meal time because I would try to steal potato chips, we got along well. I enjoyed the friendly banter and being able to work side by side with a variety of people. 

I was also blessed on my second work order in Mississippi by serving as the safety spotter for the skid steer operator. Don is an arm amputee, but you would never know it by the way he easily maneuvers the skid steer. He's an amazing man who works hard always and has a big heart. He also has quite an eye for detail because on a huge dirt lot, he was able to spot a Bible on the ground that not only survived the tornado, but the complete demolition of the house. Don asked me to clean it off and present it to the home owner, which is the second time since November I have had the opportunity to present a salvaged family Bible to a home owner.

I think one of the biggest blessings from my service came in the mail the other day, though. God's timing is amazing and He knew I needed my spirits to be lifted. I've been a little down this past week for a variety of reasons, partly due to the stress of not knowing what to do with my life. I had shared what I'm doing with some people I knew in college and they weren't exactly supportive, which made me question my purpose and begin to wonder why I have yet to find an exercise physiology job. I opted to make a brief appearance at my house yesterday to visit my parents and I happened to have a package. It was sent from somebody whom I'd met in New Jersey while working with Samaritan's Purse and whom I'd spent time serving with when I had returned to Moonachie in February. Inside was a framed thank you note expressing his appreciation for my help and how he would never forget it. I never knew how much I would be blessed by others through my service, but that letter of thanks has served as a great reminder that I am on the right path and doing what God wants me to be doing, even if it doesn't fit into what society expects of me.