Sometimes ‘help’ is a stroller. This little guy’s expression captures the joy of it perfectly! ❤️
Together Ministry Center’s mission focuses on relationship, hope, and help. Today I am writing about the “help” part, because of late it has been underlined and highlighted in so many ways. And I had a personal experience with it recently.
Saturday I was finishing up my prayer run, with about a mile left to go. Because I was dealing with some aggravating foot pain, I stopped to stretch and see if that might give relief. After the stretch, I took a couple steps and felt a “pop” under the ball of my foot. My first “post-pop” steps on that foot caused excruciating pain. Aargh. The pain prevented me from both running and walking.
So I started hopping across the nearby high school parking lot, and every few steps I used the heel of my injured foot to help me balance. Then I tried to reason how long it was going to take me to get home this way. A mile of hopping? In pain and desperation, I began praying for help.
Mercifully, someone saw me. When he called, “Are you okay!?” and his wife started running toward me, I felt tears well up in my eyes. By the time I was face-to-face with the answer to my prayer, tears were streaming down my face. Thank You, Lord! Here was my help!
Help. What a blessed four-letter word! When Together Ministry Center gets to be that four-letter word in action, we are as blessed as the recipients. In the past month, we’ve had some sweet opportunities to offer help.
- An older friend, a diabetic amputee, needed special shoes and an insert to properly take care of his feet and protect him from future issues with diabetic neuropathy. When we realized he didn’t have the shoes because he couldn’t afford them, we were able to supply his need.
- Another friend, a young woman, was having an increasingly difficult time seeing. She put aside her plans to go to college because of debilitating double vision. Although her problem could be corrected with surgery, her family couldn’t afford the copay required. After my husband spoke with local Lions Clubs about her situation, they chose to underwrite the surgery expense. What a wonderful gift they gave TMC for her! So now our young friend has had the much-needed surgery. We are excited to see what is next for her.
- Recently we befriended a sweet young mother and her child. When I mentioned taking a walk at the park with her toddler, I realized she had no stroller and no thought of spending money on that ‘extra,’ either. Sometimes small blessings open up new possibilities. And in this case that small blessing was a simple stroller, which we were able to provide. So on the day she got a stroller, our young friend strolled her toddler to our TMC RV for story time. He has a new ride! (The picture says it all!)
Together Ministry Center exists to provide relationship, hope, and help. Help is an action word: to satisfy a need… to strengthen… to offer relief. ‘Help’ is often the birthplace of hope and relationship, as well. Ah, blessed help! How blessed TMC is to help!
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you…” Matthew 7:12