For this week’s blog post I would like to share an inspirational story written on June 26th by KY-MSC Missionary Laura Roberts, Executive Director of Starfish Orphan Ministry in Paducah. So thankful for missionaries and ministries such as this that show and share the love of Christ daily to families across Kentucky.
Yesterday at Starfish Orphan Ministry a young woman came in with her mother. She explained her story about how she had found herself homeless and pregnant with 2 children. She had to give up her children temporarily while she got her life back together.
The good news is, she worked hard and got them back, and was moving into an apartment yesterday. The problem was, she had nothing. (Like no beds for her or her children to sleep in, no towels to dry with, no chairs to sit in, no pots and pans to cook in…). We explained to her that we had almost everything she needed, even pictures to hang on the walls, she and her mother both cried. They were humble and thankful. We explained that it was God blessing her and her children. God had led people to donate much of this, and allowed us to be a tiny part in the process of blessing her with it.
My friend and I prayed with her and her mom, as they both wept. This girl had all the required paperwork to back up what she had told us. When we were done with that part of it, we had explained that we did not have anyone to deliver to her right then. She said she had someone that could pick it up.
When the elderly man arrived in a small pickup truck to get the apartment full of furniture , he explained that he had just gotten out of the hospital, and could not lift anything heavy, and would not be able to make multiple trips. He had just felt sorry for her and offered to drive.
It was almost end of the day, there were no men there, some of the volunteers had already gone home, but there were myself and four other women left. We came from different backgrounds, but it didn’t matter. We had different skin colors, but it didn’t matter. We had different reasons for volunteering that day. One of us was ordered by a judge to be there, but it didn’t matter because she said “I’ll call my mom, she will help too. So, 6 women loaded the big box truck and headed out at the time that “volunteer time” was over. We worked together to deliver this gift to this mom and her children.
We all left feeling blessed to have gotten to see the difference made. A very pregnant mom and her children would have had to sleep on the floor, but instead their family was together for the first night in a long time, and they each had their own bed! Praise God!
When I climbed into my bed last night I thanked God for their beds and my bed. I thanked God for the people who donated the items, and for the people who folded and sorted the items, for all the people and groups who have raised money for us to buy the material to build the beds and those who have donated to them, for the friend who oversees the bed building, for the mattress company who donates crazy amounts of mattresses for children in need. I thanked God for the foundation that supports Starfish with operating expenses so that we can stay open and all other donations can go to help the families like this one and for little children who raise money with lemonade stands or recitals in Grandma’s yard. I thanked Him for the churches that support Starfish monthly and the individuals who stick a random check in the mail or donate online. I wished that all those people could have been there and seen that Mamma cry!
Then I thought about the blessing. …. who was blessed today? The woman and her children obviously, but I guarantee you that each woman that helped today would tell you that we were blessed as much as the woman was!
Starfish is getting more requests each day. Our overfilled warehouse is looking vastly different! We are very low on some types of furniture. We have missed out on lots of furniture lately because of no one to pick it up.
For those who deliver and pick up, we provide masks (if you want to wear them), we provide hand sanitizer, we have a spray that kills germs on surfaces, we have gloves available. We can have the items waiting outside.
We desperately need people on call to go pick up and deliver. We have a church group (who I am SO thankful for) who comes the second Saturday of each month to do pickups and deliveries, but we really need at least one more to do another Saturday. We need drivers and lifters. It could be that your family would want to make up a pickup/delivery team!
If people could understand the blessing, if they could have been with us yesterday, there would be people fighting to do it!
If you want the blessing of helping, please call 270-519-7340.
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