This is sort of an update on a previous article. At Christmastime I posted an entry called Holiday Musings in which I wrote about what we did for the holidays.
One of the things I mentioned was inviting a mother and daughter to our home for Christmas. They were living out of a motel and our church had been helping them since late fall. Just before Christmas they were given many nice gifts from the church family as well as many other helps and offers. They were regulars at our Wednesday Night Fellowships which included both a meal and a study. When they came to our home for Christmas, we also provided them gifts to open, a nice meal and fellowship. It was a nice night. I sent them both out with all the leftovers they could muster.
That night I had talked to them at length and still wondered why all the misfortune had happened to them. I know by experience that many times we get into these situations as a result of a chain of bad choices we make along the way. Not wanting to pry I didn't ask, but they sure had quite a hard life by the sounds of their stories. Sounds like they moved around quite a bit.
That was the last time I saw them. As I had also mentioned in my earlier blog, we were in the process of providing a car for them. Well that car was bought by us and given to them. As soon as the car was handed to them, they left us with no warning. No goodbyes. Nothing. They left behind a church full of people shaking their heads wondering if they had done the right thing by helping them so readily without hesitation.
Right before they left tho, we heard that the mom had hurt herself at her job. She was suing the workplace. I don't know any details but I do know that many from our church work at that hospital where she was employed and are feeling very badly about all this. They feel the pain most from helping them the most. One of the young ladies from our church who was really the motivater behind us as a church helping them was the most hurt. I guess she had vouched for them and had found them their jobs. Now she feels awful.
Now both are gone ,and we ask ourselves would we do this again? The answer is yes. We would. God will deal with them. It's our job to help those out who are down and out in their luck. But even saying that, we should be good stewards and try to discern as we give if we are truly helping them or enabling them. Sometimes that's a hard thing to know. Maybe what they learned from us will burn in their hearts and they will eventually really "get it." Right now, it's between them and God.