One of our work teams received the following letter from a Mission Week family:

I have witnessed a miracle this week, and am humbled, moved to tears, moved to laughter and moved to shouts of joy over what has happened through Mission Week to my home and my life.

Each of you witnessed to me a new image of Christ, by giving and giving and giving until every muscle in your bodies must have ached. And then you came back and did it again the next day! And the next! And the next! Who gives that much? You all showed me something that was so far beyond my idea of church and missions that it has truly blown my mind.

This has been a healing week for me, full of every emotion I can name.  Cathartic, yes. Helping me get rid of darkness (literally) – those of you who scraped the black off my windows know. Helping me get rid of shame of what I could not fix physically or monetarily. I had literally locked away so much of my house to the outside that I thought I would never unlock some of those doors.

What I know from various conversations with you all is that some of you have things at your own homes that need repair and money, and yet you chose to give to me – a stranger - this huge gift. I will practice gratitude over and over as a result of this, and look for ways to pay it forward.

Working full-time, with rheumatoid arthritis, leaves me with nothing left over at the end of a day. So seeing you all who work so hard all year, who have your own needs, your own health challenges, take a week of your vacation or any spare hours your have and pour it into Mission Week is such a HUGE inspiration and act of kindness it can only be described as the Spirit of God moving inside your hands, your hearts and reflecting God’s compassion and generosity back to me.

Thank you for literally HUNDREDS of things you did to my home to improve it and turn what had become a burden into now a paradise for me, a soft place to fall at the end of the day, a place that is full of peace. Its walls will remember your touches of kindness, your laughter, your hammers and paint brushes, your many tools and gifts and muscles that restored its dignity – giving me some dignity back as will, renewing my hope and faith in miracles.

May God forever bless you as I have been blessed this week. May the wind always be at your back as you continue to do these acts of kindness. Please know that my life and my heart have been changed forever by what you did this week.

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