Thank you for the beautiful gift that you have given to me. It is like I have a new home. In fact many of the Whitehouse Church members refer to it as my new home. I love the new deck, the new hand rail, the gazebo at my back door, the clean flower beds, the fixed fence, the beautiful French doors and the beautiful outside paint job. I stand back and stare in wonder at all that has been done for me and in such a short amount of time.

I have never had so much given to me or done for me. I am in awe at what you have done. Before I moved to Whitehouse I was so down and felt so lost! Then I moved to Whitehouse and my life began to change. It’s like God did have a plan for me.

A special thank you to the person who paid for the new decking boards. God bless you and thank you for your gift.

I want to that the Whitehouse UMC members and our new pastor, Matt Thomas, for all of their hard work. A special thank you to Homer Stokes for putting my name on the list and Marshall Neill, JD Arnold and Glenn Shackleford for organizing the work site.

Thank you to the workers from Marvin, Pollard, St. Paul and other churches, the cooks, those who brought the food, water, and ice, and the Quilts for Kids ladies who made the cool neck wraps.

Thank you and God bless all of you.

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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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