A man in my church told me that his 9 year old daughter had been discussing Sunday school lessons at home. She decided that she was well off and that she could share with others. She did not want us to know but, in discussion with her parents, she had withdrawn her savings and donated it toward our Christmas day community dinner that we put on at the church. She truly is a delightful little girl, and a very thoughtful girl.
My daughter works for the Dominican Sisters in an administrative assistant role. On Thursday afternoon I was meeting with the Night Shelter Chairman when in a flurry of activity she burst into the office, dropped an envelope on my desk and rushed out again. The man I was meeting with looked at me, shook his head as if to say, "Who was that?" I explained it was my daughter... "I thought so." he replied. The envelope had a gift of $500 and a warm supportive letter from the Dominican sisters for our Christmas dinner.
Some months ago a guy who owns a landscaping business dropped into the Habitat for Humanity site. He told us he would do the landscaping when we were ready. I remember because he got carried away while he was there and ended up nailing ceiling battens. "Bloody hell." he said, "I only came to tell you I'd help with the landscaping and now I am nailing! What is it with you people?" I remember him too because we were working side by side and he asked me, "Are you really a parson?" Well on Saturday he turned up with his machinery and took charge of the landscaping. He was so great with the volunteers, helping them, directing them and fitting into the spirit of the site. At one stage his wife and his son turned up and just fitted in as if they belonged. They are nice people.
We opened the drop-in centre at the church at 6:30 on Friday evening. We dished out the sausages, the sandwiches and various food items. I was sitting talking to one bloke, who had been in a mental health ward at the hospital for nearly all year and was now back in a flat. He was so pleased to be back with us. Suddenly my friend pointed toward the door, and said, "Look!". There stood a slightly stunned looking young man with two big plates of sandwiches in his hands. "We were having a customer "do" over the road at the Xerox place. We saw all the blokes come in here. We have a few sandwiches left over and thought you guys could use them." he said. He fished in his pocket and handed me his card. His name is Scott and he too is a nice guy.
We have had a number of phone calls from people who want to come and help with our Christmas day Community dinner. Some of them are from people who helped last year and want to be there again this year. A manager in one of my chaplaincies wants to come with his family to help. We had a call today from a lady who was there last year. She and her family want to help again. She is a nurse and had gone to some trouble to arrange to have the day off just so she could be there with us as part of the team. They too are nice people.
I could go on. I have waxed on in an earlier post that there are "bastards in the world". Tonight I would remind myself that there are a whole heap of "good bastards" in the world. For this I am thankful, to me they are a sign of God's presence among us.
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