Several years ago when we were in the States, someone gifted Kristi a brown jacket. For those of you who know Kristi well, you know that she loves to wear the color brown (and other fall tones as well). Recently, Kristi decided that it was time to re-gift that jacket and she donated it to the clothing room at our sister church’s social outreach program.
Since Kristi works there twice a month, she gets to interact with all of the people who come to receive food and clothing. She is the first face they see as they stand on the sidewalk outside the gate waiting for their turn to come inside. She loves interacting with families as they wait. Often she gets a chance to ask how they’re doing or chat with the children about their favorite Disney character or their teacher’s name.
A few weeks ago at the social outreach ministry, a lady with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine came to the gate and asked if she could come inside, even though she wasn’t officially on the list. Before too long, she was seated and telling her story to the people working at the check-in table. As she shared, it was obvious that she was desperate. She was an immigrant with no family here in Spain. While she did have her residency papers in order, she’d recently lost her job. And just a few weeks ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. She had nothing, not even enough money to pay for public transportation to get to the hospital for her treatments.
The staff at the social outreach program listened to her needs and did all they could to help her. She received a portion of food to make it through the next couple of weeks. And when she stopped by our clothing table on the way out, she picked up…you guessed it…the beloved brown jacket.
As she left with the jacket under her arm, we were reminded of how God’s love was extended to our family through that much-loved brown jacket. And how it would be wrapped around this lady as she endured the next few months of cancer treatments.
Thank YOU for wrapping us in Jesus’ love, so that we can extend that love to the people around us who need it so desperately. Even if it’s in the form of a simple brown jacket.