Seeds of Kindness


	CREATING AN ATTITUDE OF GENEROSITY AND SHARING

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Started Our Own Project!

02/20/2003

I was picked back in 2001 to participate in the Seeds of Kindness program at my church in Nashville and prayerfully considered how to use the money. I have quite a soft heart for the homeless of Nashville and right off thought that would be how I would use the money. But, my wife's mother challenged me to be different...find someone that couldn't buy their groceries.

That led me to East Nashville. I went over with my wife's father November 30, 2001, to scout out a few grocery stores in the Shelby Avenue area. We pulled up to one and started to walk in. The doors were the kind that have the mat in front that you step on and the door should automatically open. Well, I stepped on the mat and nothing happened. I thought to myself, maybe the sensor is going bad I should probably press harder. So, I jumped on the mat and still the door didn't open. Then I thought maybe I am on the wrong mat, so I went around the rail and stepped on the mat in front of the other door and again nothing happened. Searching for answers, I looked through the glass door in front of me and noticed a lady laughing and waving me in. That was the problem, the sensors don't work. She said, "Just push." As we walked through the door and past the lady waving us in I noticed she was just standing at the end of the check out register where they bag the groceries and she had a baby with a stroller in front of her. Her image was peculiarly etched in my mind. I'll come back to her later.

We went in looking for a manager to talk with about getting two gift certificates ($50 each). We were referred to the owner of the store, a gentlemen in his mid-seventys behind a desk. After some brief introductions and an explanation of what we were doing, we asked if he new of two people who really needed the money. He immediately thought of one lady and called his son who worked at the grocery store, and they came up with two names for us. The son gave us directions for finding them both.

The first lady we found was so very grateful for the gift certificate. We drove around and around the projects to locate her. We finally did and gave her the gift certificate for $50 to the local grocery and said the money was from the Lord and that we were glad to be able to deliver it. The second lady we wanted to find we actually passed on the street. I noticed her immediately. She was the lady we had encountered at the grocery that was waiving us in. We pulled over, met her in a parking lot, and had a brief conversation. She remembered me. She kind of chuckled. I asked why she was in the grocery because I didn't see any items with her as she pushed her stroller. Her answer as stuck with me. She said, "My heat is out and I brought my baby to the store to warm up."

My father-in-law was so touched by this experience that we felt like we must do more. As a result we have started our own Seeds of Kindness. We decided to identify one person each month in the town where my father-in-law lives � to send $100 to under the same conditions that we operated with Seeds of Kindness money. We have added a twist...no one has any idea about the source of the money. I mail the letter and money from post offices around the country as I travel for my company. Some of the e-mail correspondence we have received with the reports has been really funny. They ask where in the world a certain city is that I mailed if from and how in the world we got their name.

I guess I could go on and on, but, that is what your seeds of have done for our family and are now doing in another church. Thank for sharing your blessings with our family.

God Bless,
Scott

The Kingdom Assignment