God Knocked on Our Door (Both Hands)

 

 

 First it was a text.  Our friend, Alicia, messaged asking if we'd ever heard of the organization, Both Hands.  Making a mental note to check it out later, I went back to playing with the family in the backyard.  About an hour later, a young woman came to the door selling books.  She was a persuasive one, not giving in with a "no".  She kept selling until I let her know that we couldn't buy anything because we were on a tight adoption budget.  Her immediate response? 

 

"Have you ever heard of Both Hands?" 

It was Google time. 

 Sometimes God actually has to knock on our door to make us pay attention.

 

Both Hands is a ministry that seeks to serve both widows and orphans.  The thought is that you serve a widow with one hand and an orphan with the other.  Adoptive families and volunteers spend a day serving a local widow and also raise awareness for their fundraising needs.  Participants are supposed to send letters of support and ask other volunteers to do the same. 

 

My response?  No way, no how.  Loved the idea of serving a widow.  Didn't like the idea of focusing on us.  But, we are called to serve widows AND orphans. 

 

James 1:27  tells us that

 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

 

But sending letters?  Asking others to?  No thanks.  For somebody else, yes.  Us no. 

 

But, within days, Alicia had found a list of widows within our church that needed help. 

A list.  Mark and I had been praying for our church to have more local outreach opportunities.

 

A day later, a specific woman who had lost her husband two years ago was decided upon.  They'd spent most of their savings on his care, so she needed some help.  Confirmations that we were to do this kept coming in. 

 

Mark, my perfectionist project managing husband, immediately got stressed.  With work and Army obligations, how were we supposed to organize a team, allocate supply donations and plan work done well?  We were feeling stretched and cringing with what it seemed we were being called to do. 

 

I immediately started praying for a project manager,
believing that if he were this stressed, that we shouldn't do it. 

 

 A couple days later, we drove out to look at Ms. Cindy's house.  Being the man that he is, he committed himself in that moment.  My thought?  "Seriously God?  You want us to do THIS when we are weary from the adoption battle?"   A day later, we got an unsolicited email from Bud, a church staff member offering to be our project manager.  A couple days more, he sent a list of donations made by Home Depot and Lowes, and a painter who was willing to work for free. 

 

Yep, big fat confirmation. 

A date was set and we moved forward to this weekend. 

Saturday sacrificed, a group of friends will show up to serve a widow. 

Loving it!

Today, Mark and Bud spent the day unloading supplies and prepping the serve site. 

Our friend, Richard, called to say that he'd gone over to get a head start on mowing.  He'd spent two hours with his industrial mower.    We are feeling all kinds of blessed to be surrounded with friends who don't just think serving is a good idea.  They act and see it as an opportunity. 

 

This project that felt like such a "stretch" was EXACTLY what we need at this time.  Blessing lies in taking your eyes off of  your worries and your agenda.

 

Our hope and prayer is that Ms. Cindy feels an avalanche of love tomorrow. 

 

Find out more about our Both Hands project.