Love One Another
This is how our people were loved. Thank you for your submissions. I trust this will encourage all of you.
It was during a period of difficulty, when I was going through discouragement and fear, when I received a text message from our LG leader saying, "Hang in there! You are in our prayers." Just that short sentence made me feel loved, encouraged, blessed, hopeful and at peace. My heart was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Someone took time out of their busy schedule to help us find a great deal on a bike…even going to the purchase…so that our family could bike together this summer….AND they GAVE us a very nice helmet out of their collection.
These past 9 months, 4 sisters in Christ took time to check in on me weekly to see how I was doing…to share life, to laugh, to cry, to encourage and to listen. Only 2 of them were doing it in partnership with each other.
Someone drove almost 30 minutes to our house to drop off a board game so that our family could do something different during the pandemic for family time.
Someone drove over 30 minutes to our house to drop off hand crafted birthday gifts so our daughter would feel special during her COVID birthday.
We felt overwhelmingly blessed by our brethren in Christ who showed us love, compassion, and grace in preparing meals for us. There were many who we did not know on a personal level, and many who were busy themselves juggling work and small children. Thank you for taking the time to show us that you care in this tangible way. It brought much needed relief and alleviated a huge burden at times. Thank you for getting to know us in these difficult circumstances.
My experience of kindness has been through friends taking the initiative to want to meet either for a hike or patio lunch, especially from whom I was not expecting; and as such, I made new friends during the pandemic. I have also taken the initiative to provide meals to people in need and had the opportunity to chat and share with the neighbours, with whom we never talked prior to the pandemic. This chain of kindness was shared and passed around only because of the pandemic. I know it is tough, however I am grateful to CoaH for giving me the ability to see and appreciate this act of kindness. It almost seems that when life is abundant, we lose sight of the little, yet important, things in life.
We felt loved when people provided meals and groceries for us during our time of isolation.
My story is when it was just a few weeks into COVID, a friend messaged me to see how I was doing and at the time I told him I was feeling pretty depressed and lonely so he came by unannounced with a beverage and we just talked briefly, but him going out of his way to bring me a beverage just to cheer me up made me really appreciate not only my friendship with this brother, but it helped me understand more greatly the importance of friendships.
Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Peter