Today I want to share with you about Ms. Lou and her son Tracy! We met them on our first day serving back in Louisiana after returning from our hurricane Delta evacuation. We worked to move several large trees off of her property – it was mostly chainsaw work, with a little bit of raking and moving branches around. The first day we served at Ms. Lou’s house, her son told the chaplains that his mother wasn’t very religious. However, the chaplains talked to her anyway, and then told us that she had accepted Jesus as her savior. We were super happy to hear such good news! Ms. Lou mostly stayed inside her house for that first day, but later on in the day, she came outside and chatted with us. It was such a pleasure to hear her share her story!
She started to open up to us and she really showed us the sweet lady she is. Ms. Lou welcomed us into her little home – it was over 100 years old – and joyfully showed us all her handiwork crafts. She is such a creative woman! She owned an antique shop in town, but the roof had been badly damaged in the hurricane, so she had salvaged some items from her shop and kept them in her home. She gave us old book covers, and generously encouraged us to pick out some earrings from ones that used to be in her shop.
And during our second day working on her property, she invited my whole work team to come back to her house for a home-cooked chicken gumbo dinner! This sweet old lady didn’t have much, but she still offered us her generous hospitality.
That evening, we returned to her home, where she graciously welcomed us in, and treated us with the utmost kindness. Her house was tidied and places were set for us, and it was such a sweet testament of her tender hospitality towards us! She was so thankful for our help, and she really made an impact on my life.
Ms. Lou taught me a lot about hospitality and generosity. Even when she didn’t have much, she still graciously shared what she had. I would challenge you to look inwards. Are you letting your circumstances define your generosity or are you giving what you can, even if you don’t have much? You’ll never comprehend the impact your generosity can make!
Thank you so much for reading, and for your support! As a fundraising update, I only need $1,445 more in order to reach my November 15th deadline of $12,000! Praise the Lord! Please pray for peace about reaching my next deadline – deep down, I know God’s got this, but it’s easy to over-stress! I would also ask you to consider sharing my blogs with others, on your social media platforms – I want everyone to know about what God is doing right now!
It’s been so fun sharing a little slice of my life with you all! Stay tuned for some stories about local ministry soon! Until next time!
here are a few of us eating our lovely gumbo meal!
this is such an incredible picture of true generosity! thank you for sharing, shanan!
aww, thank you so much! this warms my heart!
Wow, such a sweet story! It’s inspiring to hear about people who generous like this 🙂
Aww, yay! That is so good to hear!
Sweet memories and lessons from such simple things! Good words, friend!
What a great reminder for all of us. God has already given us everything we need to share His love with others. We need to be willing to say “here I am God use me.” Thanks for sharing this with us Shanan.