Remembered Blessings

I can’t remember everything, I am not good with names, and I feel like everyone else changes, but I look the same. The COC and all the faces I have seen are a big part of my life but there are also years of teaching little children, our farm, my Church family, and all my kid’s friends...I just can’t remember it all, can you?

Walking down the grocery aisle in Eaton, a young woman approached me and asked, "Do you work in Greeley?” I answered that I have been a teacher, thinking she was a former student (embarrassed that I couldn’t remember). “No,” she said looking hard into my eyes. “Maybe we go to the same Church?’ I asked. “No,” she looked determinedly at me, “No, a place that helps people?” “Oh,” I smiled, "the Community Outreach Center!” “Yes!” she brightened and told me she had a story to tell me.

“About 12 years ago, my husband was not doing well, and I had two boys, 3 and 4 years old. We had nothing. It was a cold and sad time in my life and my boys and I went to the C.O.C. You gave us Christmas. You gave us blankets and food and coats. You gave me presents to give my boys on Christmas morning. I just wanted you to know that you gave us Christmas. It is a good memory for me! And I wanted you to know my husband got better, but he died a while back. I am working here now. My boys are in high school, and they are big and playing football. But you need to know that that was a great Christmas.”

I have to say that I get kind of emotional when I think of that encounter in a grocery store far away from the COC, about an experience that happened a long time ago to a woman and her family, that I don’t even remember. The items she received were donated by people that cared about the people that go to the COC—that they don’t even know. The gift of Christmas was shared with complete strangers, but the impact stayed with them, and I am sharing it with You.

Sometimes, I don’t know what to say to people when they ask how they can help the COC. Yes, we need your donations. Yes, we need your financial donations, too, 'to keep the lights on.' Yes, we need Prayer—every day! But I need you to listen to that still small voice, and that nudge in your heart to help…not just the COC but the people that need us every day--even when you can’t remember their name. 

Thank Goodness,

He remembers our names,

Pam