What a wonderful Spark! Love David Dear David, I have recently become a fan of your Facebook page, and Id like to share with you why. My family has very little. We are fortunate to have a roof over our heads, a vehicle to get us where we need to go, clothes to wear and food to eat, but we live paycheck to paycheck. We are currently heating our house with electric heaters because we couldnt afford oil, and our electric bill is past the 2 thousand mark because of it. I tell you this so that you can understand how profound my 10 year old sons actions were. With money so tight, we were left to rely on donations from an adopt a family program to provide a Christmas for our four children. It hurt me and my fiance as parents to be unable to give them anything that they asked for, but my boys, who are 9 and 10, know that Santa isnt real and they understood our financial difficulties. About 2 weeks ago, my 10 year old son came home from school without his hat or gloves. When I asked him where they were, he shrugged and gave me the standard I dont know. Annoyed, I read him the riot act and grounded him, because it wasnt the first time hed lost things like that. Later that night, when I called him down to discuss responsibility and taking care of the things youre given, I was floored by what he told me. His bus stop is in front of an old, abandoned church. Apparently, there was a homeless man whod been sleeping in the church during some record breaking freezing temperature nights. My son saw him leaving the church one morning and smiled at him, said good morning. They talked until my sons bus arrived. I learned that in the weeks that followed, my son, who receives free lunch at school because of our financial difficulties, was choosing the ala Carte option instead of the hot lunch... because it meant that he could save the sandwich, milk carton, bag of fruit, and whatever else, to give to this man in the mornings. On the day that he came home without his hat and gloves, hed seen the man, who told my son that his name was Dave, leaving the church with a garbage bag. Dave said that the church was being bought by someone and he couldnt sleep there anymore. My son told him goodbye and gave him one final gift: his hat and gloves, because he worried that Dave wouldnt be able to find someplace warm enough to sleep at night. I have done something so truly right, raising this caring and selfless child, who even though we have so little ourselves, understood and recognized the need for some kind of gesture to show this homeless man that he was still a person, and worth more than a bed in an abandoned church. My son asked for no praise, no pat on the back, no reward... and I believe that is the truth of your mission. Please, if you share this story on Facebook, keep it anonymous... were private people, but I thought that this message was worth sharing... because it made me, as a proud mother, search the streets for Dave, hoping to invite him share a meal with his buddy, my son, and the rest of our family.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 20:00:00 +0000