Why Should I Be Surprised?

At this writing, I am weeping with joy to be a member of this church family. I have just read the lengthy article in The Washington Post about “our” April and am filled with renewed gratitude for this giving congregation. I first heard about April when a work team went to her home last year, and I had regretted not going. At an Outreach Committee meeting, we voted some funds to assist. Other than that, I did not know the extent of the continuing support for April until reading this article.
Yet why should I be surprised? I know members who are still visiting or calling folks whose homes were “improved” years before. On this same Sunday morning during worship, another member described his growing relationship with a 28-year-old Rwandan refugee who wants a university education so he can become self-reliant and further support his widowed mother. Good Shepherd members immediately responded generously. After worship I met a visitor whose home was rebuilt in Miami by a Good Shepherd work team after Hurricane Andrew several years ago!

Good Shepherd continues to send a team annually to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and then assist with their winter fuel and clothing needs and scholarships all year round. Members continue to cook and serve meals at the Bethany Women’s Center; make sandwiches and collect food for the homeless; fill backpacks, Christmas stockings and Easter baskets for needy children; and bake lots of cookies for prisoners.
Members of this generous church family share multiple gifts in many areas, particularly in caring for one another, but I feel especially graced when those gifts and talents are shared with our less fortunate neighbors, near and far.