One thing I will say about this community....there is no way the church could pay a person a living wage...just not enough money in the limited families there are. But, those same families...well, when one young family's house burned down and they lost everything..the whole community got together, brought over clothing for them and their 4 kids, toys, games, food, and there were immediately organized dances, baked good sales, and donations for an auction that enabled them to get back on make a deposit + 1st month and start utilities on an apartment down in town. People went through and gathered furniture, pots and pans, tableware, curtains, blankets, sheets, towels...everything they needed so that when they moved in they weren't sitting on boxes and sleeping on floors. With the money that was raised at the fundraisers, we were able to buy new beds for each of their kids.
When one of our young mothers had to go to the hospital for a week, the community again joined forces to care for the children, pay her husband's low wage while he was at the hospital for his wife, keep the refrigerator full of easily reheated food so that she wouldn't have to cook...as well as folks going over to clean her house for her so that she wouldn't have to worry about that either while she recuperated.
One of our men has cancer and we are watching him slowly die. He actually has one of the better incomes around here, he is the employer of the above mentioned husband. However, his insurance caps ran out long ago for his cancer treatments and now he and his wife are struggling with medical bills....Again, this community rallied around and organized a huge auction. We hit all the businesses, wealthier people, asked for any and all donations...goods, services, furniture, you name it.....We managed to raise over $17,000 for his medical bills....naturally the money didn't come from our community...there is no way that money is to be found here....but we organized it and promoted it and called anyone and everyone about it and well over 300 people showed up for it.
These people around here...they are like the widow and her mite. They give out of their own want...not out of their excesses. If they can't give money, they make goods...if they can't make goods, they give services...if they can't give services, they are there at the function to cook, to clean and to help out.
I can't tell you how many times I have gone down to the store, paid $30 to make food for a fund-raiser, then gone to the fund raiser and paid another $20 to eat the food I brought. It's just how we take care of our neighbor's around here.
I can't tell you what a hit in the gut it is to me to hear someone suggest that this community doesn't have faith.
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