By April Terry (personal blog http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

“Dinner at Wendy’s” was an OA that I wrote about a few months ago here at DE. In that post, I told the story of something that happened while my husband, son, and I were dining at a Wendy’s fast food establishment. That evening, my husband nudged me, telling me that a homeless woman had waited until some people left behind their trash and described how she had gone through it to find leftovers. Not finding any food, she drank the remaining soda that they had left behind. I didn’t say anything to my husband, but I walked up to the counter and bought a gift card for $5.00 and then went over and handed it to her discreetly. My husband was proud of me that day, he said, but today as my husband shared the story to our seniors as part of his message for our senior ministry, I heard his side of the same story and it deeply touched me.

Today, I watched my husband choking back the tears as he told the story of how I walked up and bought that gift card. He described his own personal shame and the conviction that he experienced that night and suddenly the story took on a whole new meaning. He said, “That day, Jesus laid on my heart not what my wife did, but rather, what I didn’t do. I could have just as easily bought that woman a hot meal, but instead, I just sat there disgusted by what I saw instead of reaching out like Jesus certainly would have. I truly believe that the Lord used my wife to illustrate to me my shortcoming.”

Read the rest of this entry »

By April Terry (http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

Time is sometimes our worst enemy. These days, we always seem to be rushing here or going there, but we always have a place we have to be. This presents itself as a problem when it comes to how available we are to others. Sometimes, I think about stopping for someone to chat, but I don’t do it because it is a little inconvenient or I am on my way somewhere and don’t have the time. In the end, time has become more valuable than money or things to the people in this world who are forgotten.

I remember a gentleman I used to work with who would come up to my desk at my office. He would hang his arms over my cubical, walk directly up to me, and instead of asking a question, he would tell me some horrible pun. It wasn’t earth-changing interaction, but it was nice and it was thoughtful, and it took his time.  He wasn’t a waster of time at the office, and he certainly wasn’t chronically late, but I will always remember the kindness that went with that guy. When he passed away a few years back, there were a lot of people there from my office and I have a pretty good idea of why it was that he was loved by so many of those at our office.

Read the rest of this entry »

By April Terry (personal blog http://faithwarming.blogspot.com)

Our office staff day had a moving keynote speaker by the name of Richard Santana last week. In his presentation, (I call it that because he started out dressed like a gang member and ended up dressed like the Harvard Graduate that he is) I was particularly impressed with Mr. Santana’s story of his meeting a janitor who influenced him. This janitor, who bore numbers on his arm from the holocaust, saw him go into the boys’ room and break down in tears of frustration from the teasing and abuse he was receiving and so he took an interest in him. He gave the boy little jobs and befriended him. He took an interest in the young man. “God don’t make no junk,” he told the young Richard.

What did that janitor do? From the outside looking in, it doesn’t appear as if he did much. He let the kid clean out some erasers and help sweep some floors, but mostly he listened. Mostly, he gave him his attention. Anyone else might have thought that a Jewish janitor and an at-risk Latino wouldn’t have much in common, but they both understood something about the cruelty of a world that puts labels on people who are different.

Read the rest of this entry »