Random Acts of Kindness

Having been through a disaster of my own two years ago (and still dealing with it, btw), I went to that church's pastor (John Lewis) on Monday morning to ask their needs. Turns out, he is new, having just accepted the Pastor's position three weeks ago!

Anyway, I got a short list written down--things like Bibles, Hymnals, Sunday School supplies, kitchen stuff, etc.

I talked to a few people and made some phone calls and within one hour someone had donated 48 new Bibles! Is that great or what!

A couple days later, I spoke with Pastor Lewis again and he said that some church in Tennessee is donating some used hymnals. I think there are 16, which is a good start. The congregation is only about 40 to 50 persons.

Someone contacted the company that publishes the Sunday School materials the church uses, and apparently that company has a benevolence program, and may replace the schoolbooks free, or for a discounted rate.

On Friday, Pastor Lewis and his wife told me that someone had snuck over the the remains of the church and replaced the Christian flag, which had melted in the fire. They were elated about that, but mystified as to who had done it.

Oh, the best news thus far is that at least three churches volunteered to share their space with the displaced church. None of the other churches are Baptist.

Anyway, your prayers are appreciated. Much has been given, but their needs are huge. And with a small congregation in a small town, there isn't a lot of money available. The church was insured, but I am not yet aware of how much coverage they had. Look at this page for photos.

Oh, the local Cub/Boy Scouts met at that church and have lost some Scouting things which were stored there. Keep them in mind, too. Thanks!

7-25-07
Shopping at Office Depot
Today while running a million errands while trying to run two businesses I made a quick stop into Office Depot in Madison, TN to buy a couple things.

Well, let me tell you--there is no such thing as a "quick" trip to Office Depot! It took about 30 minutes to find the two items I needed and I was feeling impatient (I'd been running way behind all morning). As luck would have it, this store has only one checkout lane open, and two people in line, and one has a full cart.

The lady with the full cart asks me if I have just those two things to buy (yes), then tells me I may check out before she.

If you're a regular reader of this RAKs page you know how much I like when people are nice--well her courtesy was so much appreciated today--especially since I've been totally stressed lately (even my Chiropractor (Dr. David Hall, Rivergate Chiro, btw) noticed it in my muscles).

I thanked this nice lady, and told her about my RAKs web page. The cashier heard this entire conversation and everyone was all smiles. It really made for a nice moment--and all because one selfless person gave up her place in line for me.

2-27-07
War Veteran Dies
Here's a story which isn't really a "random" act, but it shows peoples' goodness of spirit, and the PowerPoint photo gallery made me cry. See the link below.

This is the setup: A friend of mine in Kansas lost a relative recently in the Iraq War. In his words:

The ceremony yesterday was an amazing tribute to Chad (my cousin's son, who spent a lot of time with our family after his father died at age 50) and all who are willing to serve their country.

The outpouring of support in Wichita and in nearly every community between Wichita and the cemetery in Coldwater was really touching. In many towns there were hundreds of people lining the streets with flags, signs and hands on their hearts.

I drove my Mom and Dad from Wichita where the funeral services were held to Coldwater where the graveside services were held. Dad was in tears much of the way. He told me that it is Chad's day, but as a wounded World War II veteran he felt it was a home coming that he didn't get when he came back from Japan in the 1940's.

Coming back to the United States during the Viet Nam War I know how he felt. It was a once in a lifetime event for all of us.

The 200 or so members of the Patriot Guards from across Kansas showed up to support the family and to keep Rev. Fred Phelp's wackos at bay about a half mile from the church. The following link will take you to a power point presentation that we put together this morning: PowerPoint Photo Gallery.

While at the local Dairy Queen [in Great Bend, Kansas], Greg and Linda were ordering their favorite product when they were approached by a man (a retired priest) who wanted to know what they were up to on their bicycles...nothing unusual to this point, this happens everyday. But after talking with him for a few minutes, he paid for their DQ order...then he gave them $20 for future orders. "There, I've done my good deed for the day," he said.

Well, I picked up the mail today and got a surprise from an anonymous person--a $100 gift card to Publix grocery store! Wow!

That came just in time because just last week we had to put our groceries on a credit card (see what that does for your self-esteem--having no money for food).

I don't want my name associated--but I know how much I like hearing stories about random kindnesses so I thought I'd share this one.

Standing in line at the grocery store on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the woman two people ahead of me was clearly buying her whole Thanksgiving dinner--turkey, pans, bread, pies, veggies, stuffing, drinks, everything. It was about 7:00 at night. She was also using paper towels to clean up a whole huge coffee that had spilled all over her groceries.

Well, when it came time to pay, she couldn't find her little thing with her cards in it. She had her wallet, but not the little part that holds her ID, debit and credit cards. She was wildly pulling things out of her purse, frantic, as you can imagine. The cashier did that thing they do to hold the receipt so she wouldn't have to ring it up again, then rang up the guy ahead of me. Meanwhile this poor woman had called someone on her cell phone and was leaving a message saying help, I don't know what to do, I have NO idea where it is...

I knew I had enough money in my account to comfortably cover whatever her basket of groceries had come to (I did need the money BACK, but I didn't need it right then, exactly!). So I said, "Can I help you?" She was completely confused, she insisted, that I couldn't, that's a ton of money. But she really didn't know what else to do and dang, you can't just not have Thanksgiving because you can't find your wallet. (I sympathize.)

So she let me pay the $135 for her groceries. She gave me her card, with her work address, and wrote down her home address and every single phone number she has... and even showed me her health insurance card with her name on it, LOL. I wrote down my address and phone number for her. Then when we were walking out to our cars (this cracked me up because it's SO something I'd do) she pointed to her license plate and said "See, you can find me--but I'll pay you back tomorrow!" I replied that Friday would be plenty soon enough.

She called me later that evening and said she'd found it in a drawer in her kitchen with the pizza receipt from the night before, and thanked me again.

So that's my happy story. Like I told her, I have had so many people do nice things for me over and over again, I was just REALLY GLAD I was to be able to help her!

I hope she passes it on.

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On the way back from Kansas, we got caught in an ice/sleet storm on I-70 Turnpike. We'd just bought a "new" van a few hours earlier and didn't realize there was no washer fluid in it.

Nearly blinded by the salty dirt on our windshield, we squinted in to the nearest service area to get some washer fluid. Of course, they were all sold out.

I talked the clerk into selling me the bottle of window cleaner she used on the store windows. She said I could have the contents of the bottle for free--just not the bottle (it was a Jan-San supply item they reused instead of discarding).

While I was messing with the fluid, another driver noticed I was out and offered to fill my washer reservoir with the bottle he carried on his truck.

Yesterday, I extended my wife the privilege of taking me out to lunch. LOL.

While eating, we were laughing and joking with each other. An older gentleman, sitting adjacent to our table, finished his lunch. On his way out he stopped and placed a dollar on our table. My wife and I were puzzled by his gesture.

I followed the gentleman out the door and asked, "What was that for?"
He said with a smile on his face: "Don't ask questions, you were having a good time and I like to see that."

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After having a really, really stressful and crappy day, I stopped by our local Target store in Hendersonville, not to purchase anything, but just to burn off some energy and find someone for whom to do something nice.

When I'm depressed, it always makes me feel better to do something special for an unsuspecting person.

I found a few items on the clearance shelf then headed to the checkout lanes. I selected a lane where I saw a young mom and her two kids waiting their turn. The shopping cart contained several sensible items for children; many of which came off a clearance shelf.

When it came time to check out, I simply told the cashier to put it on my ticket. My "victim" was very surprised, of course, and tried to refuse, but I told her that I'd had a crappy day and I was going to buy her items for her.

She was basically too astonished to argue too much, so she thanked me as her kids stared wide-eyed.

Funny--I started this Random Acts of Kindness page just 2-3 months ago, and now I've been the recipient of innumerable kindnesses.

Our home and business are situated on seven acres near Hendersonville, Tennessee. On April 7, 2006, all nine buildings on our property were destroyed. In fact, only two buildings weren't totally flattened: our house and a small concrete barn.

While disaster cleanup volunteerism isn't exactly classified as a Random Act of Kindness, it is certainly worth mentioning here because of the sheer size of the task at hand, and the obvious selflessness of so many (hundreds!) of people. Most of whom we had never met before.

So many good people live in our area, and one just doesn't notice until something like this happens. We have had people bring food, water, shovels, chainsaws, a Bobcat, trailers, Sawzall, generators, trash bags, and the list goes on.

We have also had many people donate their time and labor in a wide variety of tasks--let me tell you, it just warms the heart and means more to my wife and me than words can express!

Photos and video cannot do justice to the magnitude of the mess we have to clean up--and picking up debris from eight large buildings and one small one is only a small part of the cleanup process.

The most difficult part is the paperwork, so to speak. That is, the hundreds of phone calls to insurance companies, adjustors, storage units, the County, the City, the electric company, the water company, the cable company (they won't shut it off unless you call them--even if your house is unlivable), the banks, the credit card companies, the cell phone companies, the relatives, the friends, the employees, the customers, the news stations, the newspapers, the restaurants (someone has to feed the volunteers), the Red Cross, FEMA, the SBA (for disaster loan), the churches, the local charities (if you need help and they don't show up on their own, you've got to let them know you're in need), the Chambers of Commerce (in our county, the Chamber was in charge of delegating volunteers to disaster sites--and our street was entirely skipped), the leasing companies (their name is on the insurance as a co-payee), the internet provider, every person who has an auto-debit on any of your bank or credit card accounts, the mortgage companies, and probably some more I can't think of right now.

Just being on the phone is a fulltime job, and the volunteers are the only way a victim of such a major disaster will be able to make the necessary phone calls (this is also the reason my phone calls aren't all done yet--remember, we were overlooked by the agency giving out volunteer assignments the first two weeks after the tornado).

Anyway, thanks to all who helped us and continue to help us (there's still a long way to go). We may not know or remember you personally, but we will never forget you!

Some months after the Hendersonville tornado, a local family applied for, and received, an Extreme Home Makeover via a popular TV show.

The number of companies who donated materials was staggering. The number of individuals who donated their personal time to help build a new home for the Hawkins family was probably over 1,000.

The most impressive thing is something the Hawkins family will probably never fully understand; the volunteers I met were all very happy to be doing the work, and were very concerned about doing excellent work.

For instance, the bookshelves which were featured on a segment of the show were partially painted by the Oak Ridge Boys, and were completed by anonymous volunteers who painted every surface--even the backs which would not be visible after installation.

Everyone wanted to do their best for the Hawkins family. It really impressed me.