Hannah Helps

As I previously mentioned, there were some definite high and low points here in the last week since we formally organized Hannah Helps. I told you about meeting Abby and Rich and I told you about the shocking injury and passing of Ted. We organized and worked hard preparing for the funeral which we held yesterday. Today is the grave side service and burial. (This week is also Vacation Bible School at church, so every evening is booked and on Friday we have the funeral for our neighbor, Sandy who just passed too.) As the week progresses, we will be visiting regularly with Deb, Ted’s wife of 50 years. With Ted’s passing being so sudden, she is trying to remain strong in the face of so many sudden changes. In five days, he went from mowing the grass, to paralyzed and unable to use his limbs, throat, and diaphragm, to peacefully passing away. Ted mainly handled the finances, so the cost of the end-of-life expenses and the unknown hospital bills are very ominous! Her ability to remain in their house is also questionable, but, like all of us, she has a lifetime of “memories” stored in that house, but then again, nothing will be the same anymore without Ted…. Again, in five days she went from secure and happily married to the man of her dreams for fifty years to being a widow with a very uncertain future, lonely without her husband or children, and she has health needs of her own. These are the hardest times in life, and it seems that these are the very things that God has called us to help with.

While Ted was still in the hospital, we had a visit from a saleswoman named Dawn. Back several weeks ago, I entered to win a cooler at the local county fair. I really wasn’t interested in the essential oils that they were selling, but since there was no one at their booth and with them looking at me, I felt obligated to say hi and put my name and phone number on an entry form to win the cooler. Anyway, they called to tell me that I won an essential oil diffuser machine and that they wanted to come, set it up, and show me their other products. Yes, it was an in-house sales call. I reluctantly agreed to it because it seemed to be too rude to turn down my prize. Last Tuesday, before we went back to the hospital with Ted, Dawn came to visit. She told us that she was the owner of this company and two other companies too. She said that she didn’t normally make these calls because she had lots of other boss/owner things to do, but since she lived fairly close to us, she agreed to do it. When she came inside, she saw one of the boys and asked about our children. We told her about the three boys, then she told us about her three girls and asked us if we had any girls. We told her about losing Hannah and handed her a Hannah Story Tract. We began the story by telling her about the gluten free brownie mix that started the whole problem. She was shocked at the tragedy and told us that she had very serious nut allergies herself. In fact, her sensitivity to peanuts is far worse than Hannah’s and she was allergic to tree nuts too! As we shared the story of what happened, I was about to tell her about the organ donation and the “Gift of Life,” but I saw that her shirt said something like, “Ask me about Jusus,” so I did.  She told us about her success in her businesses, her atheism, and her alcoholism. She then told us that she had been, “At the end of her rope,” so to speak, and had gotten her affairs in order because she planned on ending her own life the next week. There was only one thing left that she had to do and that was a business trip to Switzerland to see the owners the company that she was working with. While passing the bookstore at the airport, one specific book stood out to her. It was a book that she had seen several times before, and something inside her told her that she needed to read it, but up until that day, she never did. But this last time she did buy it because the feeling inside was so strong. While on the plane she read the book and understood, in different words, that she needed the “Gift of Life” offered by God through Jesus. When she got off the plane, she was bursting with excitement as she met the owners because she knew that they were Christians. She told them about her decision and about the book that led her to it. They asked about the name of the book, and she didn’t remember. They asked about the author, but she didn’t know that either. She then pulled it out of her bag and told them that it was written by a guy named Tim Tebow. They said, “Oh, Timmy!” she said no Tim Tebow, they said, “Yes, Timmy! He is our godson!” She couldn’t believe the connection!

Anyway, we then talked about her new “faith” and how it has changed her life. She then told us that she had recently moved to the area and that she was in a church that she knew she needed to leave but she didn’t know where else to look. So, we gave her some churches that we would recommend in the area where she now is living. She told us that when she talked to her fiancé that morning, he told her that she needed to find a different church and she told him that she believed, with God’s help, that she would find one that day! Like the mystery book at the airport, her visit to us seemed to be definitely a divine appointment! We had a great visit, and it was very encouraging to be being used of God in this way!

Early the next morning we received a phone call from Dawn. She was very excited to tell us a new story! She told us that later that previous evening, after she left our house, her girls were making brownies to sell to the neighbors. As she walked past the kitchen, she asked them how they were coming along. One daughter said, “They are good. This gluten free one tastes a little different, but it’s still good.” When she heard that, the alarm bells went off in her head! She ran over and read the ingredients on the box. Sure enough, it was made with refined nut flour, including peanut and other tree nuts too! She said that she had maintained a nut-free house her whole life because she couldn’t even be in the same room with an open package of peanuts, but she did, in fact, buy this mix! She said that she never dreamed that there would be nuts added into a basic brownie mix and that being gluten free made her think that it was somehow even safer. She was so amazed at God, and thankful to us, for sharing Hannah’s story because she said that she surely would have eaten one of those brownies. After all, she bought the mix, and her girls made it in her own house. We were all amazed how God worked it out. Because I put my name and number on a piece of paper weeks earlier, and because she came, even though it was not “her job,” we were able to encourage a young believer, help point her in the direction of a Bible preaching church, and quite possibly used to save her life! It was an amazing experience to be used in such a unique way!

We left for the hospital that day so encouraged at how we are being used. It was a good feeling to help and to potentially save a life. This is what Hannah Helps is meant to do! But, as we drove, we knew that we were also going to be with someone who was losing his life. This too is what Hannah Helps is meant to do. To be part of a life saved and a life lost, on the same day, is crazy, but through it all, we see God’s hand at work. He’s leading us, guiding us, and most of all, He is using us!

We are blessed!