You may have seen the video that I posted this morning in recognition of Independence Day. It tells the story of a group of women who took it upon themselves to look after the service men and women during the war when the train stopped at North Platte. By the end of the war, they had served 6,000,000 service people and every train that ever stopped there. This is made even more impressive by the fact that they were working on slim supplies during the days of food rationing. They decided to document about how much food they actually made and distributed during one month - the totals were:
40,161 cookies
30,679 hard boiled eggs
6,547 doughnuts
6,939 cup, loaf, and birthday cakes
2,845 pounds of sandwich meat
12 dozen different items in similar proportions
That's for ONE month!!
You need to read the article (link provided under the picture) as it is incredible what was accomplished by this group of people.
So.....now the connection. As I read this and watched the video. I became so inspired. These women were so UN-self-centered. These men and women were complete strangers, but they took it upon themselves to make their 10-15 min. stop a memorable one. For those 10-15 min., the war didn't exist. In the beginning, North Platte was just expected to be another boring stop. Its reputation quickly spread and became the one bright spot that they looked forward to, as quoted, "Love chases away fear". Today our world is still filled with fearful events and happenings. Sickness, bullying, divorce, mother nature, war, ........ We are leading busy lives and often forget others' fears and sadness, unless it directly affects us. My friend, yep, I'll help out. My sister, yep, there for her. The old lady who lives by herself at the end of town...well, I'm kinda' busy going to ballgames, and vacations, and I have a hair appointment, and I don't really know her...and... ...and in the meantime everyone has forgotten old Gertie, whose days are filled with sadness and loneliness. Everyone is too busy and her heart grows weaker.
This is where Sister Hugs hopes to make a difference. We can't know about Gertie unless someone tells us. When we are informed, we may not be able to take away all of the sadness, but for 10 or 15 minutes, when she receives her love bomb, she will know that someone does care - that she is on someone's mind. Often we get nominations for people that make the news, that others are doing fundraisers for, that are getting a lot of attention. The little guy who has the entire town flooding their home with gifts won't even know that Sister Hugs also sent a gift. However, the quiet one who receives nothing with cherish his Love bomb and the cards and sentiments. Those are the nominations that I REALLY want - the silent ones going through a hard time. The ones who are not getting the daily calls and visits. The ones that most people don't give a second though to. Those are the ones that need our Love - if only for a few minutes. Because "Love chases away fear" and they need a little help with theirs.
Message me if you know of someone who needs a little love from a stranger. (I prefer "friends who haven't yet met) We have sent out approx. 500 Love Bombs since our start on July 5, 2012. two years and what a ride!! I am looking forward to all that year 3 has in store for all of us! Only God knows for sure what that means!
Happy 4th of July - be safe, be kind, be well, be happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment