Created for Good Works

Garrin Davis recently discovered that due to a stroke his 32-year old neighbor was in need of a wheelchair ramp.  Within days, Davis used resources from his construction company and built a ramp for her front porch.

On Friday, Kim Conway baked sugar cookies and took them to the assisted living home close to where she lives.  Friends Karen Payne and Christine Palermo joined her for the adventure.  The baking club ladies, who reside at the assisted living home, had a great time frosting and decorating the cookies which they shared with the other residents that afternoon.

An eighth grade teacher in the greater Boston area volunteers to wash uniforms for the economically disadvantaged students in her classes whose parents cannot afford to do so at times.  Not wanting her students to skip school or be embarrassed to attend class in smelly or dirty uniforms, she offers to do their laundry when needed.  She takes the clothing home, washes, and then returns them to the students the next day.

Lenny, 84 years old, runs a store in Falls River, Massachusetts.  As the temperature turns colder, he ties scarves around the poles in front of his place of business for people to take if they are in need of a scarf to keep warm.  Lenny’s son, Mike, started this service a few years before he died of cancer.  His father is continuing the tradition, along with other people who are supplying additional scarves.  The gift of scarves is already making a difference in their community.  Lenny says, “If I do good in life, I want to do good for someone else.  I think one, it helps them to keep warm, two he knows there is people out there that’s willing to sacrifice something to give to them.”  Lenny is adding warmth to his town in more ways than one.

Last week in Lomira, Wisconsin, the temperature, including the wind chill factor, reached a -60 degrees.  The Lomira High School coach, wrestling team, and Booster Club President Jamie Feucht spent their snow day holiday helping neighbors dig out of their homes by shoveling the snow from their driveways and sidewalks.

Rosie Griest, 89, was driven to a doctor’s appointment in Orlando, Florida, by her 100-year-old husband, David.  On their way home, they stopped at a gas station to go to use the restroom.  As they were returning to the car, a police officer noticed they were tired and very slow in getting back to their car.  Before Officer Kanesha Carnegie could step in to help, three young men, who had been inside purchasing snacks, rushed out of the doors to assist them.  Officer Carnegie began videoing the men patiently helping Rose walk to the car, get in their SUV, and buckling her in.  The three men were Orlando-based rappers Joe Koe Stoe, Marty, and Freddy G.  When interviewed, Marty told the Fox 5 reporter, “I kept thinking, ‘She could have been my grandmother.’”

Sometimes it’s difficult for men with dementia to go to a barbershop, so Lenny runs a popup shop in dementia care homes in Belfast, Ireland.  Realizing that emotional memory tends to last the longest, Lenny offers the popup shops so the men can have an experience that they can associate with their younger years.  The makeshift barber shop room is first sprayed with lemon cologne.  Then Lenny plugs in the jukebox and plays songs from their era for the men to listen to while he gives shaves and haircuts. 

Knowing that we were created for good works, may we be willing to go and do likewise.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24