It was just another drizzly Saturday night. I had just popped out to pick-up a DVD and pizza and it was between the pick-up of the two, that we would be confronted with the love and generosity of one of the Parish’s families over the next few weeks.
I was driving behind a 4WD through a turn left with care sort of sign. A quick glance off to the side to check for oncoming traffic, was meet with a stopped 4WD on the glance back. Consequently I ran into the back of them- not very fast but enough to cause over $4000 damage to my car- thank goodness for comprehensive insurance. We exchanged details with the rain speckling our makeshift incident reports. All in all it was a very friendly and understanding exchange- we both had insurance, it was my fault- I wasn’t too worried.
I continued on and picked-up the pizza and returned home. My wife was very understanding and supportive and all the details were sorted out with the insurance company over the phone.
But it was what happened next that really blew us away- it was what one staff member referred to as the power of Facebook. Let me explain.
My wife was on Facebook and updated her status- something along the lines of we have no car for two weeks. Within 10mins at the most, somebody from our church had offered us their car for the two weeks. We arranged to pick it up after Church the next day and were astounded to discover that the car they were offering was less than a year old! (I drove it over the 6000km mark). The parish member who I had never really met and whom my wife had met in passing was very happy to lend us the car and was not pedantic over how precious their new car was. They basically gave us the keys and said goodbye. I very gingerly drove the car away very thankful.
It turned out that the repairs took longer- 3 weeks in total- but this wasn’t a problem for the Prodigal Parishoner- as long as we needed it.
This was a great testimony to the love and generosity that has characterized many of our interactions and conversations since we joined the Church in Jan 09.
What’s more it was very encouraging to see how both the husband and the wife held very loosely to the things of this world and were happy to give as a result of being given so much by their heavenly Father.
Not surprisingly one of them serves in a key (unpaid & voluntarily) leadership position within the church…
