Special Friends

I have had the great blessing of doing community events over the last 6 years. I have gone from having anxiety attacks to being calm and cool when events happen. I know that our first big painting blitz with over 300 volunteers happened with 10 houses being painted. Did everything go perfect without any glitches as far as I can remember it did? I do remember the night before getting the food for the lunch in the park that was last minute. The important point with the lunch was that Safeway donated the food through a special friend who used her connections to make this happen. I was a little concerned that the hot dog donation happened the night before. It was fun having some other special friends that were visiting from Las Cruces help get the 600 hot dogs for the lunch at 9pm the night before.

I have a memory of another large painting blitz the following year with over 200 volunteers. Yes, this one was a little less stressful because I had at least 10 key leaders or special friends that stepped up and made everything happen without a hitch.  I know that I got a little concerned when I went to a friend’s house that is close to the park where we hosted the lunch and discovered the garage door was locked and my grill and food were inside. Fortunately I discovered that everything does work out in the end. I was able to eventually get into the garage and the lunch was awesome.

Now I can look back after painting 65 houses and realize that I love doing community work and being an organizer that draws people both young and old from all over greater Phoenix and even all over the U.S. I was thrilled to have 7 different groups help make this blitz happen! We did 2 houses of low-income seniors in South Phoenix and then blessed another family in Guadalupe. I am so thank for friends like Tom and Kim who brought their business family of 25 to paint Marina’s house. I’m thankful for Cov Com (a church) and AAEC (a charter school) that helped paint Catherine’s house. It was George and John that came the week before and spent hours preparing the house. I was also jazzed that Phoenix URC and a Chinese Youth Group from a local CMA church could bless the Mitchell’s. This wouldn’t have happened without Matt and Phil taking the lead.

I have to also thank those who help fund these projects. I shouldn’t be surprised by God when it comes to how someone always steps up and helps pay for these houses to get painted. So as I look back at Saturday it was a glorious day where everything got done by 11am and the cleanup was done well. Now I’m thinking through the logistics of delivering 50 food baskets for thanksgiving blessings to our families that don’t have much.

Wow – I have so many special friends who do so much to impact our community that I at times can be speechless and overwhelmed. I no longer have anxiety attacks but instead have what I call the WOW experience of watching God work through so many different channels.