Neighbors Helping Neighbors
What's the value of community? It's a big question right? We have dedicated our lives to building relationships for the purpose of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it has been more than that because Chester is our home as well, and our community has become like family. And after all this time we are still being surprised and blessed by those relationships.
We did not arrive in Chester with a savior complex thinking we had arrived and the world would be changed, that would be foolish. Yet our heart was to see real lives changed, and with that our lives changed as well. Because we love people. Someone once told me, “ no one cares how much you know til they know how much you care!”
See, we need help just as much as our neighbors and community needs help. And we have stories, but this one is really cool!
Around dinner time on the 25th of September, Jeff Long, a full time volunteer, was leaving for the day like he has many times before. After a long day he had planned appointments and was in a hurry. However, when he got inside the Jeep and went to turn the key, it didn't start. He discovered the battery was dead. If the first thought was to call roadside assistance, but did not want to wait for hours during rush hour waiting for a truck to come.
At the same time Homework Club was currently going on so that meant the volunteers and leaders were busy. Not knowing what to do he thought maybe someone would come by to help. As he looked and waited, no one was around to help.
At 5:28, I received a text from Jeff that read, “Do you have jumper cables.” so I replied, “for you or someone else?”. That's when Jeff told me what happened. A few days ago one of our neighbors asked me for jumper cables, and since we did not have cables we could not help. All we had left was our neighbors and our community.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed”, I said out loud as i started to walk house to house asking people for help. This is when we saw our neighbor Andy, a neighbor of Greenhouse Project, across the street. I yelled out, “Hey, do you have any cables?”, Andy replied, “Yea, give me a minute”. A couple minutes later, Andy walked over with only a little bag in his hands, no cables in sight. We both asked, “Where are the cables?”, and Andy said, “I don’t need cables”, and told Jeff to pop the hood. Jeff did so, and Andy unzipped the bag, proceeded to clamp some pieces to the battery, and told Jeff to start it up. The car starts immediately!
Andy had this small battery called POWERRUN P-ONE. It is amazing. So amazing that we bought one to have just in case someone else needs help in the future. Andy and his family have always been generous, kind and supportive. Andy even helped us on our house in 2018 as we were getting started in ministry.
It was a simple act of kindness, yet it was an encounter with a neighbor that surprised us. Jeff said, “I felt hopeless, and completely lost on how I was getting home. It was a quick, pleasant surprise”. At Greenhouse Project, you might think we are just here to help the people in the neighborhood, yet someone came to our rescue. Jeff said, “it was a full circle moment, a guy who volunteers to give back was a recipient of love from a neighbor wanting to help him”.
The best things in life are shared, this is why we love seeing God move and living in the same community where we serve. We can always point to how amazing our Lord and Savior is and how he is helping touch lives every single day.