Whiteside Youth

Gratitude

I am hoping to teach each and every young person this lesson

 Question. Have you experienced true gratitude?

I’m not talking about holding a door open for someone and having them say thank you.

I’m talking about the type of gratitude where you know YOU made a difference in some ones life.

I have experienced it first hand and let me say it has changed my life forever.
To the point that I have said I want to show the youth of today what it means to others
to have someone lend a helping hand when they are in need. Let me explain…

 Back in late 2001 I worked for a company as a delivery driver delivering medications.
I met some very special people during that time but one has stuck with me all these years later and here is why…

 I met this young woman I guess it was near Thanksgiving, 2001. Her house, a very small 2bed room trailer that she and her six kids called home was a wreck.
If you didn’t know any better you would have thought you had just walked into a horror film. It was that bad. I won’t bore you with the entire details of the story.

 Each visit was always the same. I’d walk in, say hello, put the medicine in the fridge and leave. She would never say one word. From time to time I might get a HEY or a HOWDY but that was it. She just wasn’t a big talker. Her kids on the other hand, they were more than eager to help me carry supplies in or offer up something to drink. They would even ask about the trip down from Nashville. The oldest kids – a boy and a girl were both in high school and doing well. They would tell me all about their day in school and their grades.
That’s when it hit me that they really didn’t get to be kids that often. They were taking care of mom all of the time and I was that little bit of time
 that they needed to talk about kid stuff. What I didn’t know was just how sick mom really was at this point.

 Christmas is now just weeks away and a co-worker was looking to find a family in need to help out during the holidays. She had come to the right place.
I told her about my “new friend” on my route and told her how the kids were so sweet but not being able to be kids because of taking care of mom and how
 the house was in such bad shape. I think it took me longer to calm my co-worker down than it did to convince her that this was the family.

 The week before Christmas my co-worker and I collected more than 200 dollars from the rest of the staff in our office. We made the hour plus trip to this woman’s home
and took with us a Christmas tree, ornaments and gifts. Now, they weren’t extravagant gifts, but gifts non-the less and the entire family loved it!

To see that oldest boy get such a kick out of owning his own wallet and the oldest girl get so excited about her very own make up bag still brings tears to my eyes.
But what really brings it all into perspective is the hug and THANK YOU that my co-worker and I received before we left.
We had no clue this was going to be their only Christmas that year or their last Christmas as a family.
Mom died shortly after the New Year from complications of her illness.

 At her funeral her sister came up to me and gave me a huge hug and said “that is from my sister”. She told me that in her sisters final days she kept on about how much
this Christmas meant to her because her kids were so happy. She also told me how her sister kept on and on about how I took such good care of her.
 I honestly did nothing more than my job and was polite about it but to her it was much more.

 You see, what I didn’t know was she was in need. Not just financially, but spiritually.

 I didn’t realize the impact I was having on this woman and her family at the time. In a way I’m glad that I didn’t. It makes me appreciate that special moment that much more.
 That special moment is realizing that I made a difference in another person’s life. That is what this youth group is going to be about.

Making a difference.

 Please help us make a difference. Whether you are young or young at heart we can still use you.

Feel free to e-mail us your comments and let us know if you are willing to step up and help us make this youth group
a reality. Thank you for your time.


State of the YOUTH GROUP

The Whiteside UMC youth group is less than a year old and they are on the move!!!
In the short time these kids have been together they have completed several awesome projects.
They have collected food for the food bank and supplies for the local homeless shelter.
Now, they are collecting school supplies for needy families here in our area.

For the 1st time in over 10 years Whiteside has sent a youth group to summer camp.
We had two groups of kids attend this year. In order to do so again next year, the kids decided
to hold a yard sale to help with expenses. They raised nearly four hundred dollars and decided to split
the proceeds with the homeless shelter... These are some really special kids.

We would love to have your children join us and bring some idea's that they would like share with the
group for some service projects and field trips.

Ifyou have questions or comments please e-mail us here at the church:

whitesideumc@yahoo.com

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