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"Love and happiness remind me of sticky peanut butter.
When you spread them around, you can't help but end up getting some on yourself! "
In 1998, due to complications of an auto-immune disease, I lost my eyesight.
Fortunately, I regained some vision, but I
was no longer able to work. Suddenly I had a lot of time on my hands. This could have
sent me into depression feeling that my life was empty and without purpose. Instead, it
propelled me into a new direction. God had big plans in mind for me! I
simply did, each day what God gave me to do, and it gradually grew until the
"Hugs and Hope Club for Sick Children" was the result.
Because I belonged to online prayer chains, I often received e-mails
requesting prayers for sick children. I decided to post their stories and
pictures on a web page in order to network with others who wanted to help
these kids too; and so began my little ministry in the fall of 2000. It
started as a small and very part-time hobby and it has mushroomed into a
full-time job and a huge organization with over 500 volunteers worldwide.
I've found it amazing how much I can do, even though I'm disabled. Maybe the
very fact that I am disabled is what has allowed me to do so much. I have
the time that most people can't spare. And I have the ability to understand
what it's like to be sick, frustrated, and afraid. So actually, my misfortune has become an asset in this situation.
My disability was a new beginning simply disguised as an end. Since my web
site went up, I've received hundreds of e-mails from distraught parents
begging me to post their child's story. Though suffering parents may know in
their heads that God cares about them, during their struggles they sometimes
need a real live person "with skin on" to show that love to them. That's
what the club's volunteer "hug-givers and hope restorers" do. They mail out
hundreds of packages of "happy mail" to our "club kids" and provide much
needed moral support to their parents. We also send Bible story books to the
children, and family Bibles to their parents.
The Hugs and Hope web site features children from all over the world and
receives hundreds of hits each day. It also features a chat room so that
families of the sick children may communicate with each other, sharing
ideas, providing encouragement, and contacting organizations and individuals
to help families of children like Nathan.
Nathan and his little brother PJ have the fatal Batten's Disease. Their
parents are desperately trying to raise the $100,000 they need each month
for medical treatment to save their two boys. By posting their story on our
web site, we were able to find musicians who volunteered for a big benefit
that helped to raise money for the family. We wrote to television stations
and, as a result, the boys were featured on the show "48 HOURS."
When my own little grandson received third degree burns, I learned firsthand
how helpless a loving adult feels when your little one is suffering and you
can't take the pain away. This experience helps me to empathize with parents
of critically ill children.
It's true that when a door closes for you, God opens a window. He opened a
big window for me, allowing me to be part of so much more than I ever
thought imaginable. I thought being disabled meant that I was not able to
accomplish anything worthwhile, but I was so wrong! Now I'm doing the most
worthwhile work of my life. Instead of feeling bad about what I can't do, I
concentrate on doing what I can and helping families battling childhood
cancer and other diseases.
I read somewhere, "pain is inevitable, but misery is optional." Sure we all
have pain, but we don't need to wallow in it. We don't have to be miserable,
no matter what our situation.
Many of the wonderful Hugs and Hope volunteers suffer with serious illnesses, financial struggles, or family problems. Yet, instead of focusing
on their troubles, they encourage others. When you take your mind off your
problems and give joy to others, you find contentment! As you focus on
uplifting others, you experience peace and happiness yourself.
God can accomplish tremendous things with our smallest efforts. I've done
little myself, yet the Hugs and Hope Club accomplishes much as a group. God
uses my meager effort to gather others who have talents I lack. We work
together with phenomenal results. Musicians contribute music for children
and organize benefits. Publishers and authors donate books, sewers and
knitters make blankets, dolls, and teddy bears. Youth groups create and send
hundreds of cards. Individual efforts may not seem like much, but the
cumulative effect of the group is remarkable. After posting one child's
story on the web site, her bank fund increased by thousands in one week!
One person can make a difference in this world. When The Hugs and Hope Club
began, I was praying for one little boy named Michael. Before long, it was
twenty children. Now it's over a hundred. The web site started as one page.
Now it's over 150 pages. The volunteers suggest and carry out wonderful
projects for kids like sending pillow cases, blankets and tote bags filled
with activities to hospitalized children. Some crochet angels to remind the
kids that God sends his guardian spirits to watch over them. Other volunteers make bibs for babies and WWJD bracelets for older kids. We send
out get well balloons, birthday boxes, Christmas stockings and ornaments.
Whether you excel at organizing projects, creating web page graphics,
writing encouraging notes, or even if all you can do is mail a Barney video
to a hospitalized child, it all makes a difference, and it can influence
people for good. Some of these families have no friends and no relatives to
lean on and the volunteers of the Hugs and Hope Club are all they have in
this world. Many of these moms and dads suffer from depression. The support
received from Hugs and Hope volunteers has literally saved their lives.
The joy reaped from helping others is more rewarding than anything else in
this world. I love this quote from Bernie Siegel, "If you say that you don't
get back as much as you give, then you are not really loving. Love doesn't
measure. It just gives."
In fact, I think love and happiness are like peanut butter. When you spread
them around, you can't help but end up getting some on yourself.
Copyright @2002
Marsha Jordan. All Rights Reserved. |
