Last summer my husband had a total hip replacement.  Then in the fall, he had a knee replacement.  As a result, our yard and flower beds were terribly neglected.  It was all I could do to take out the garbage and pick the strawberries and green beans.  By this spring the flower beds were really bad.  Rich can now do some yard work, but there was so much to catch up on.

Then a friend told me about a group of churches here in town that had a program to help out older or handicapped people with yard work and anything outside.  They are called “Neighbors Helping Neighbors”.  The group is made up or people of all ages who just want to help someone in need.  Our team was from the Methodist and Lutheran churches.  They came early in the morning and stayed until noon.

One young man washed the mold off the siding on our house. Two older ladies weeded the flower beds on their hands and knees.  One gentleman weeded  and mulched around my roses. They brought their own tools, including a ladder so they could clean our out gutters. They never even took a break.  They never came in our house.  They even brought their own water.  What a blessing!!

The Bible clearly teaches us to help those in need, but how many people actually do it.  It’s easy to give a few dollars to missions or bring some canned goods for the food pantry, but this was real work.  These people gave of their time on the weekend and of their energy to help strangers.  There is not much of this kind of help available.  Thank God for people willing to sacrifice to help others.