Christmas and the Kindness of Strangers

While I normally stick to the topic of health and nutrition around here, now and then I might change things up a touch.  Since I’ve always been open with you on the details of my blog, I thought the following personal story might be good enough reason to deviate today.

At the risk of boring you with the details, I’m going to tell you the whole story, because first of all it will give you a good idea of why there are certain parts of managing a blog that I detest (I just want to do the part that I love: writing posts and interacting with all of you!); and also it will help you understand why I am so thankful for the help God brought to me.

Let me start by telling you about my recent technical dilemma.

Believe me, there’s always something going on with the back-end of my blog that I have no idea how to fix, or how to create what I need, or whatever the problem may be.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried out, “Lord!  I don’t know what I am doing, I need you to help me to figure this out!”  He always comes through.  Sometimes I’ll find what I need when Googling.  Other times my computer guy ($60/hour) will fix something for me.  This time it was different.

I’d been struggling for months trying to figure out how to get a slideshow onto my homepage so I could draw attention to the items on my resources page.  The first problem was that I had no decent software to do something as basic as getting text onto a picture.  Once I finally bought the $60 software, then I had to find the time to figure out how to use it.  Next I had to search out various ways of adding a slideshow to my site.  (Not to whine too much, but keep in mind that just getting posts written is tricky enough, let alone getting to projects like this.  For those who are less technically challenged it would take minutes compared to the months it takes for me to figure it out!)  So then I’d find a site to make slideshows and mess with it for an hour, and then realize it didn’t work for various reasons.  Finally I got a Flickr slideshow up on my site but it looked like crap and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make it do a continuous loop.  That was a couple weeks ago and at that point I had to let it go for a while, with other more pressing things I needed to get to on the blog and around the house.

Then I got an email from Gregg & Hallee that blew me away.

Gregg and Hallee live in Kentucky.  He emailed me a week ago and said that after reading my post about not using Google ads (at the time you couldn't block the ones you're uncomfortable with), they felt moved to help me because, “You’re not compromising your integrity or your convictions for the sake of 30 pieces of silver.” (A biblical reference for those that may not know.)  He said, “I have quite a bit of expertise in the technical arena.  If there is any technical advice or expertise that I can offer that will assist you in your ministry, please let me know.  My time is limited as I am working a 60+ hour week in Afghanistan, but I give you my word that I will do my very best to make time for you.”

This made me cry with gratefulness to God for the kindness of strangers.

I knew right away what I’d ask for his help with, and within a couple days, he made a great looking slideshow for my site (which you see above), one that LOOPED with no problems, and when he sent it to me, he even made it super simple for this non-techy to install it!

As a way to thank them I want to introduce you to Hallee’s fairly new blog!

• Right now she’s running a great giveaway for a Christmas baking collection.  (Don’t you love her site design?)  It ends on Monday, though, so be sure to go sign up before then.
• Also, here is a list of posts she’s written called, Surviving Separation.  As you’ll read, Gregg is stationed in Afghanistan and won’t be home until the spring.  These posts are especially meaningful to me because when Kent was in the Marines, we were separated for eight months during the first Gulf War in 1991.  It was a difficult time for sure, but God, along with our supportive family and friends helped us through.  It seems like a lifetime ago now.  I was thinking of attaching a picture, but dang, none of them from back then are in digital form so I guess not!  (Yes, I know I could scan them, but I don’t feel like it, and besides, I had mullet hair back then.  I actually thought it was pretty cute at the time, ha!)

This Christmas season, let my little story bring you peace in knowing that there are many many good people in the world, and I know without a doubt that their number is FAR greater than those who would do us harm.

Thank you Gregg & Hallee!  And thank the Lord for bringing them to me!

Do you have any stories of kindness that you’d like to share with us? If someone is having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year for whatever reason, these stories could help them, so please share!

Merry Christmas reader friends!

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photo credit