By God's Grace...

By God’s Grace, we are bidding farewell to October with grateful, grieving, giving hearts.

October 2020 has been a month filled with heartbreaks and hallelujahs. Many people tested

positive while many tested negative for Covid, teachers and students have been consumed with

virtual and in person schoolwork, there have been weddings, funerals, family reunions, church

activities, family vacations, and celebrations marking milestones.

Has your October been been filled with giving, grieving, and grateful times that you continue to

mull over in your mind? With November dawning, doors of opportunity will be opened for all of

us to stand up for Jesus, live by His example, pray for people and our nation, do kind deeds for

those in need, give generously, and love deep and wide...wherever He leads!

Pictures on this page share generous people who loyally supported Tim’s Gift 10th Annual Hope

Project Golf Tournament on October 23rd through sponsorships, playing golf, donating time as

volunteers, and prayer partners who believe and encourage as months fly by and God blesses

in ways beyond measure. We are humbled by the outpouring of support that enables us to

continue giving help and hope to people in need here at home.

In October 2017, a dear friend won the half and half drawing at the Hope Project Golf

Tournament. When I handed him the envelope with $1,270., his grin lit up the room with a sweet

spirit I’ll never forget. Then, he did something that got God’s attention and brought happy tears

to my eyes. He gave the entire amount of money he won back to Tim’s Gift. We had a long talk

that day about life and how things happen along the way as we grow older. Looking back, I

realize God was giving us a special time together to sit and talk, as Mary did with Jesus.

This year there was no half and half drawing or inside gatherings with everyone filling the dining

room for fellowship and food. We took every precaution to make the day of golf enjoyable but

most of all safe for everyone involved. God blessed us with beautiful weather, twenty one

teams, generous sponsors, gracious volunteers, and His powerful presence throughout the

entire event. The day after the tournament, I drove to the home of my dear friend who gave

back the money he won in the half and half drawing in 2017. He is battling cancer with his wife

by his side and Hospice helping in this tough time in their lives. Sitting in my car as rain

pounded and my heart raced, memories of Tim’s battle with cancer brought tears. My desire to

see them waned as I remembered how happy we were when people came but how hard it was

as cancer took its toll. So, I placed a card with a check from Tim’s Gift inside their back porch

and stood in silence remembering growing up together, celebrating his marriage to my best

friend, growing old together hardly ever seeing one another, the special time we shared the day

he showed the true spirit of giving back, and knowing he was inside his home fighting cancer

bravely without one complaint...just grinning and bearing it with a heart of gold. And in that

moment of reflection, it was by God’s Grace my heart felt the joy and pain of gratefulness,

grieving, and giving... all wrapped in one package labeled...LOVE!