What a night we had huh? So I had a group of about 8-10, all drawn for different reasons. We spent some time praying/listening/brainstorming and came up with several ideas. We really wanted to do some “anonymous blessing.” As we chatted, 3 families came to the surface – all connected with Mosaic – who are presently in need. We decided that with the amount of people we had who were willing to go in financially and shop, we should probably pick just one family. We were wrong! Between the 6 of us, we ended up with a hoard of cash! So, we headed up to Fred Meyer with cash gifts from those who couldn’t shop, along with the cash in our wallets and some unused Fred Meyer gift cards from Christmas. We were able to bless Zaleta and her two boys with a huge lot of groceries. Two Western students – Tanya and Garrett delivered this to her (after getting info by phone from Delia) – and actually got to spend some time chatting with her in Spanish (Tanya) and playing with her two boys (Garrett). She was SUPER warm and grateful and also appreciated the visit from these two, who are considering going back!

Two other Western students and I gathered up and got a $75 visa card, a cold stone gift card, some bath bubbles and some ninja turtle outfits. We through this into a basket and delivered it to another single mom with two boys who was overjoyed!!! Ask Julie Hall for the rest of that story because it’s awesome! We also delivered a $50 gift card for Fred Meyer to the front porch of another Mosaic family. And we had a blast!!!

Also, Johnny headed out with 2 other guys (Ethan Lowe and Ryan Rotz) to Joe’s on Meridian. They picked up some nice wool socks and headed downtown. They handed out socks to some very thankful people and had some conversations outside the Horseshoe. It was great, Johnny says.

And Jason Bourne and Willow headed out to a neighbor of Jason’s house. She’s an old lady in her 90’s with an elderly son living with her as well. They’ve been on his mind because their house is in disrepair. So, they headed over to check on her. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get to her front door because the yard was so overgrown. They didn’t want to freak her out by coming to the back door in the dark. SO – they’re heading out tomorrow at 4pm to check on her and see what can be done for her and for her son.

All in all, it went awesome. And I’ve heard from people, even those who weren’t involved in the group, that they really feel this is important to the life of Mosaic. It’s great that we have things organized for people to do and it’s SO amazing to be a blessing to an organization and have a big impact in a short amount of time together. But, it can be hard to make the transition from that into bringing this kind of action to the level of our daily lives. I think our little group Sunday night showed that there truly is a lot of need all around us (as Willow shared) and it’s so easy to ignore it. But we really can do something to make a huge impact ourselves quite easily. Also – in just an hour, with a few extra bucks and some friends. I loved it.