Some weeks ago a woman approached us at the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico, saying that she wanted to donate floor tiles for our chapel there. She told us, “My mom came to the Food Bank for many years, and you helped her feed our family year after year. She used to volunteer to clean, and her job was to mop the chapel floor.”

Our chapel is housed in a long, rectangular room, and during the time this lady’s mom volunteered with us, the chapel had an unsealed cement floor. It was very difficult to mop due to its rough and bumpy texture. “My mom used to come home so exhausted and aching all over in her body,” this woman told us, “but she was always happy to be able to give something back for all the help and groceries she was receiving.”

She went on to say, “I bought floor tile for you to use in your chapel to make it easier for the people who clean it because I’ve been thinking of my mom, who recently passed away. You helped my mom for years, and then later, when my sister was in need, you also helped her. Now I want to give something back.”

Well, we had already tiled the chapel floor some years before this, but we told this lady, “There is another room that has an unfinished cement floor where our staff and volunteers gather to pray each week and where we have Bible studies. That room could use tile because it’s the same situation: it’s hard to mop for those who clean it. She said, “Yes, of course!” She was happy that the tile was going to be used for the same purpose, just in another room.  

This is another beautiful example of someone emerging from the past and giving back to us in gratitude for what their family had received.

May God bless you and your loved ones with a happy and healthy New Year!