Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Where There's a Will ...

"What's going on with the bunk beds?" a number of you have asked me over the last few days. (You'll remember that we had reached 20 bunk beds by last Tuesday night? Click HERE to go back and read that post.)

And then ... I was confronted with the realization that we were now in the last 20% stretch. I HATE this stretch. This is the part that always trips me up in my day job. The last 20% of a goal is so hard. And it was just Wednesday morning.

On the weekend donations in the TH jar got another half a bunk bed. Dad spoke at a little church on Sunday morning and they gave him an honorarium, which he topped up to make a full bunk bed. Debs worked for me because I had to be at a conference and she donated her tips to the BBP.

By the end of Sunday night we had 21 1/2 bunk beds! Three and a half to go, and we started this whole thing only on April 17!

I went back to my conference resigning myself to waiting a week and trying to figure out what we are going to have to do to "close the gap" as my dear director Scott puts it.

And then - Monday morning, I opened up my email and spied a message from Bronwyn. The intriguing subject was "Weekend and William!"

And this is what one of the paragraphs said:

"Oh, by the way, as a result of your blog, a young boy here in Calgary, William N******, raised enough money for a set of bunk beds!!! His Mom volunteers at the church with me and she has been inspired by what you're doing, and has shared the blog with her sons. William is in about grade 3!! I took a photo of him yesterday at church, holding the envelope with a cheque for $200 inside it, and a picture of bunk beds on the front that he drew with crayon. It's pretty cool! So that's another set. I'll send you the photo as soon as I figure out how to transfer it from my phone to the computer."


What?  WHATTTTT???!!!

I phoned Bronwyn and asked her to give William's mother my phone number. Lori called me early this evening and I asked her what was William's impetus.

It turns out that William, age 8, is in grade 2, but it's a grade 2-3 split. The grade 3 class starts learning about different cultures and William, listening, was intrigued by India. His mother volunteers with Bronwyn at church, and Bronwyn had told her about my blog. So Lori had gone onto RtL to show William some of the pictures of our trips to India. And of course they came across the bunk bed stories.

"It would be neat to buy a bunk bed for the kids," said William to his mother. He decided he wanted to ask the kids at his school if they could each donate a toonie and that would be a bed. Due to school policies around such things, he was not allowed to send out a notice; however, the teachers themselves were moved by the story and William's response, and they took up a collection and gave the proceeds to William to start his bunk bed.

An excellent start indeed! Now William's whole family was excited and got behind this: William, his mom and dad and his little brother, 6-year-old David, went together door to door in their neighbourhood, telling the story of the tsunami kids, telling about his desire to buy a bunk bed for them.

The neighbours came through. And Sweet William gets to buy bunk bed #22!!

An 8-year-old boy who wanted to do something to help other kids went out of his comfort zone and raised $200 to give two other kids in this world a bed to sleep in after six years of being on the floor. Six years - that's about as long as David has been alive ...

William (and family!): Thank you. I'm going to try to make sure they see your picture, see someone who is a kid like them and who loves them and cares about what happens to them.

The Bible tells us that it's more blessed to give than to receive. You have given SO MUCH, William. Not only have you given a bunk bed; you've also given other people the chance to be generous and to share in the blessing. You've given the rest of us motivation and inspiration.

And you've given those kids hope that they are not forgotten, that they matter.

I hope you see so many blessings in your own life that you don't even know WHAT to do with all of them except to share them with other people, just like you did with these kids! God will be able to do great things with you because you are willing to let Him use you to help other people.

You rock!!


4 comments:

  1. Praise the Lord! I'm praying that there will be enough for all the bunkbeds by this weekend. Please keep us updated.

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  2. The faith of a child is inspiring and contagious. For such is the Kingdom of God.

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  3. Dear Prince William,

    Thank you for having courage and making choices like a real Prince would, and for inspiring us while you're at it. Who you are is really wonderful.

    I really like your drawing. A bunk bed will be way more comfortable, and comforting, for two young people like yourself, than a hard floor.

    I hope you always sleep well.

    Oh, yeah... YOU ROCK - ROYALLY!!

    Your sister,
    Princess Cathryn

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  4. Just finished reading your Sunday and Monday blogs. Both are great articles. I kept thinking about how the "children will lead them". Thanks for letting us know about these two kids who inspire and remind us older ones the truly important lessons in life.

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