I was four or five years old when my parents woke me up from a nap to tell me they had a surprise for me. I remember wiping the sleep from my eyes and watching the door open to see that my grandpa had visited from Florida, and he had brought me a puppy. His name was Max. Max was my own to love and take care of. He was one of the first gifts I remember receiving; truly one of my first vivid memories.
There are a lot of cliches about a boy and his dog - I was probably an unwitting poster child. But more than that, Max was a connection to my grandpa, whom I only saw once every year or two because of the geographical distance between us. Max died just a few years before my grandpa did, and I remember feeling like a little bit of my grandpa was slipping away.
A few weeks ago, we were getting ready to host families for Family Promise and Lauri Vesper, one of our Family Promise coordinators, called me with a very specific need for an incoming family. The father died recently, and the now-widowed mother of two found herself unable to afford their home on her own. The children stayed with various friends while the mom slept in her car with their dog.
Family Promise was going to be their pathway to living together as a family again, but there was a catch: since families are moving from church to church each week, there is no way to accommodate a dog. Lauri asked if I might be able to foster the dog for a while until the family got through the program.
As Lauri recounted their story to me, my heart was already in my throat before she dropped one final detail: the dog had been a gift from the kids’ dad before he died.
So of course I wanted to do anything I could, which at a minimum meant fostering the dog until the family was in a home that allowed pets. In addition, if the dog had any medical needs or just needed updated shots, I would have been happy to accommodate that.
In the end, Family Promise was able to use a grant to bring this family back together in a house and they were able to keep their dog with them. Their situation worked out, but I know there are so many other unique stories with needs to satisfy before they can begin to get the help they need.
I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve in a place where we aren’t afraid to seek out ways to give people a leg up into a better life and meet both their physical and human needs.
Yours in Christ,
John