Whose Gift?
By Alicia De Toffoli
You wait in a crowded airport at an unthinkable hour for a flight taking you far away from your home. You endure a dull plane ride, then a layover in a maze-like airport larger than anything you can comprehend (let alone navigate), then a final plane ride. Only this one is different. It is taking you to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi. Compared to the plane you rode in from California to Texas, this plane is a pea next to a pumpkin.
One glance and you know you are far from home. So you board the tiny plane, sleep through the hour-long flight to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, land, depart, and gather your bags. A team member meets you at the baggage claim, smiles comfortingly, and helps you carry your things to the minivan waiting outside. He looks tired, unkempt, shaggy at best. A change of clothes and a good bath--no, make that two good baths--would do him well. But he’s not disheartened.
Five days later, you look an emotional homeowner in the eye and attempt to share a final hug, the entire world blurry through your tears. She is grateful beyond belief, saying how she is forever indebted to you and your team, acting as if somehow your well-intended yet amateur attempt at a home makeover is actually worthwhile. She smiles that same smile your team member flashed you in the airport--that welcoming, grateful smile which melts your heart. You both realize that your hug left her with some of your clothes’ wet paint on her shirt, but it doesn’t matter. You have been covered in wet paint all week, it seems. This spot on her clothes will leave a memory.
You decide to take one final walk-through of her home. You can’t imagine any of your hometown friends living in a meager place like this, but for the past week it has been a sanctuary. The freshly painted walls, the new floorboard, the installed doors, the shiny hardwood floor, the smell of clean – it is all because of you. And your team. And Brian Garrison. You swell with pride just like a kindergartener admiring her fingerpaint creation.
There may be a few lives changed in Biloxi by the First United Methodist VIM Team from Northern California. But that is not all; there are even more lives changed in Northern California by the kindhearted, openhearted souls of Biloxi, Mississippi.
You wait in a crowded airport at an unthinkable hour for a flight taking you far away from your home. You endure a dull plane ride, then a layover in a maze-like airport larger than anything you can comprehend (let alone navigate), then a final plane ride. Only this one is different. It is taking you to the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi. Compared to the plane you rode in from California to Texas, this plane is a pea next to a pumpkin.
One glance and you know you are far from home. So you board the tiny plane, sleep through the hour-long flight to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, land, depart, and gather your bags. A team member meets you at the baggage claim, smiles comfortingly, and helps you carry your things to the minivan waiting outside. He looks tired, unkempt, shaggy at best. A change of clothes and a good bath--no, make that two good baths--would do him well. But he’s not disheartened.Five days later, you look an emotional homeowner in the eye and attempt to share a final hug, the entire world blurry through your tears. She is grateful beyond belief, saying how she is forever indebted to you and your team, acting as if somehow your well-intended yet amateur attempt at a home makeover is actually worthwhile. She smiles that same smile your team member flashed you in the airport--that welcoming, grateful smile which melts your heart. You both realize that your hug left her with some of your clothes’ wet paint on her shirt, but it doesn’t matter. You have been covered in wet paint all week, it seems. This spot on her clothes will leave a memory. You decide to take one final walk-through of her home. You can’t imagine any of your hometown friends living in a meager place like this, but for the past week it has been a sanctuary. The freshly painted walls, the new floorboard, the installed doors, the shiny hardwood floor, the smell of clean – it is all because of you. And your team. And Brian Garrison. You swell with pride just like a kindergartener admiring her fingerpaint creation.There may be a few lives changed in Biloxi by the First United Methodist VIM Team from Northern California. But that is not all; there are even more lives changed in Northern California by the kindhearted, openhearted souls of Biloxi, Mississippi.
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