Wednesday, March 21, 2012

How May I Help You???

I honestly started not to blog this but.... Well you know how I am. Sunday my husband and I were working at the information desk at church. We feel so blessed to be a part of our church family. Although our church originated in a very small town, it has grown to become quite large. I believe part of that growth is a result of our leadership being motivated visionaries who are willing to take action so our church can be relevant to our society. Whatever we're doing seems to be working and things are ever changing, evolving within the church. A few months ago I blogged about the new "Giving Center" they put in the lobby of the church (next to the information desk)

 http://sweetlife4me-jp.blogspot.com/2011/10/technology-revolution-is-here.html 

I haven't used the new gadget, because I'm old school and I like the carbon copies of my checks. Sunday an elderly woman came to the desk to ask if I would help her use the giving machine. I gladly agreed, because spending money is my
spiritual gift. When it came time to type the dollar amount of the donation in, she typed in what I thought was a large amount. I was afraid that she wasn't taking into account the decimals and when I asked her, I was correct, she wanted to give a little less than she had typed in. When she got the right amount typed in she hit the donate button and the machine popped out a receipt. She grabbed me by the arm and said... "Wait, I have to do this four more times so will you stand here with me to make sure I get it right"  Well of course I will. Each donation she made was for the same amount but when she got to the fourth donation she grabbed my arm again and asked me.... "How much have I been giving each time?" I told her the amount of her donation and she hesitated (still holding me by the wrist) as she counted in her head. Then she said... "Oh, no that's not right, I just want to give" and she told me a much smaller amount" This is the part where my stomach jumps into my throat, because the amount she had been giving was considerably higher than what she had wished to give. I cancelled the last transaction for her and asked her if she needed the other three transactions cancelled on Monday when the banks opened, but she assured me that she had plenty of money to cover the donation and everything would be fine. On the outside I'm cool as a cucumber but on the inside I'm hyperventilating and beads of sweat are forming on my upper lip. In my world of small finances (with both me and my spouse working)an unexpected withdrawal that size would throw us out of whack for a while. I asked her several times if we needed to contact the office, but she continued to assure me that there was plenty of money in her account to cover the extra and she just wouldn't donate again for a couple of weeks. She thanked me for helping her and I went back to the desk all weak in the knees like when I come home from a really good shopping trip except this time I didn't have any new shoes. I keep thinking that the church office is going to call and ask me to work the "Giving Machine" every Sunday because our donations took a dramatic spike with my "help" and it looks like we can start the ground breaking for our new 4 million dollar youth center sooner than expected. (Just Kidding) No, I'm more than likely going to be put on doughnut patrol

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