Random Acts of Kindness Blogfest - A Tennessee story

This is a five-day or one-day fest depending on your time limits. For most of the five days, I've been on a family history quest coming home just in time to do at least two days.

I originally planned to share one story but on my travels, I found a group of people who are doing random acts of kindness for a region in our country that is in need of help.

Reverend Sheldon Livesay founded Of One Accord, an "ever-evolving, non-profit organization that helps to meet the needs of low-income families and individuals in this two-county Appalachian region and beyond. "

I made the trip to Tennessee to search for family roots. While not finding the information I wanted, I did have the opportunity to meet Sheldon, my 2nd cousin. My cousin Patty and I were able to spend some time with him as he shared this portion of Tennessee where our family was from but we also learned about his ministry to those in need. 

While these acts of kindness are not random for him, they certainly are for the families they help. He related one story that stayed with me. 

They repair or restore home for those who need the most help. They had chosen to repair the home of an eighty-year old woman who live in a falling down shack. The shack was no bigger than a 10 by 10 room. The floor was rotting and uneven and the roof, caving in so that it leaked water. She had an outhouse. There was no electricity, running water or way to heat food or the house except for a wood burning stove.  

They decided it was impossible to repair the shack to make it livable so they purchased a used mobile home. They installed a septic tank and ran electricity from the road. They brought in the water lines and added a propane tank. 

This is a much longer story but what caught my attention and tugged at my heart was the ending of the story. When the older woman fixed  lunch for her daughter who had come by to check out the new home, she got up from the table and filled a pot with water from her new sink. She put the pot on the new stove and turned it on. Her daughter asked her what she was doing. She told her that she was boiling water to wash the dishes. 

I don't know about you but not understanding that hot water comes from a tap is heart breaking. Her daughter was able to show her that she would never have to boil water to wash dishes again and turned on the hot water for her mother.

Random Acts of Kindness BlogFest

I think that I have been blessed more than most people. That doesn't mean I have health or wealth but I do have peace and forgiveness. When I found this on M. J. Joachim's blog, Being Catholic, I thought it was a great idea. 

May 27-31, 2013 - share a random act of kindness you have received. The requirements are simple. Post each day or just do one.  
 
Buy any of Wayman Publishing's books—some only 99 cents—and automatically be entered into our iPad Mini Sweepstakes! Visit this link for more info: ow.ly/jsQVv 

Want to join the blogfest? Go HERE to sign up!

I have a new direction

Yesterday I posted that I didn't know what to do with this blog. I gave some thought to deleting it but now I find myself in need of an all-purpose blog where I can take advantage of different blogging challenges.

Today I will write my reflection post for the A to Z April Challenge. When reading the post explaining the procedure, it mentions a new A to Z Challenge for road trips. I love road trips but if I am not doing California I need a place to play

I am still deciding if I want to change the blog name but for now it will stay the same. I'm much happier with the decision to keep it alive.

What happened to this blog?

This started out as such a promising blog where I listed articles I had done on Helium and Squidoo. Helium was a bust and although I am still writing on Squidoo, I have finally figured out this blogging stuff.

Tomorrow is the last day of the A to Z Blogging Challenge and I have made it an entire month on Completely California. I did the month of February on Rhea/Yeakley Family History of the Family History Writing Challenge. I now understand that blogging is a ritual that must have a writing schedule.

I'm not ready to give up this blog so I will need to decide how I want to use it. I'm not sure yet where it will go but it's time to step it up if I am going to keep it.