No one expected this miracle, but it happened

Published: December 19, 2006 | 5205th good news item since 2003

One of my favorite songs by the Total Experience Gospel Choir is “Expect a Miracle.”

We were hoping for one on Sunday. Thanks to you, it came.

In my Sunday column, I wrote about the choir’s trip last summer to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where members worked for and sang to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Last week, I checked in with some of the people we met there. It wasn’t good. The help has dropped off, people feel forgotten. And Christmas is just days away.

Choir director Pat Wright wanted to do something. So together, we asked readers for donations of money and toys to send down to our friends, to show we cared.

I didn’t know what to expect. I just put it out there.

On Sunday afternoon, I stopped by Wright’s Oneness Christian Center and could hardly get in the door. Toys from as far away as North Bend filled the place.

Some $7,000 in cash and checks had come in; volunteers tucked it all into a Bible for safekeeping.

Someone else donated a truck to haul the toys to the Gulf Coast — once a mechanic named Terry can give it his (donated) blessing.

We may have spent three or five days in the dark around here, but we know that others have endured much more for much longer.

“You allowed me to do a couple of things I’ve been meaning to do,” said Don Lenning, of West Seattle, who dropped off two bags of toys. “You were my kick in the [butt].”

Arleen Stenger went into her Burien garage and grabbed four boxes of toys she and her husband, John, had been collecting for their 15 grandchildren.

“They don’t even need it,” John Stenger told me.

Wright has rented a second truck that will leave Seattle at 9 a.m. today for Bay St. Louis.

Any message for readers?

“Without crying, you mean?” Wright asked. “Just tell everybody that I am so grateful for this outpouring of compassion and generosity.”

Like the song says: “If you believe and receive it, God will perform it today.”

Thanks to you, I’m a believer.

Published in Charity and Faith
See also: seattletimes.nwsource.com