Message from Harold Harmon, High School Teacher

This was an amazing weekend for our bimonthly trip to Mexico. Because of sizable contributions made by my daughter’s church and some amazing back-to-school sales on school supplies (or course we had to go back over and over because of the limits imposed) we were able to purchase two full size six burner propane stoves for two of our families, hand out over two hundred filled backpacks, almost a hundred pairs of shoes, and bags and bags of clothing to families we had never reached before. That is addition to the normal $2000 food distribution that our organization hands out every month. God is richly blessing our efforts in Mexico. The sad part, however, is that we are only reaching a drop in the ocean of need that engulfs the entire country!

As we were looking back and honoring those who perished in 2001, my mind went back to one of the greatest honors that I have been given. In 2008, Sandy and I went as chaperones with Northwest’s choir to New York City. The choir sang at West Point and some other remarkable places. However, we practiced each day at a 100+ year old chapel across the way from ground zero. The chapel had been miraculously saved from destruction because it is surrounded by very large trees. It became the staging area for assisting the wounded and feeding the firefighters and policemen in the aftermath of the destruction that took place. In that chapel Amazing Grace had been played every day since 9/11 and had been played by some very famous people that had come in just for that purpose. The day I was there, I was honored to be the one that played Amazing Grace on the piano as all that were there stood in reverence. I will never forget that experience.

God is an awesome God. It occurred to me the other day that nothing occurs to God. He doesn’t get wiser with age and He is never taken by surprise. When we look at the poverty and destruction around us, the natural response sometimes is to wonder if maybe God is on vacation and is unaware or unmoved by our struggles. We have to remember that God is in control and His ways are higher than our ways. Our obligation is to trust and enlarge the family until He comes.