Angel Tree moments

Submitted by Lin…

Our small group sponsored a five year old boy, named X. When I went to the Angel Tree Christmas party, it turned out that his stepdad came. His stepdad was the one who was in prison and who wanted to make sure his son got a gift because he didn’t know when he’d come out. But it turned out he came out of prison earlier than expected, so he was able to attend the party.

So X, his step dad, X’s mom, who is a mother of thirteen I found out, and X’s foster parent for two years came. His foster parent said he goes to church, and said he just finished the adoption papers for X. He is taking care of X and two of his brothers. He was very grateful we planned this for the kids.

I got to talk to his stepdad a bit because I sat next to him, and he said he always goes to church. Even in prison, he loved going to church. He even signed up for a seminary class in prison, but was deterred by the amount of reading he had to do and dropped out. He said, he was made more for worship and he loves singing praise songs.

X at first was pretty shy and quiet, and was not that happy I was asking him questions. But as time went on, he smiled more and more, and started playing with a sophomore brother at our table (their sponsored family didn’t come). Even though X and the sophomore brother had totally different backgrounds, they were so happy playing together they seemed like brothers. When I finally gave X his presents, his parents were very happy because X needed a thick jacket for winter. The step father and the care taker and X wanted to stay for JCC, but they ended up going home because X’s mom was in pain because of her foot problems. The care taker said she was in a drug rehab program and could not take medication for her foot. So they ended up leaving, but X was very reluctant to go and finally gave me a big hug.

This Angel Tree Christmas party left me a very strong impression. Talking to X’s stepdad made me see how God really loves each person as he is, and it also made me very grateful for the life God gave me, which is much more privileged than a lot of people out there. Also, just seeing how X changed from being very reserved to very open during a short few hours he was there was very touching. Again and again God shows me how much love can do. We really didn’t do much for them, but they are very grateful and thoroughly enjoyed the program, and they were able to come together as a family. It was very good to see that. I’ll definitely do Angel Tree again next year.