Make your own damn sandwiches.

Sometimes living in rural community has it's own special challenges. Case in point, newspaper delivery. I was making breakfast for the family this morning and wanted to read the Sunday paper. As I looked out on the driveway, no paper. This is not a unique experience. Out here in the sticks paper delivery is about a three week career. With the price of gas I guess there is not much profit in this endeavor.

Having not thrown out Saturday's paper, I sat down to see what I may have missed. What I found is the best story I have read in the Sacramento Bee in some time. The column is written by Tim McGuire called 'More than work". It had a great story about a priest who fed the homeless with PBJ sandwiches. I googled around and found what I think was the original story.
Here is an excerpt-

Now, let me conclude by telling you a true story I heard this summer that continues to haunt me for a variety of reasons- many of them related to these remarks. My wife and I heard a speaker at Chautauqua tell the story of a friend of his who happened to be a priest. They had been friends for many years but in recent years they have been living a couple of hours apart and therefore did'nt get to see each other very often. But, still they stayed in touch.
In his parish the priest had organized a hunger center and apparently they specialized in providing sandwiches for the homeless and for those who needed a meal. I believe it was referred to as the "sandwich ministry".
Fairly recently the speaker had learned that the priest was suffering from a serious and fatal disease. Indeed, he knew and everyone else knew that his death was very near. The speaker wanted to see his friend one last time so he arranged to visit him. They spent a good day together and the speaker had an opportunity to see the "sandwich ministry" and was very impressed by it. When he returned home he wrote a note to the priest and included with it a check to support the sandwich ministry.
Within a few days two things happened. First, the speaker learned that his friend, the priest, had in fact died. But, second, at that same time he received an envelope in the mail with the name and address of the priest as the return address. Clearly the priest had written whatever was inside just before he died.
The speaker opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. As he did so, the check he had written and sent to the priest fell out and onto the floor. When he looked at what the priest had written just before he died, he read these words: "Make your own damn sandwiches."


The quote stays with me "Make your own damn sandwiches"
sometimes the tragedy is far away and making out a check to Worldvision is the best thing to do. But there are so many instances where warm bodies doing hard work can make such a difference in our local area. Giving is great, but doing helps both the giver and the recipient.