Today was a day filled with moments that tested my patience, humbleness, ingenuity, flexibility and more. There were two moments in particular that stick out. I'm only going to tell you about one, though.
Pearlington only has one little mini-mart on the outskirts of town. It's pretty rundown but is frequented by many people all day long. The lady who works in the mini-mart has never been especially friendly. At all. Sunday we stopped in there at lunch to buy some soda's. I saw the lady behind the counter and didn't expect much in the way of friendliness. She surprised me though. She recognized that we were volunteers, specifically she recognized me. Yesterday, I got a little smile out of her as we were checking out, but not much. She was friendlier though.
Today, as we approached the counter, she was standing, instead of sitting on a stool. That's when I saw that her stool had been repaired with silver duct tape. Being the observant person I am, I noticed that the seat of the stool had a cover that had flames on it. Being the duct tape aficionado that I am, it immediately occurred to me that I had seen duct tape at Wal Mart the night before that had flames on it, or at least had the same color scheme on it. I had to bring her attention to the this fact and that's when it happened. The lady behind the counter broke into a full smile and laugh. It made my day. Sammy and I decided that we need to buy the flame colored duct tape for the lady at the mini-mart.
Sometimes I forget, on these trips, that it's not just about building houses but that it's also about helping people find joy again. I'll gladly spend a few dollars every day at the mini-mart buying stuff if it means that we can help the lady behind the counter find joy in life again.
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