The rarest jewel on earth is a servants heart

Reed Felton
9-23-2017

 For the last 3 days of the clinic I was working with a lovely women, 62  years young, widowed for 20 years, and she lived on the church property.  On day 2 we handed out bags together after the people had been fitted for their glasses.  This was the last station in our process.  On the last 2 days we shared greeting duties as we brought groups of 10 people at a time into the church and got them started in our process. 

The first 2 days we became an effective team even though her english vocabulary was limited to “okay!” and she was constantly encouraging the people to say “Thank you” to us.  

The first day we worked together we discovered she was color blind and had to explain that people could choose a bag of any color they wanted,  she thought they were all the same.  On days 3 and 4 she was in her element greeting the people with a warm smile, the source of which was a very warm heart.  She even started coaching  me in her stretching routine. We were communicating but without many words.  Lots of smiles and gestures.

When preparing to leave on Friday she approached me with a gift.  It was a bag of small flowers grown on the church property similar to orchids, that can be dried and made into a fragrant tea.  Along with that she gave me 2 seed pods so I could grow them back in Wisconsin.  I won’t be able to bring this gift back but the gesture will never be forgotten.

I was sad to leave my new friend.  We all know that its not what you say that is so important but how what you say makes someone feel.  Her kind and gentle spirit touched me deeply.  Oh, and we were able to hand out some eye glasses too!