Thanks to everyone who shared a time when they’ve taken a chance on someone (from this post)! Reading through your posts was so encouraging, and I wanted to share a few with you, including the winner’s post!
Speaking of which, the winner of a copy of Take a Chance on Me and a $50 gift card to Amazon, BN, or CBD (your choice!) is . . . Ashley Mays! Please email your mailing address to amy@susanmaywarren.com to claim your prize. And keep reading for Ashley’s Take a Chance on Someone post and others I think you’ll love!
Ashley: “I used to be a summer camp counselor at a Christian overnight camp. One Sunday a seven-year-old boy with a round tummy, large, dramatic eyes, and a voice as loud as a locomotive horn showed up to be a camper for the week. Within hours, I could tell his counselor was already exhausted and frustrated with ‘Jacob.’
“It’s not that I had any extra energy myself, but I felt like Jacob needed a buddy. So that evening during game time, I snuck to his side and said hi. He spent the next hour telling me about his brand new baby sister named April and how she was going to be a rain cloud for Halloween so she could be “April Showers” and did I know if I wanted to dress up for Halloween (which was still four months away) and hey, would it be hard for me to buy him a Kit Kat bar in the Snak Shak because he really wanted one, but he wasn’t really allowed to have sugar so his mom didn’t give him any money to buy candy. An hour later, I still hadn’t said a word, but he felt like he had a friend.
“Jacob proved to be a very difficult camper who became belligerent when asked to follow directions and melted down when discipline became necessary. But through it all, he always came back to my side, ready to tell me another story or wrap his arms around my neck in a hug.
“In the middle of the week, I found out that Jacob was being sent home. His counselor was frustrated because he wouldn’t listen, and he was distracting the other campers with destructive behavior. When I went to see Jacob right before he left, he motioned for me to kneel down to his level. As I did, he pushed his face in mine, and whispered with Kool-aid breath, ‘Thank you for being my friend.’
And that’s when I knew the chance I took at listening to a seven-year-old was worth it.”
Ramona: “I took a chance . . . and adopted my sister’s three children from social services. Each was considered a special-needs adoption, with the oldest having mental retardation and global developmental delays. All three have Reactive Attachment Disorder (a condition not well-known or understood by most people). When they became our children, they were five years old, three years old, and eighteen months old. Today, the oldest (with the most disabilities) is twenty and is learning work skills, the middle son is nineteen and is attending community college while working and living on his own, and the youngest, our daughter, is seventeen and is finishing high school. I also have two stepdaughters (one is thirty-three years old, and the other has passed away and her daughter is now living with us). My birth sons are nineteen and eleven years old. All of these precious children and yet I had told everyone I would never have children! Hah! God certainly had different plans for my life than I did!”
Karen: “God seems to work in mysterious ways. Back in August of this year I got permanently laid off from my job, which I had for three years. I just learned today that my husband is on temporary lay off that we think will become a permanent lay off because the government has shut down. Well the chance I am about to take is going back to school. I have been to college and probably have enough credits to have a Master’s degree, but I just never have had the motivation to finish or the money for that matter; however, I am trusting God to provide. That is a tremendous leap of faith. My husband’s schooling is quite out of date, and even he is thinking about taking courses at the nearest community college to help him find the job of his dreams. I am confident God will see us through this season in our lives. One of my wisest friends told me today to get a chalkboard and write the words ‘Just trust’ on the board and any time my husband or I am in despair that I’m just to point at that chalk board.”
Kelly: “I took a chance and attended the ACFW conference this past September. To most, this might not seem like a big deal, but attending a public, secular university, no one ever gave me good feedback on my writing. I allowed Satan to feed my doubts saying I can’t write. This conference was a huge financial risk for a stay-at-home mother of three boys. Thankfully, I had Ronie Kendig as my mentor, and she read the first three pages of my almost-finished manuscript. She said, ‘You have the voice of a suspense writer with clear, concise writing.’ Ever since, I felt God overriding Satan by telling me to write ‘His’ story.