The following was written by one of our precious volunteers, Cyndi Rushing. In this email, Cyndi reveals EXACTLY what we strive to do with HFH – care for hurting families and knit our hearts together in love and community.

As a Christian, I have always ‘wondered’ how it would feel to have the Holy Spirit speak to me and if I would know when it happened. There have been times that I thought He was speaking to me but afterwards was unsure of whether it was that or if I was just exaggerating a ‘good thought’ that I may have had. However, now I know and I can tell you that there is not a better feeling in the world than to know that I was chosen to fulfill a need by the most high God, and for once I actually listened.

Let’s start at the beginning: I first heard of Habitat for Hope through a Caringbridge website. Soon I became involved with this wonderful Christian organization here in Memphis. Through them, I have had the privilege of serving (in person) the families of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Over the last couple of years, I have grown to know and to love families that have had their children called home to heaven before them. As close as I have been to the situations, I still cannot imagine how these parents do it. However due to various reasons, I have not served HFH as faithfully as I would have liked in the last couple of months.

Last Tuesday, I received an email asking me to deliver a meal to a family. They are a local family here in Memphis and live only 5 miles from where I live so I gladly agreed to provide a meal for them on Saturday. I ask for a little background information because I had never met this family before and was told that Nicholas was an 8 years old child with rhabdomyosarcoma and was home on Hospice, but his mother fully believed he would be healed. Having dealt with hospice situations in the past- I know that even after hospice is called in, some children may still survive for many months. I knew that Nicholas was terminal but had no idea how close the time was.

Wednesday, my father called and invited me to go out of town with him for the weekend. I toyed with the idea of canceling or rescheduling my meal to this family so that I could go out of town. I decided to wait until later in the week to make the decision. I was shocked to receive an email on Thursday that Nicholas has passed away. I immediately emailed my meal coordinator to see if we would still plan to take meals. Selfishly, I thought this may allow me to make that out of town trip after all but for some reason I still did not commit to go and when dad called on Thursday night- I declined.

Friday, it was decided that I would still take a meal and I began to make preparations. Typically, I call all of ‘my’ families the day of the delivery and try to get some idea of what they would like to eat. I would hate to take something that they would not eat…. When I made the call, I had no idea what to say. After the preliminaries, I asked her if there was a specific way that I could pray for her family. She wanted extra prayers for her other son. He is 12 years old and was taking the death pretty hard (as I could only imagine). I normally do not buy presents or gifts for the families that I visit. If time allows- I will make them a little bookmark or something small. However, my mouth opened and almost without me realizing what I was saying- I was asking if I could pick up a little ‘happy’ that might cheer him up. After some discussion, I found out that he liked sports and that he had a PSP.

As I was in the store, I headed over to the electronics thinking that I would have lots of choices and I could pick up something inexpensive. There were only 2 sports games and they both cost more than I had anticipated … Have you priced video games lately?!? Anyway, I bit the bullet and picked up the one I thought he might enjoy. Once I had made the purchase, the worry settled in….. If he liked sports, then he probably had this game. What would I do if he had it- or worse yet- what if he hated it? I planned to take the receipt with me (just in case). When it came time to deliver the meal, my husband decided to go with me. He typically lets me do this by myself, because he does not want his emotions affected. But, decided that I did not need to make the trip alone.

We arrived at the house and headed in with the meal and were greeted by some of the nicest people I have ever met. They were delighted to see us and were extremely grateful for our service and our prayers. Before the son came into the room, I asked Dad if he had this game and I pulled the game out of the sack. The fathers face lit up and he said ‘You have just made him very happy. He has been begging for this game’. Relieved, I sat the game down behind me and continued to talk to mom while dad went to get the child…. He came into the room and wondered around behind me and spotted the game and picked it up. There was a look of sheer joy on his face and he screamed “Oh, my gosh….” I have NEVER seen a child more excited to receive something. After hugging both Tommy and I, he took off running to his room. When he left the kitchen, I looked around and everyone in the room had tears glistening down their cheeks. The parents continued to thank me as the son came back into the kitchen to eat- but could not eat because he was trying to play the game at the same time.

I say all of this because there were several things that could have happened differently….. I could have not volunteered to take the meal, I could have gone out of town, I could have not called that morning, the store could have had many games to choose from, the child could have already had the game and so forth and so on…….. However, God had other ideas and in his perfect timing and in his perfect plan, I was able to serve where I was needed. I do not take any of the credit, but thank God for making everything happen exactly as it needed to and for helping me to make the correct choices. Because of his perfect plan- not only was I able to serve this family in HIS way- but Tommy and I were touched in a way that I never thought possible. We finished the visit by surrounding Mom in a hug and thanking God for the perfect healing of Nicholas and for Nicholas’ new home! Silently, my heart was praying a satisfying prayer of thanksgiving for allowing me to witness and be a part of His special plan.