Submitted by: Leanna Mathias
Garden Grove, CA
I am a second-grade teacher in Southern California. I got the devastating news last September that one of my students lost her father do to a heart attack. A few weeks after hearing the news, we had Brad speak at our church. After hearing him speak, I knew then and there what I had to do. I brought up to my Life Group the family for us to adopt for Christmas. They were so excited to be able to help. Everyone jumped in and either purchased gifts for the mom, little girl, and/or brother. They also supported them with a lot of prayer as well. I had texted the mom to make sure it was ok to do this and just told her I was bringing by some gifts for my student. I wanted her to be surprised!
Today was Operations Christmas and the gifts were packed into my car along with my three kids and my husband. As we pulled up, my student was playing outside and was completely surprised to see me on Saturday, let alone, at her house! The mom came out and was in shock that all these gifts were for their family. She had thought we were just dropping one off to my student. We were able to fill their tree with gifts and brought the mom to tears.
My kids couldn’t stop taking about how the family reacted and how it felt good do this. All the way home I had a grin on my face and my heart was filled with joy knowing I was able to bring a family a blessing they didn’t expect ❤️This is definitely something we are going to do again. Maybe even looking for one of my student in need and blessing them. I absolutely loved doing this!!
