Two ladies were standing in line waiting to be checked out.  They could hardly wait to get to the head of the line to tell us their story of joy.  They told us that they were now best friends because of God and the Hope Chest.  We wondered, “How does the Hope Chest get credit for that?”  They shared that they were strangers to one another last fall when they happened to visit the Hope Chest at the same hour one day.  They met there and they left realizing that they had found a new best friend.  The ladies spoke of sharing fun and hardships with one another over the following days.  They mentioned that they often prayed for one another and would frequently pray over the phone for one another.  We were overjoyed as these new best friends stood there smiling and hugging each other and saying thank you to us for providing more than new clothing and shoes.  They were given a friendship full of God’s joy.

I shared with them a saying that we say to one another almost every Sunday morning: “God is good … all the time; and all the time … God is good.”  These ladies loved that and they walked out repeating the words.