Hope is Birthed in Thelma's Life

Thelma White lives in the Laurel Lanes low income housing community of Clarksburg, West Virginia. In December of 2006, she received an invitation to the very first H.I.S. BridgeBuilders event to be held in her community – A Christmas Celebration! Thelma wasn’t interested in attending. She’d seen well-meaning groups come and go throughout the years, and she figured this new group wouldn’t be around long either.

However, we kept coming back – for a Valentine’s Community Dinner in February; Planting Flowers in May; Vacation Bible School in June; Olympic Community Day in February; Ladies Nite Out in October; Thanksgiving Celebration in November; and another Christmas Celebration in December!

In February of 2008, the WorldVision organization blessed H.I.S. BridgeBuilders with donations of toiletries. We, in turn, put together 100 huge gift bags for each family of Laurel Lanes filled to the brim with toiletries! Volunteers filled their cars and set out on a cold, rainy Saturday to deliver these heavy gift bags to each family. Thelma watched these volunteers from her window. She saw their smiles and their laughter – even as they carried these heavy bags in the cold and rain. Someone knocked on her door and told her God loved her and asked if they could pray for her in any way.

What did Thelma think of all this? She decided in her heart that she wanted the joy that these volunteers had. What did Thelma do? She contacted H.I.S. BridgeBuilders and asked how she could volunteer to help. And help she has – faithfully from that day forward in every weekly program and every special community event.

In August, Thelma expressed the desire to have a Bible study in her home. Our second week as we talked about the Gospel, Thelma realized she had never surrendered her heart and life to Jesus Christ. She was a churchgoer who was trying to make her way to God by doing all she could to turn her life around. She believed in God and His Son, Jesus; but she was trying to gain favor with God by being good enough. As we shared the Scriptures, Thelma saw – that just like all of us – on our own we can never turn our lives around to be good enough for and to be all that God wants us to be. Thelma surrendered her heart to God and asked Jesus to be Lord of her life that night – and she’s never been the same!

Thelma now has what she saw in those volunteers back on a cold, rainy day in February. She has a relationship with God and a hunger for His Word; she has a desire to obey Him; she has a newfound peace and joy in her heart; and she has an awareness of God’s presence in her life. We continue to have Bible study in Thelma’s home every Tuesday night, and she continues to shine the light of Jesus to her family, friends and neighbors! Hope in Salvation!