Bring Your Mom To Work Day

It's been a common practise amongst our staff, that when parents or siblings visit, they come along and spend the days of their visit working for Regina RESCUE Mission. Just another of the many ways I have come up with to exploit the free labour market. This week, Melanie brought her mom, Kari to work.

Kari did a lot of things for us!! She cooked exotic meals using our "gourmet" ingredients... she worked for Vicki in the office, setting up some computer stuff for us... she took me for coffee!

And then, there was mail day. Kari and one of our fine option workers were opening mail. She sliced open letter after letter, making notations when necessary, and placing everything neatly into organized piles based on whether people have mailed in cash, or a credit card donation, or a cheque. There's even a problem pile for people who forget to sign their cheques and such.

As she slit an envelope open, her eyes bulged... she showed it to her helper and said in a sort of hushed tone, as she shook her head, "I don't think this is normal. I have to go find someone."

So, she went off in search of a staff member, and found Melanie and Vicki. She held up the donation and they grabbed it, did a little dance, and said, "We have to go find Ken!"

So, off they all trooped to Ken's office where they excitedly showed Ken what was in the envelope.

Ken was so excited he called me on my cell phone. I was on my way back from spending a few days with my sister in Manitoba.

"You will never believe what I have sitting on my desk, Michelle! It came in today's mail."

Curious?

A cheque from an anonomous donor for $100,000!!! This person caught Ken's vision for paying down the mortgage, and wanted to make as big of a gift as he could for it. So, he mailed in a portion of his parents' inheritance, on a personal cheque, with a little Post-It that said, "Use where most needed."

Wow. Talk about giving generously with no strings attached. Not to mention the anonomous part. Very few people want to remain anonymous.

So, off went Ken to the bank. Well, it's kind of hard to remain anonymous at the bank, when one lady got so excited for us she called all the other bank ladies around to take a look.

"What do we do?"
"We've never processed a personal cheque this large."
"This is going to take two weeks to clear!"
"What if he's not good for it?"

Ken, looking cool as a cucumber, in his usual fashion, calmly replied, "Oh, believe me. He's good for it."

And so, in a couple of weeks, our mortgage will be cut nearly in half. It is truly the gift that keeps on giving!

Thanks so much to Mr & Mrs T for their prayerful and most generous contribution.