Bolstered by a back brace and leg braces, Mary Pensyl testified at a July outdoor worship service about her gratefulness to members of Moline (Michigan) Christian Reformed Church for gardening help that saved her flower business.
“When you’re disabled and all these people show up on your doorstep, it makes you overjoyed,” she said.
For 20 years, Pensyl has sold her flowers at a market, but surgery this year made gardening impossible. Her husband, Bill Pensyl, added, “It’s amazing that they came to us when we don’t go [to Moline CRC].”
Church volunteers fanned out through local neighborhoods, getting hot, dirty, and rain-soaked as part of a three-day Love in Action project. They did home repairs, yard work, cleaning, auto maintenance, and built a wheelchair ramp.
Maria Parra received a new roof, living room paint, and yard improvements. “It makes me feel like there are some nice people and there’s a Lord,” she said. “It relieved my stress about how I was going to get the money for this.”
Some volunteers scoured and stocked a food pantry. Others brought food to worksites, and volunteers ate together every evening.
A large dairy barn caught fire during the Love in Action project, and Moline members brought food to the exhausted firefighters.
Volunteer Denny Dykstra said everyone tried to make friends with those they helped. “We emphasized relationships with people. We prayed with them before we started working.”
Randy Ellens explained, “Some were needy, and some were not, but [they] needed to experience God’s love
