Operation Page It Forward

"For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and with virtue, knowledge."  2 Peter 1:5

When I was 4 years old, my big sister was 8.  For the first few years of my life, she spent a lot of time asking my Mom and Dad if they could take me back where they had gotten me, and she tried to convince them that the family was fine with my older brother and her and no baby sisters were needed.  But, by the time I was 4 and she was 8, she had accepted that there were no return policies on baby sisters, and I was here to stay.  She took me under her wing at that point, and I have happily stayed there ever since.

Thank God for big sisters!  During that year, my sister found her calling as a teacher.  I used to sit in my window seat in my room watching for her to get home from school in the afternoons.  She would come straight in the house, up the stairs, and my "school" would begin.  We even had a real elementary school desk from a school my Daddy had gotten us somewhere--you remember the metal and wood kind with the desk attached to the little chair?  I would sit reverently as my hero wrote letters and words on our play chalkboard, and I always completed the homework assignments she gave me.  Very soon, my big sister had taught me to read.

My brother, sister and I were blessed to be raised in a family of educators.  Both our grandmothers, one grandfather, two aunts, and our mother were all school teachers, and our house was always full of books.  Our sweet grandmother helped each of her 7 grandchildren make it through countless research papers--this woman has a deep and abiding love for Shakespeare, and even at 84, she can still not only recite sonnets, but write them herself in perfect iambic pentameter.  We all wore out her dining room table, sitting patiently while Mammaw struggled to instill her passion in our thick heads.  A few years ago, she and her sister finally wrote a book of their own called "Memories," and the whole family enjoyed accompanying her with great pride to local book signings.

To this day when our family gets together at holidays, we spend the better part of our time together talking about books, swapping books with each other, arguing about authors, and making our "wish list" of the next books we want to read.  Whenever we call each other, we talk about the kids, the husbands, the jobs, and the usual, but we never get off the phone without the question, "What are you reading?"

I can't imagine how different my life would be without books.  From my earliest days, I have loved first listening to stories, then reading them, then writing some of my own for our school newspaper.  Reading is like milk and honey to my soul, and it continues to be a respite for me in the midst of our chaotic, hectic lives.  What could be more nourishing at the end of a long day after tucking in all the kids than to curl up in your PJs by a warm fire with a great book?  There have been many nights when I just couldn't put it down, and I would stay up late into the night turning the pages, eagerly anticipating where the story would take me next.

Even now, I could spend hours in a Barnes and Noble.  When I travel for business, I often spend my evenings in a bookstore.  I love to grab a Starbucks and....meander.  Slowly, slowly, I make my way through the store, soaking in all my options, making lists of all the books I can't wait to read next.  I even love the way the bookstore or the library smells, and no matter where in the world I may be, that smell feels like home to me.  I can't wait to hear the "crack" of the spine of that fresh hardcover book when you get it home and sit down to dive in.

Through the years, I have learned how to cook, how to write a proper thank-you note, how to survive pregnancy, how to raise a child, how to train a dog, how to end a friendship, how to fall in love, and even how to say goodbye to a lost loved one through the gift of books.  The gift of reading is the gift of life, and when you open up a book, you unlock the door to countless answers to a million questions, some of which you didn't even know you needed to ask.  The Bible encourages us to add knowledge to our virtue and our faith, and the path to knowledge is paved with books.

A few weeks ago, the Mission Athens team had the opportunity to tour the Downtown Rescue Mission in Huntsville, AL.  You can learn more about this amazing organization by visiting their website at http://downtownrescuemission.org.  The Downtown Rescue Mission is the area's largest homeless shelter, and they provide both drop-in services and long-term residential programs for North Alabama's homeless men, women, children and families.  They provide hot showers, warm beds, home cooked meals, and love for all the people in our area that have none.  It is truly an inspirational facility, and I am so thankful for the wonderful work they do. 

As we toured the Mission, we had the opportunity to meet some of the homeless residents.  Now, I am not sure what you think of when you think of a homeless person, but if you are like me, you picture someone who is uneducated who is wearing a heavy winter coat and may have a substance abuse problem.  Let me assure you, we have it all wrong.  There are people from all walks of life who for whatever reason, whatever series of horrific life events, bad choices and even worse luck, have ended up homeless.  We met a former New York model, a former mechanic, and we heard stories about former teachers and even physicians who have been helped by the Mission.  No one, and I mean no one, is immune from hardships in this world, and but for God's grace go I.  That tour was yet another moment, like so many others I have had as part of the Mission Athens team, when I had to stop that night and hit my knees thanking God for his abundant blessings in my life.

As part of our tour, we took a moment to stop in the Mission's library.  This library is a cavernous room, and a local team has painted wonderful murals and colorful illustrations all throughout the space.  Another local business has provided a bank of the latest and greatest computers.  There were even a great variety of toys in the children's section.  The only thing missing from this library is.....books!

They have a few shelves with a small selection of books, and one resident at the mission has even taken it upon herself to organize the meager titles using the Dewey Decimal System.  However, even despite the best efforts of the employees, residents and volunteers, I couldn't help but be saddened by the lack of books in the library.

A friend of mine and another member of the Mission Athens team had the opportunity to tour the Downtown Rescue Mission on a separate day when some of our team volunteered to serve a meal, and she left with this same sinking feeling.  A few days later, we were talking in the hallway of Central Church of Christ, and we both agreed we must do something!  "Operation Page It Forward," our holiday book drive, was born.

Now through the end of December, we will be accepting book donations for the Downtown Rescue Mission in Huntsville.  We will place a bin and poster in the hallway at Central, and we are asking all our friends to please donate gently used books of all kinds for the library.  Reference books, inspirational books, business books, children's books, travel books, cook books, Bible books, spiritual books, how-to books, self-help books, novels of all kinds, and even Shakespeare's sonnets are acceptable.  We want to give the gift of reading, to share the joy and inspiration that escaping in a good story can bring, to all who pass through the doors of the Downtown Rescue Mission library.

We know that our brothers and sisters at Central always respond abundantly to these calls, and we are asking you to do the same now.  We will happily fill as many trucks as it takes to fill up that library so that it will become the place it should be--a place overflowing with books!

I will certainly never be able to repay my big sister, my mother, my grandmothers or the countless teachers who have blessed me with a love of reading, but I can Page It Forward and hopefully make a difference in the lives of those who may stay up late into the night, turning those same pages of beloved books that have spoken to me through the years.  Won't you join me and Page It Forward, too?