The power of suggestion

Middle of last November, I was rehearsing with Dudley's Rush. We were wrapping up when one of the girls asked if anyone thought we should do a benefit concert for a local police officer who had been shot in the face in the line of duty. We all agreed it would be a great idea; the family was sure to have a lot of medical bills because the officer's injuries were quite extensive. He'll need several reconstructive surgeries and rehab because he lost his sight.

Fast-forward to today, a bare two months later. I spent the entire day at church, starting with worship, moving into rehearsals, and then the concert. During a little piece of down time I noticed a little boy from our congregation setting up a table with a basket of rubber balls and a big jar. He was selling the balls to raise money for the police officer. He'd been to another benefit a couple weeks ago and raised $119.50. I bought some balls for the cats and told him he needed to break $120.

We had five music groups, different kinds from Bluegrass to Barbershop, and the concert was a total of 1 1/2 hours. The church was packed. We had more people than on Christmas Eve and Easter. The sanctuary seats about 500; we might have been able to get a half-dozen more in if we'd had to. I was floored when the pastor announced that we'd raised over $7,100. I'm still floored.

And the little boy with the bouncy balls? He blew his record away--$205.

It's a rare thing to have something that big come together in less than two months, especially considering the holidays were stuck in the middle. It's magical, miraculous. We had over 500 angels in our church today.