GIFTS OF HONEY

As soon as the cinnamon rolls were gone the ladies loaded the cars to tour the town looking for places to do good deeds. A short distance down the first street, the ladies soon pointed at one particular house. They discussed who lived there and decided they might as well get to work and clean it now. They exited the car with rakes and clippers and charged toward the house as though they were a platoon of the army on operations. “Hey!” yelled Justin McGorney as he stuck his head out the front door. “What do you people think you are doing? Get off my property.” Mr. McGorney strutted out of his house and on to the lawn with a ball bat in his hand. He looked around and began swinging the bat in all directions. “Hi, Mr. McGorney,” began Emily Houseman as she approached Mr. McGorney and ducked just in time to prevent being hit. “We just came by to help you clean your yard and make it look nice.” “What kind of rip off you ladies pulling,” asked a mistrusting Justin McGorney. “No rip off,” laughed Sherrie Bennett. “We just want to show our Christian love for our neighbors by helping clean their yards and painting their houses.” “Do you, now?” said Justin with one eye squinting at them as he examined the group. “I don’t know any of you old women.” The ladies stopped what they were doing and turned in unison toward the man who was a good 20 years older than the oldest one of them. They looked at his white beard, his dirty and ripped trousers and yellowed t-shirt. They looked at his worn out tennis shoes. They watched as he limped back on to the front porch hanging on to the railing as he shook a fist at them and told them to get out of his yard. Rather confused the ladies gathered at the corner of his property and looked at the sad condition of the house and yard. They looked at each other and with a shrug loaded back into the cars and focused on finding another location to share their Christian love. Mrs. Georgia Maddox lived a block away. When the ladies came to her house they all pointed and motioned to stop the car. They immediately jumped out and marched to the flower beds on the south side of the house. Some of the ladies began working on trimming the roses and weeding her flower beds. Others went to work on fertilizing the yard that was brown and was nearly bare of grass. Another individual started seeding the yard. Good progress had been made on the south side of the yard by the time a big double cab truck pulled in the driveway. The women were feeling pretty good about the job they had done cleaning the yard and weeding the flowerbeds. They were proud at how everything looked. Some of the women began getting back up on their feet after kneeling to pull weeds and looked to see who was in the truck. They hoped to receive compliments and praise for their demonstration of Christian love after getting such a disappointing response from Mr. McGorney. The sound of a truck door opening was heard followed by the echoing slam of the same door. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned toward the truck. There was Mrs. Maddox wearing green coveralls and high top boots. She had a straw hat on top of her head and it was pulled down on the forehead of her angry looking face. “Women!!” shouted Mrs. Maddox, “Did my daughter send you over here to do this? I’m not going to have my daughter paying to have my yard work done. If I want it done I’ll do it myself. So you women just pack up your things and get out of here.” “Excuse me, Georgia,” began Emily Houseman, “your daughter doesn’t know we are doing this and there is no charge. We are from the Nickerson Church and are intending to help people in the neighborhood clean up their yards and gardens.” “What kind of scam is this?” Georgia went on shouting. “Oh, I know what you are doing. You women will finish the job and then send me a bill. I know your kind. Church charity indeed! You women are wicked with your bazaars and bake sales and now going around taking advantage of old people. You should be ashamed. Go home to your husbands and leave me alone. If you are not gone in one minute I’m calling the police.” The church ladies tried again to explain that they wanted to help Georgia keep her yard looking nice. They insisted there was no charge, no bill, nothing but free labor and then explained how they had decided to use the mission money from the VBS to do work in the local community. They went on to tell about the various local businesses that had donated things and what a wonderful project it was. “I don’t need your help,” Georgia insisted. “Now, ladies, who will care to explain what is wrong with my yard? I think it looks pretty nice. What is this ‘eye sore’ you talk about?’ The ladies looked at each other and scanned the yard where vines had choked out the flowers in the flower beds, unwanted bushes were flourishing in the fence row, and broken limbs lay in the yard. They looked at the peeling paint on the porch railing and noticed the wires on the side of the house were flapping in the breeze. “I do pretty well, don’t I,” continued Georgia. “See, there is no need for your interference. Now get out of my yard!” As the ladies prepared to leave, Sarah Jenkins took Georgia a plate of homemade cookies. The plate looked very nice with a variety of types of cookies. It was covered with Sarah Wrap and a little pink and white bow was centered on the plate. Georgia thanked the ladies for the plate of cookies and then dumped them in the trash. The ladies gasped and started grumbling among themselves about the rude, disrespectful, ungrateful people in the community. “So, ladies?” said Georgia. “Do I call the police or are you going now?” The ladies returned to the church building depressed at their failure to do anything for anyone. Sarah raised a box of cookies and asked what she should do with them. Colleen took the box and placed it on the table. “Ladies,” Colleen called, “dig in! We deserve the cookies. We worked hard and it may be all we get.” The women ate the cookies themselves that they had intended to give to the people as they worked in yards and painted. Each lady voiced their opinion about the day and unanimously agreed that none of the people on their list of those needing assistance deserved to receive a gift of cookies after the way the ladies had been ordered off properties without a single thank you. “So ladies,” began Rev. Temple as he entered the room. “How did your project go today?”