Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ACT (05/05/22)
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TITLE: JUMP, JENNY, JUMP ! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mariane Holbrook
05/09/22 -
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Living as a single woman in the country with her widowed mother, Jenny enjoyed sleeping late every day. At first, things went smoothly as Jenny gave little thought to the job she had left after many years, but one day, while lying in the hammock behind their house, she told her mother she felt worthless.
"I feel as though I've been placed high on a shelf in the back of a closet, not making a difference to anyone, not even helping you around the house," she explained. "I'm getting depressed and need some reason to wake up in the morning."
Her mother listened quietly, then suggested maybe it was time to act, to find something to do. Jenny had resigned from her job on the advice of her doctors who finally agreed that the two separate vehicle accidents in which she was involved years earlier, had caused more damage to her spine than had been previously indicated. That would explain her uneven gait, her chronic back pain, weakness in her legs, and a foot condition known as Erythromelalgia.
Her mother suggested that they pray for God to open an unexpected door so Jenny could help someone or find meaning in her life.
That night a friend from Michigan phoned Jenny. "I have a favor to ask. I can't sleep at night and I wondered if you would play some of my favorite traditional hymns on your piano to record on a CD. I could send you a list but I'd like one of them to be, "It Is Well With My Soul."
Jenny hesitated and finally said, "I'd do anything in the world for you, Peggy; you know that. I was devastated when cancer was discovered in your abdomen and I've wished so many times that we lived closer together. But I'm not a professional pianist; you know that. I'm afraid you'd be disappointed. But let me give it some thought."
The next day Jenny received an Email from her sister in Boston. "Jenny, I know this seems odd but last night I woke up with the strangest feeling that I should ask you to make a C.D. of hymns. One of the hymns that immediately came to mind was "It Is Well With My Soul."
Jenny stopped her in mid-sentence. "Have you been talking to my friend Peggy in Michigan?"
"No, I don't know Peggy at all," her sister replied. "This came to me out of nowhere, honestly. It was as though I was being asked to make this request of you."
Jenny was completely nonplussed. When she shared it with her mother, they both felt this was a confirmation from the Lord, so with her mother's encouragement, and the list Peggy Emailed her, Jenny recorded twenty-five hymns on her Yamaha piano organ. She played two verses of each hymn so Peggy could sing along with the C.D. Then she mailed copies to Peggy and to Jenny's sister.
Peggy shared the CD with a friend who wanted several for patients at the hospital where he served as chaplain. . Because they were familiar, quiet hymns, he felt the patients could use them as sleeping aids.
Peggy asked Jenny if she could make a few more copies and Jenny agreed, insisting that they be free and postage paid because they were not professionally-made.
For several weeks, Jenny received Emails from strangers in nearly every state requesting the free CD.
A teacher in Oregon wrote that she played it every afternoon for the autistic children she taught. It quieted them.
An elderly invalid in California sang along with the CD every night until she fell asleep. It was played at her funeral, as she'd requested.
When the Emails finally ceased, Jenny had cut and shipped nearly 1,000 free CDs of hymns of the faith.
Realizing that God directs moving objects, Jenny abandoned her self-imposed shelf life. "Now, set aside the piano and pick up your paint brush," God directed.
Several weeks later, on Christmas Day, nearly 100 lonely, forgotten residents in a modest Kentucky nursing center opened their presents to find a lovely painted seashell with a Scripture verse scripted in gold.
The administrator, asking the residents to sign a massive thank-you card, remarked, "… a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise." (Proverbs 31:30, 31) KJV
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Based on a true story.
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