Please keep Kim Prentiss’ father Jim Boyd in your prayers as well as her mother Pam and sister Amy.  He may not survive until Tuesday 3/25.  Despite all of our positivity and prayer the outcome at this point (barring a miracle) (and we all know that they happen) is bleak at best.  Also please keep my family John (dad), Carolyn (mom), and Angela (sister) in your prayers.  My little brother Sean commited suicide six years ago this past Saturday,so this is still a very difficult time for all of us. The make my day part of this is that no matter how bad things seem there are always people around to pick you up and help you to carry on.

John Prentiss

Hi all just wanted to send a brief message. My wife Kim Prentiss is on Oprah’s Big Give. She was inspired by Dr. Foster and this website.

I challenge all of you as I am challenging myself to keep this spirit of giving going and to keep paying it forward.

I am humbled, elated, and amazed by what my beautiful wife has accomplished. I cannot thank Dr. Foster enough for the inspiration he provides.

I hope one day I will be worthy of all of the gifts that I have been given in life, especially the gift of having someone as special as my wife Kim in my life. Alone we can change things….together we can change everything.

Love and Happiness to you all.

John Prentiss

I was showing my sister and her friend who were visiting from NC around the downtown area a couple weeks ago.

We were getting ready to walk over to the machine to pay for our parking when a fellow walking to his car called to me and said, “Hey want a free pass?  I’m leaving and I’ve paid for the whole day!” So he gave us his parking pass.

I recognized him as a singer/songwriter who attends our church and introduced myself and thanked him. He said to just consider it his random act of kindness that day. He also said he was just coming from Garth Brooks’ number one party over at the Country Music Hall of Fame and we should go see him since he was still there.

Wow.  Free parking AND my sister and her friend get to a little of the Nashville music scene with an up close glimpse of a celebrity!! When we left the party my sister said.  Wow, that guy was cool!  I said, “It was kind of fun for you to see a celebrity while you were here.”

And she said, “But that guy from your church….how cool is HE?” It sure is great to see so many great people applying what we learn on Sunday all the way into a Friday afternoon. Yea God, for great teaching at The Gathering!

Barbara McGee

I love the fact that even though the 31 series is over that so many of us are continuing to “pay it forward” to those we encounter each day.

My deed for today was for a guy who works on the cleaning crew in our building. The whole cleaning team is always so nice and considerate to all of us who work in the building and they have one of the most thankless jobs ever, but they always have a smile and nice comments for all of us everyday.

Today, as I stepped on the elevator I asked the guy who cleans my floor how his day was going. He said, “Whew, Mondays are always hard to get fired up for.” He is an older gentleman who I have never heard complain, so it made me stop to think that for some reason this day was a little more difficult to manage for him. I said, “Maybe some caffeine would help you make it thru the day.” He replied, “Yeah, that sure would be nice.” It then occured to me that

• 1. He was definitely needing a little pick me up and
• 2. He most likely did not have the $1.00 to buy himself a drink.

I know he works and lives on minimum wage and it made me appreciate the fact that if I want or need a treat it is as easy as grabbing my wallet and fishing for some loose change. Most likely it is not that easy for him.

I heard that voice in my head, that said, “this is your chance for a random act of kindness”. So, I went and bought him a Coke. When I took it to him I think he thought I was giving him some trash to throw in his cart and when I said, “Maybe this will help you make it thru the rest of your day,” he just smiled with that smile of appreciation only someone can give you when they truly mean it and thanked me over and over again.

It made my day to do it for him. I hope he at least felt appreciated!

Stephanie Olsen

Last week I was in San Antonio on vacation.  My hotel was on the famous River Walk and I had about two hours before I was to leave.  I decided to just spend about an hour on the beautiful River Walk and planned to stop along the way to finish reading a book I had started earlier in the week.

As I walked I came to a splendid little shady island across from one of the hotel’s outdoor restaurant areas.  The island was called Marriage
Island and it was rumored to be good luck to get married on the approximately 15 x 20 foot scenic island.

I crossed over to the island and sat under a huge tree on a concrete bench with a big heart imprinted in the bench seat.  I enjoyed my surroundings for a minute and then began to read.  A young family came by and stopping to admire the beauty.  The man held a small camera.  The words flowed from my mouth, “Would you like for me to take a picture of your family.” He looked puzzled for a minute and then said, “Sure”.  After the picture was made of the complete family they all thanked me over and over, smiled, and left happily knowing that everyone would be in this picture.

I sat back down and began to read again.  Along came a young couple with a camera.  They barely spoke English, but were able to understand my offer to take their picture together. The camera was handed to me, the picture taken, and they left with big smiles and many thanks.  I sat back down and began to read again.  Along came a young family with an adorable little girl.  I once again offered to take their picture.  After hesitating, the camera was handed to me, the picture taken, and all left with much bigger smiles than they had arrived.  I began to read again. Along came an Oriental couple and three teenage girls, only one of which spoke English.  She gladly accepted my offer to take their picture and handed me the camera.  They left very excited and happy.

Time after time families, couples, or friends stopped to view the beauty of the special island and were first surprised and then thrilled at my
offer to take their pictures with their cameras.  Each left with a big big smile and expressed much gratitude.  As I was about to leave to go back to my hotel another family came by and I made the same offer.  About the same time, two very tattooed men who had been setting in the hotel restaurant across from the island got up to leave.  As they passed one of the men looked back at me with a big smile and waved as the family approached the island.  He grinned as if to say, “That’s pretty cool, even though you aren’t getting much of your book read”.  I smiled back at him, waved, and exclaimed, “Guess, it’s my job today!”

I suddenly realized three things.  First, that this short 30 minutes would probably be remembered as the most fun time I had on my whole vacation. Second, that I had done my little part in helping other families have good memories together.  Third, someone was watching me.  He might have even seen the joy on my face and the faces of those I helped, and might even tepeat the act someday somewhere.  God only knows!

Pam Boyd

I had just finished a very tiring and depressing shopping trip when I stopped by Subway to pick up some supper, wondering if I even felt like
walking into the restaurant.  I got in line behind a couple who were discussing how there truck had stopped on the road that day.  God pinched
me and said, “Pay for their meal”.  I hadn’t brought in my purse only a small bill, so I decided I probably didn’t have enough money for
theirs and what I had ordered also. As I heard the check out person tell them their order was a little over $6 and saw the man search through his pocket then look at the woman asking, “Do you have any change?”  She struggled through her purse looking for the last few pennies to pay for their meal.

God gave me another nudge and I surprised myself as I practically yelled across the counter,  “Here, I’m paying for their meal”. Every one in
front and behind the counter starred at me in disbelief and looked at me like I had just dropped from outer space!  The man looked up and said,
“You don’t have to do that” and I replied, “oh, I’d like to because I just like to do this every once in a while.”  He replied with a very pleasant smile, “Thank you” and then the woman reached out and gave me a very big bear hug.  They took their food to a table and began to eat.

I had to pass their table as I left with my food.  The man stood as I passed and again thanked me and said, “I want to give you my business
card.”  I looked at him in the eyes, smiled, and chatted with him a minute about what he did and what part of Clarksville they lived in.  He
told me he was a brick mason and then said, “If you ever need any work call me and you’ve got it”.  He then said, “You have made my day!”
I had to quickly leave because tears were coming to my eyes as I realized this was a God appointment and I could have so easily have missed it
through fear of embarrassment, selfishness, or greed.

I have taken the “3 Daily I Will’s” very seriously and realized I had just taken part in all three.  I acted on the urge to be generous, I kept my head up and smiled, and I made two peoples’ day.  God immediately repaid me with energy, deep happiness and the services of a brick mason
for life and all for only a measly $6 and an open heart!

Pam Boyd

On a recent trip to Florida, I stopped at the drive-thru of a Starbucks before returning my rental car.  I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a
nice looking young man in the vehicle behind me.  I asked the cashier at the drive-thru window what he ordered.  She told me and I said, I’d like
to pay for his order.

She asked if there was any message, I said, just tell him I think he’s cute and to have a nice day. LOL  My hopes were that pay-it-forward would take effect…maybe he’d go home, tell a fun story of what happened to him, and make someone else’s day.

Stacey Woods

Ok, we have all seen them, the men in the knee high boots, in all black, wearing their sunglasses and focusing that radar gun right on you.

Well, I had my time in the radar gun last week.  I was going southbound on I-65, going with the flow of traffic, oblivious to the fact that every one was slowing down and getting away from me, leaving me high and dry, all alone to be by myself, with the radar gun.  Well, I got it, doing 81 in a 65.

I took the ticket, left the scene, feeling very disgusted, knowing full well I deserved it, but still disgusted. I thought of a lot of different ways I could have handled it differently, and maybe been able to get out of it.

But then an “aha” moment came to me.

I thought of our Sunday morning message of making a difference, doing something out of the ordinary, making an ordinary day, unordinary.   I took the next exit, went to a Wendy’s, bought some gift certificates and made a trip back to the scene of the crime.

Upon arriving, the officer dropped his ticket book, and came over to the car. I reached out and handed the certificates, saying lunch was on me and to have a good day.  He was totally stunned.  I told him of our Sunday morning “make a difference in someone’s life” messages.  Hopefully, I helped to make his ordinary day an unordinary day.

It was definitely a blessing to me and it sure helped turn my negative into a positive.

Tami Scott

Someone makes our day! Our A C quit working yesterday!

We are living in our camper RV (while we build our house) and knew it would cost alot of money if we had to replace it or have it worked on!!!

I drove to the service dept up the road from where we live. Service call was $65.00 & $1.56 per mile plus $80.00 an hour!!! They came & it was a simple problem that was fixed immediately!

They never charged us anything!

YEA GOD!!! Generosity does beget generosity!

Patricia Crawley

I don’t know about all of you, but I love to hear stories from children. They can absolutely crack you up and bring you to tears all at the same time. My husband and I teach K-4 during the 10:00 worship service at The Gathering. We’ve been following Dave’s teachings on 31 words in our class. We’ve been discussing helping others and the words we use. We asked them to write their stories of kindness to share with you.

Every Sunday morning we are flooded with our own childhood memories as we interact with the kids. Thank you to each one of you boys and girls!

• We love you.
• We believe in you.
• We’re proud of you.
• We need you in our lives.
• I’m sorry if we adults don’t tell you more.
• We will never let you go.

Age 9:
I was reading a story of mine to a class in 1st grade. The teacher invited me to stay all day like I was a first grader too. At recess I was really ticked off. Here at this school there was cliques. I have never experienced cliques before. There was this one girl that was the head of this clique and she always told people what they could do and not do because of what they looked like or where they were from. A group of girls asked if they could play house with me. I agreed and some other girls joined. One African American girl asked if she could play with us, but one girl said that the head girl would have to decide. The African American girl was scared and she clung tightly to my hand. When we came to the head girl I spoke what I was thinking. Can’t everybody play what they want to play? Can’t different people be friends? The head girl thought about this and she allowed anybody who wanted to play could play and the African American girl smiled at me. I felt so good.

Age 8:
Once there were birds that fell out of the nest and me and my mom fed them.

Age 7-1/2:
When my mom wants to buy something and she doesn’t have much, I want to give her my money.

Age unknown:
I give my mom a glass of water for her spider bite.

Age unknown:
I helped get the trashcan to the teacher this morning.

Age 8:
Buy my dad something.

Age 6:
My little brother who is 4 fell down and hit his head on the table in the living room. I helped him up and took him to mommy and told mommy what happened.

Age 7:
One night me and my sister were gathering toys and books to raise money to get treats for cats and dogs, but when my dad told me and my sister about two kids that have no toys and want to play. So we gave it to them and we’re still finding toys for them.

Age unknown:
I say I love my mom and she says she loves me back.

Kelly Costanza