Headliner or Heart-Warmer?

When a big story breaks, the adrenaline kicks in! As a veteran writer in the newsroom, I’ll be the first to admit this. But those who know me best will tell you that, even more than that the breaking bombshell, I loved the human interest story. The major headlines will always be there, but finding and writing the heart-warming stories…that’s where the fun and the satisfaction join hands.

So it is here in the prisoner advocacy business as well.

A big story is about to break. A prisoner is going to see freedom after decades of incarceration, and God saw fit to place HFP right in the middle of the behind-the-scenes engineering. We may not get the public credit, but our adrenaline is pumping! We know how it began, and we’re excited about how it will end.

But to me, here are the real stories.

Sonny has serious, serious eye problems. Getting appropriate glasses or contact lenses while in prison was an up-hill fight. That was only half the problem, however. Even with the new lenses, he still couldn’t read anything close up. You can only imagine how important reading is for an inmate, not only for enjoyment, but for dealing with legal matters. To make a long story short, it took nearly a year, but thanks to the persistence and determination of our team, Sonny is getting new reading glasses!

Mike’s letter to HFP dealt with legal issues, but he let slip that his elderly and physically handicapped mother nearly burned the house down recently while trying to cook. These are the kind of things that keep prisoners awake at night. Again, long story short, HFP made some contact with Meals-on-Wheels in that particular city, and arrangements are going to be made so Mike’s mom won’t have to try any dangerous maneuvers with her kitchen stove any more. Warm, prepared meals are on the way.

ACTION WITH COMPASSION! That’s not only our motto, but our goal: Putting those seemingly small human-interest stories on top of the page. To us, they’re headlines!

What’s the old gospel song? Little is Much When God Is in It!



Comments

ABC said…
Very NIce Doug! Thank you. Keep up the good(God) work!
January 18, 2018 at 9:11 AM
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