At Alliance, we take great strides to help our patients and their families in need. This holiday season, we were faced with several families that were in crisis, along with the additional challenge of helping a non-patient and his family of four (including 2 children ages 1 and 3, and their mother). Mike happened to stumble across Alliance two days before Christmas in hopes that he could obtain some shelter for his family who had been sleeping in their car the past two-nights. Because of a set of unfortunate circumstances that fell upon Mike and this family, the staff rallied to help, along with the additional support from Pastor JJ Wilkins, Jr., Elder Jared Wilkens and members of Wake Chapel Church. Collectively, we were able to provide this family with several days of warmth in a nearby Inn, along with food and items to help make the children’s Christmas a special and meaningful one. The uniqueness of this story is that while reaching out to help this family, we remembered that the Holiday gifts are truly about Him and while we acknowledge God’s message in sending his son to us as his beloved gift, he also provides us with special opportunities to understand and practice the true meaning of giving and receiving.

The greatest blessings are the ones we do not ask for or even expect. They appear in a way that forces us to see Him- not the trivial symbolism that Christmas has become. Special thanks to Wake Chapel Church who demonstrated how awesome our gifts can be- to one another and especially to this young family.