Angels Wear Yellow Shirts

While serving on my first disaster relief mission in Mississippi after Katrina, I had been cooking for long hours and it came to the time when I was off duty for the final time. I walked around the corner of the church near the serving line, sat on the concrete and put my back against the walls of the church.

I noticed that there was a lady trying to talk to one of the Chaplains. There was a little girl tugging on the lady. My Clown Minister, Boomer kicked in and I went and took the little girl by the hand and moved a few feet away so the mother could finish her business with the Chaplain.

To keep the little girl occupied I took a couple of pieces of peppermint out of my pocket and gave them to her. I had brought some little stuffed bears with me and I gave her the last one I had.

Her mother came for her and they walked across the parking lot. Suddenly they stopped and the mother turned and walked back to me. She told me that their home had been destroyed and that the little bear was the only toy her daughter had. She said that the candy was the first the little girl had eaten in over a week.

In tears she said that her daughter had asked her if all angels wore yellow t-shirts. Suddenly, all of the long hard hours and sleeping on a gym floor no longer mattered and as I went through cancer after my return from Mississippi I kept thinking about the little girl who thought this old rough ex-GI was an angel.

Ain't God good?

Photo at right is NC Feeding Unit operating in Gulfport MS following Hurricane Katrina.

Submitted by: Larry Farmer, Wilmington, NC
                     Ogden Baptist Church