Unexpected blessings: Volunteers say helping people in need moves their heart and soul

As the founder of a grassroots group that helps the poor, Tim Hahn, second from right, has learned that his efforts to help others work best when he puts his trust in God. Here, Hahn stands between 10-year-old Alexander Simons and Amy Moore as people in line select the food they want for their families in July of 2010. (File photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

They are moments of unexpected blessings—moments that touch the heart and the soul of anyone who experiences them.

Some people even suggest that the odds of experiencing an unexpected blessing increase when a person is involved in helping someone in need.

That’s definitely the view of Tim Hahn, a member of Holy Cross Parish in Indianapolis who leads a grassroots, non-profit organization called Helping Hand—a volunteer effort that provides needed food and clothing for Hispanic families.

As an example, Hahn shares the story of a cold Saturday morning in February when he picked up groceries from one of the stores that donate surplus food for his ministry.

“The strong wind and bitter cold reminded me that I had not dressed warm enough,” Hahn recalls. “As I tried loading the bread from the grocery cart into plastic trash bags, the bags became parachutes and flew down the ramp. The loaded carts quickly followed, spewing bread onto the pavement.

“My eyes were watering, my hands felt like cold bricks, and as I was bent over my trunk, the wind shut the trunk on my back. I am not proud of the next 10 seconds of my life or my vocabulary, but at just that time I saw a woman calmly chasing down the carts, bread and trash bags, and returning them to my car. Although I had never seen her before, and still have no idea who she is, she seemed to know exactly what to do.

“She held the sacks while I put some bread in for weight, collected all the carts and helped me finish loading. I was too cold to talk, but finally I said, ‘I’m Tim.’ She replied, ‘I know who you are, and you need a hat.’ I took the carts back in, and she was gone. Angel? Who knows? But she was to me. It was just as cold and windy when she was helping me, but it didn’t seem so. Maybe she made me feel how our needy friends feel when we help them.

“It’s not so much the food and the clothes. It’s that you show them somebody cares.”

The warm feeling continued for Hahn when he reached the place where he distributes food and clothes to people.

“I saw all the women gathered around the coats we had,” he notes. “They weren’t grabbing, pushing or shoving, but holding up the coats, and passing them down to the children, all the children, whom they thought the coat would fit. Strange how a day that started out bad could end up good. It will remain a warm memory for me.”

Anne Evans knows that feeling, too, from her efforts for the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Indianapolis. She volunteers at its distribution center, giving blankets, sheets and towels to people in need. She also collects the stories that appear in the organization’s newsletter.

One of those stories recalled the unexpected blessing that happened for a client at the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry and a volunteer who helped him. It’s the story of a family reunion.

Here’s an edited version of the story that appeared in the newsletter, as shared anonymously by the volunteer:

“A gentleman came to my work station, and I proceeded to enter his client number in our system. As I was verifying his information, he mentioned to me that he had noticed on a prior visit that we had a person in our system that had the same name as his mother. If a client does not have their shopping card, we must perform a name search on our records. Apparently, during the name search, he looked at the screen and noticed the name of a client identical to his mother.

“He asked me if we had his mother in our system. He stated that he had been looking for his mother for over eight years with no luck. He said he had lived in Michigan at one time, and he was desperate to find her.

“Well, our client information is strictly confidential. I could not share the lady’s address with him. I did not know the circumstances of their separation, nor was it any of my business. For all I knew, there may be a good reason for the separation. I thought if he was being truthful with me, he could write the person a note, explaining to her his situation, and she could call him if she wanted to.”

The volunteer gave the man a piece of paper. He wrote his phone number and a note on it, and returned the paper to the volunteer. After the man left, the volunteer decided to mail his note to the woman. The volunteer also wrote a letter to the woman, explaining the situation.

The volunteer didn’t think about it again until the man returned to the food pantry a week later.

“I did not recognize him at first, but when he spoke it came back to me. He thanked me for sending his letter. He said the lady was his mother [and they planned to reunite]. I could not speak. I just looked at him.

“I finished entering him in the system. As he got up to leave, I gave him a hug and told him that I thought he was the reason I came into the pantry the Saturday before.”

That unexpected blessing moved the volunteer in another way, too.

“I am one of those shy Catholics, you know, the ones who realize that God touches all of us, but I just don’t like to talk about it. Well, I talked about it this time.” †