Today I am thinking of a recently departed saint from my rural community over here in Northeast Iowa.  Doris Hahn was her name, and she is greatly missed because she sowed so bountifully.  Doris was a perfect example of someone whose faith provided her with abundance for every good work.  She had a modest existence, even when her husband was alive.  He only ever worked at low wage jobs, but he provided for her a simple house, and she made it a gracious home.  I remember stopping by to visit in her 50’s style kitchen.  It was always neat as a pin, and she was ever cheerful and welcoming.  Her garden was an impressive array of weed free vegetables and she shared from its fruits generously.

But Doris was known for other acts of generosity.  There was a weekly Bible study at her home comprised of women who were largely unchurched, for one reason or another, mostly due to their sense of “not fitting in.”  Doris was a simple fundamentalist Baptist, but she knew how to make the Gospel feel inclusive for these women.  At her home, they felt a fellowship of acceptance and through her generous faith, they found a way to trust in God’s abiding love.  They returned week after week.

And Doris practiced another act of generosity.  Out of her meagre income, she purchased refrigerated biscuit dough in large amounts when it was on sale, or she collected enough coupons to make it affordable.  She would then take the biscuit dough to local nursing homes in the area and make donuts for the residents.  She would take a small electric frying pan and some oil into which she would drop the biscuit dough after poking a hole in the center of each piece.  She would turn the dough, which then raised into a donut.  She then put sugar in a brown paper bag along with the warm donuts and let each resident shake the bag before removing their warm fresh sugar donut.  Everyone remembered doing that as a child and it brought smiles and laughter to even the most advanced Alzheimer’s patients.  The residents looked forward to Doris’s visit as the highlight of each week. 

Doris was the epitome of a cheerful giver who was given every grace so that she would have what she needed to do good work.  She sowed the seeds of kindness and compassion and reaped the prosperity of righteousness.  She gave her life in service to others, and everyone knew her for the way she so generously shared her faith out of her poverty.  But she never thought of herself as poor.  She lived a life of prosperity and honor.  Doris found this pathway for her life from faithfully reading her Bible and lessons like these.  I pray that we too may find a pathway to follow Jesus so generously out of what has been given to us as we read these lessons today.