A Church, a Community, and a Night to Shine
Hello February 3rd, 2020
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TTF Family, we recently received an email from a Night to Shine volunteer, and thought it was just too powerful to keep to ourselves. Read about the impact of Night to Shine in this volunteer’s own words:
Dear Mr. Tebow,
I wanted to tell you how Night to Shine is opening doors in my local community. My church is a first-time host church for Night to Shine. I was given the task of collecting prom dresses, suits, blazers, and ties for our guests. While doing so, I went to a thrift store about 30 miles away from my hometown. I met a lady there who donated 19 dresses, and told me to come back if I needed anything else, because they were closing their business at the end of 2019.
About three weeks later, I returned to the same thrift store, and met another lady. After I explained that I was looking for suit jackets and ties for Night to Shine guests, she told me she had a son with special needs. I was so excited to tell her all about the event and how special it is going to be.
She then began to tell me that her son loved to pray, but they no longer attended church, and she was quite discouraged from the treatment she had received from multiple churches in the area. She told me of one specific incident that broke her heart...while in church one day, she was passed a note from the pastor, all the way to the last row of the church where she sat with her son. The note said they were trying to record the sermon, and he was making too much noise. From that day forward, she didn’t attend another church.
I invited her to our church, and asked her to please bring her son. I apologized for the experiences she had in the past, and encouraged her again to try my church. She said she would, and that she would also bring her son to Night to Shine. Although at the moment my church does not have a children’s center, or a facility to accommodate children with special needs, I know in my heart we will someday have both. But for now, we will make do with what we have.
Had I not been looking for donations for Night to Shine, I would have never met this sweet lady, or heard her story, or had the opportunity to invite her to both my church and Night to Shine.
I want to say thank you again for giving our community a way of reaching out to the people who need our love the most.
Sincerely,
A Volunteer for Night to Shine
This is what Night to Shine is all about, Family! Giving churches opportunities to reach out, changing the way communities see individuals, and celebrating people with special needs.
If you’d like to learn more about Night to Shine or refer your church to be a potential Night to Shine host, please visit the Night to Shine page.
