Today my guest is Author Patricia Hickman, who shares her experience with The Miracle Refrigerator. Here’s Patricia:

“Over a decade ago, my daughter Jessica and I organized a gift for some children we heard were often passed over during Christmas. The children and/or their mothers were unfortunately infected with the HIV virus. Most were in need of essentials like warm clothing, but we wanted to provide them with both some clothing and a toy. It was a small outreach, but the families’ spirits were lifted and it seemed the right thing to do.

But tragedy darkened our ministry endeavors when Jessica was taken from us later that spring in a car accident. I didn’t think I could possibly continue to do the outreach because she had done so much and because it was too painful to do it without her. Besides, I was a Christian novelist and at that time, even writing was hard enough to manage.

But a group of moms surrounded me with support and said that if I would lead and give them directives, they would oversee the Christmas drive. We more than doubled our giving that Christmas in spite of my desire to avoid the holiday season altogether.

A couple of years passed and we continued to give, asking merchants and other churches to put up what we called a Secret Angel Tree, secret because of the privacy laws protecting a stigmatized group of women and children.

But that spring the case worker I worked in conjunction with from the Carolinas Medical Center called me, remembering that our group had provided the gifts for her young clients.

She told me, “A patient’s refrigerator is going out. All of their medications are refrigerated. If this family loses their refrigerator, in an hour all the meds will be gone.”

That was aside from the fact that all their food would spoil too. For a family stressed under the weight of the financial problems caused by AIDS, this was a crisis.

I didn’t know what to do and complained to my husband. He told me, first of all, to hit my knees. Then he coaxed me into making some calls to the families who had provided the Christmas gifts. I alluded to the need, asking people for money whenever possible. I picked up the phone and started calling each family to tell them what was happening to one of our families. Within a half hour, families from all over town were driving over with checks and cash to our house. My husband called the local Lowe’s Home Improvement store and told the manager about this family’s situation. The manager told us to bring whatever we had collected to him as soon as possible. I hated to be the one to tell him, but we had only raised a little over three hundred dollars. The store manager accepted it without reservation and delivered a brand new refrigerator to the house within the hour.

That was a pivotal moment in the history of the Secret Angels Project. What I came to realize over time was that the women we had been helping suffer crises throughout the year, so the need for our raising support should become year-round support. Besides their health issues, some are victims of a spouse or partner who doesn’t tell her he is leading a double life. Some of our moms were battered and left in women’s shelters only to return home and find their bank account drained and their electricity off. They were fired for their illness, evicted, their children taunted and abused by a community that did not understand the HIV virus. The work we had been doing in secret was creating a bond with an outcast group of truly wonderful women who loved their children and were in desperate need of simple compassion.

When I was going through a crisis myself, I assumed that I was too numb for God to work through me. What I realized over time was that my numbness was another opportunity for God to be God.

Novelist Patricia Hickman is an award-winning author of over seventeen books. Her novel The Pirate Queen will release August 10, 2010 and is a story of a woman who thought her life was over until she opened it to a special child who taught her the meaning of love.“–Author Patricia Hickman

Thanks so much for sharing that story, Patricia. God works through us but doesn’t need us to be anything but willing. I read The Pirate Queen and loved it. I recommend it highly to all women.–Lyn