Author: jinnyhenson

A writer with the soul of an awkward middle school girl. I’m a writer, a reader, a comic, a wife, a mom and a follower of Christ.
Christian Faith

The Magic Closet

jinnyhenson
The frenzied magic of Maggie Lee's Closet...where kindness is always in fashion
The frenzied magic of Maggie Lee’s Closet…where kindness is always in fashion

Maggie Lee’s Closet is a magical place. Last night Linda who is school counselor and committee member for MLC shared a heart-rending story which beautifully illustrates why this is true.

Linda was called to an area elementary school to work with a troubled student. In Linda’s words,

“The student was recently taken away from her parents and placed with the only kin who agreed to take her, an older cousin who just became a mother herself. The child is a big girl and every day she would take off her panties. The teacher became aware of this and told her that she needed to stay completely dressed during the day. The little girl continued to disobey her teacher and was set to be suspended unless she changed.”

Linda witnessed the shocking behavior as she observed the girl in her classroom. Linda escorted the child to the restroom with another adult and told her to put her panties back on. The girl showed Linda the red gashes in her upper thigh where her underwear had cut into her. A size 12, she started out the day wearing the size 8’s but sooner or later it was too much for her to take and she had to get free from them.

That is an unbelievable reality for me. Even in the salad years we had Grandmothers buying Easter dresses and supplying a constant stream of tiny cowboy boots. We had the safety net of awesome hand-me-downs and filled in with Gymboree Blowout sale items. I had a husband, a job, diaper money, a car, gas and food on my table. I was and am still so incredibly blessed.

Hundreds of friends and strangers have worked to make Maggie Lee’s Closet a reality because they feel blessed as well and want to continue God’s flow of goodness to those around them. Perhaps we cannot solve the world’s problems but as I meet the young bearers of poverty’s brunt, I know that we can do something.

Linda bagged up the solution to this young girl’s behavior issue in the simple form of donated Hanes panties, a new uniform, jacket and a note of love on Maggie Lee’s Closet stationary. A simple reminder to a displaced child that she is precious and not forgotten.

And that is magic.

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From New Zealand to New York, Maggie Lee’s story spreads!

jinnyhenson

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MLfG Is only a few weeks away and the story just keeps spreading!
Michelle Chan took pics of the book in New Zealand where she lives and the FBCS Cheerleaders will be wearing their pink MLfG T shirts on Wednesday on the Live with Kelly and Michael show…so be sure and tune in and scream at your tv.
I spoke at The University of Mary Hardin Baylor to over 1,400 students and the entire campus will participate on Oct. 29th!
I leave for Tifton, GA next week and will celebrate MLfG Day a few days early on the 16th as every elementary school in Tifton will participate in MLfG Day!
Our hearts are full as we see the amazing blessings God is bringing from Maggie Lee’s life. Wow!
For more info:
http://www.maggieleeforgood.org

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Maggie Lee’s Closet

jinnyhenson

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The first clothes have been given away from Maggie Lee’s Closet- a brand new ministry funded by The Maggie Lee Henson Fund at The Community Foundation.
In my husband’s work at Church for The Highlands and as the Chaplain for the VOA of NW Louisiana he realized that there was a huge need for kids clothes in The Highland Neighborhood.
Maggie Lee loved clothes and what a precious thought that kids will go to Maggie Lee’s closet for a new uniform or pair of shoes.
I have to believe that this would be RIGHT up her alley!
We are in need of new socks and undies for kids of all sizes. Let us know if you or your group would like to be a part of this wonderful experience. And, thank you, donors for being Jesus to these kids!

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Google Image Thyself

jinnyhenson

I Googled my image. Someone requested an image that was not on my new computer so I Googled my name. Always an interesting exercise.

As you can see from this picture there are a myriad of diverse images under Jinny Henson. My favorite is the “From a Pothead to a Preacher’s Wife,” graphic complete with weed font which I have absolutely never seen next to Helvetica.

While I would love to hear the pothead to preacher’s wife story, it’s not mine.
But for the grace of God, I may have gone the other direction.

So, Google thyself and let me know if you find a weed font…or even something better.

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Christian Faith, greendoors.org, Maggie Lee for Good, Sharing God's Love

A Cake Walk

jinnyhenson

Gina Rhodes Carter is one of my Steel Magnolias. She was my roommate for two years at Baylor and two years at seminary. Beautiful and sweet beyond sweet, when John and I began dating and he would tell people that he was dating Jinny, they would say,”Oh, you mean Gina, the sweet one?”

For some reason sweet was preferable to stand-up comic for guys going into the pastorate….who knew? I completely agreed that Gina was indeed the sweet one and she has only become more so with age.

Gina is a wife, mom and works on staff at a church in Austin. Her MLfG project this past October was a cake walk. She rounded up her neighbors and church friends, collected brownies and cranked out cobblers. She raised money for greendoors.org a place where survivors of domestic violence can live until their children reach 18.

Pictured here is a friend of hers in front of her beautiful, safe home. What a wonderful ministry to the least of these.
Life is many times far from a cake walk but we have the time, energy and talent to help carry another’s burden. Will we?

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Christian Faith, God

The Gospel According to St. Joe

jinnyhenson

“Birds have nests. Foxes gave dens.
But the hope of the whole world rests on the shoulders of a homeless man.”
-Rich Mullins

My path crossed with a gentleman we’ll call Joe. Affable fellow from up North, Joe is polite, hard-working and occasionally homeless.

When demons are beaten back, he is focused and resourceful, daily walking miles to his $4.50 an hour bus-boy job. When he succumbs to temptation, he is undependable and subsequently everything gets derailed as happened five weeks ago.

I guess the same is true to a degree with us all and our secret sin. Except his struggles are tougher to hide and since his life has the slightest margin for error, one binge destroys everything.

Fresh from rehab he returned to his former job but the owner was forced to replace him when he left. He realized that his own choices had caused the reality but he was still dismayed.

“I was so upset.” Joe said, “I was ready to go to CVS and buy something but I went to a meeting instead. It was hard, Ms. Jinny, but I made it.”

His eyes glimmered as he shared his victory. He held up the neon two-week sobriety keychain as if it were a Rolex given to him after 40 years of hard work. He was incredibly proud of himself and I was as well.

How liberating Joe’s honesty was. What he was really saying was that he wanted to get totally drunk to lessen his dire disappointment. That was probably the most honest thing I had heard in church. Ever.

The thing about seeing life from Joe’s perspective is that he is acutely aware of his human frailty. We’re all frail but just with varying degrees of insulation and correlating confidence in our comfort. When you take a closer glance at this man’s life, the colors become a bit brighter than first glance might reveal.

The only debt Joe has is $100 outstanding on a ticket. Possession-wise, his only belongings fit into the smallest storage unit rented before entrance into the latest treatment program. He lives day to day like those in many other parts of the world do, a far cry from our Western ideal of security.

The good news for St. Joe- he overcame his demons, stuck to his guns and as of Thursday he is again gainfully employed by his former boss.

Jack heard Joe tell John about his job and commented, “I have never seen anyone so happy in my life. He has to walk 2 miles to a $4.50 an hour job and he was ecstatic.”

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What You Water Grows

jinnyhenson

This past October I got 4 pie-sized pumpkins and wrote the letters, “M, L, F and G” on them for Maggie Lee for Good Day, naturally.  I perched them on our micro-balcony as a fun decoration.

Eventually I took them down and since pumpkins are winter keepers, I put them in our bricked-in planter box in the backyard attached to the garage. Various perrinials spring up throughout the year and I try to have something blooming there at all times.

Eventually the pumpkins broke down, probably assisted by a hungry varmit or two. I paid little attention to the decomposition but watered the boxes along with my flowers in the back which I enjoy immensely. We use the back door exclusively and I am cheered by pretty blooms  whenever  I come or go.

Imagine my happy surprise when I noticed a pumpkin vine trailing the planter box. The gourds had not even fully decomposed but the seeds had found their way to the soil and I had watered. Which reminded me that what we water grows.

My friend, Kandee was less than impressed with my earth-shaking discovery. “Yea, you would have known that was coming if you were in my pre-school class, Jin.” And yet, I was stunned. I watered and it grew.

And so it is. What we water will grow. If we water anxiety and fear the budding problems to come tomorrow we will be blind to the goodness our lives are steeped in today. If we train ourselves to look for blessings to count then they will multiply.

Little is as important as the garden of our minds.

What you water grows. What are you watering today?