jinnyhenson

This is my friend, Gina’s Maggie Lee for Good story…what’s yours?

Maggie Lee For Good (North Texas Food Bank)

Why was my 11-year-old so driven to organize a canned food drive at her school? I think it was a way for her to have action or maybe control over a situation that left her feeling so helpless and so insecure about how she saw her world. When your best friend dies when you’re in elementary school it certainly doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t even make sense when you’re 40. How can all your dreams of your future be taken away from you when you haven’t even lived long enough to have much of a past?

Just a few weeks before Maggie Lee’s accident the girls discussed and daydreamed endlessly about their future and the role each of them would play in it. They engaged in sweet little girl fantasies that included living in an apartment together in New York City, working in musical theater together, being on Broadway, being famous in L.A. , working with the Jonas Brothers, walking down the red carpet hand in hand, and encouraging each other through every glorious success. They believed the fantasy…I believed their fantasy.

I could picture Maggie Lee by my girl’s side being her cheerleader. Why wouldn’t I believe the fantasy, she had always been a positive force in her life since she was two years old. She was an unselfish encourager even then. I don’t think she had a jealous bone in her little body. I would often shake my head in amazement at what an unusual child Maggie Lee was. We were surely blessed by this gale of wind, filled with sunshine, which would blow through our house when she would visit.

So how does a little girl tie down this pervasive feeling of insecurity along with a feeling of emptiness that only a deep sense of loss can create? She gets busy. She focused on a goal. Maggie Lee for Good was created on Maggie Lee’s birthday, October 29^th. With a new goal in mind she was able to channel her grief and somehow make purpose of a tragedy that made no sense to her. It also helped her t be able to share with all the kids in her school how even as a child you can affect and help others. You can change them or create change for them.

She got the permission from the principal at Grace Academy of Dallas to have a Maggie Lee for Good cannedFood Drivebenefitting North Texas Food Bank. Along with the student council, they made posters asking families to donate food, either bringing it to school or doing online shopping at the North Texas Food bank website. They stood in carline with posters asking for donations and advertised in the school newpaper. In the end they collected enough canned goods to change the lives of 100’s of families…for good.

Maggie Lee for Good, Uncategorized

A Maggie Lee For Good Gingerbread Tale by Elizabeth Enochs

October 5, 2011 jinnyhenson

Last year, a friend of mine who is an organizer of the annual Gingerbread
House gala asked if I could get a group of CMM kids to build a gingerbread
house for their annual fundraiser. Agnes asked a few close friends who she
deemed to be both caring and creative: Madelyn Greenleaf, Chandler Williams
and Isabelle Watkins.

The theme was “Angels Among Us”. Agnes & I and the other girls discussed
Maggie Lee Henson as an angel among us and how we might honor her legacy
“ML4G” and her family’s work to convert their loss and grief into “doing
good” to enrich the lives of other children. And that is how we came up with
the gingerbread house that is a church adorned with angel wings, graced by
Maggie Lee’s angelic image watching over us from above. The cross symbolizes
the church, but also Maggie Lee’s faith and that of her family and friends,
who have drawn strength and hope from their faith in coping with their
unthinkable loss and accepting that Maggie Lee was needed more elsewhere.
The wings and feathers symbolize an angel and how even in tragedy, we can
take light and rise above what would otherwise destroy us (grief, sorrow,
loss). The church is decorated in a happy way because everyone who knew
Maggie Lee talked about her light, her laugh and her happy spirit. And so we
felt in spite of the sadness surrounding her premature death, the overall
feeling of the gingerbread house should reflect the spirit of a happy child,
as that is how she would want to be remembered and memorialized.

One of these girls, Madelyn Greenleaf, was a very close friend of Maggie
Lee’s and her family’s, while the others really came to know Maggie Lee and
what she symbolized after her death, through the work of her family and many
friends and members of the community who were so determined to make sure
Maggie Lee had not died in vain. All of them continue to wear their Maggie
Lee for Good t-shirts at school (CMM designated a MG4G Day), at Camp Ozark,
and around town to promote awareness and honor her memory and her legacy.

Uncategorized

It’s Been a Year

September 19, 2011 jinnyhenson

It’s been a year since the beginning of Church for The Highlands’ First public worship service. There are so many things I love about our church and those who give their time, energy and passion to serve those in The Highland Neighborhood.

Someone asked me to define our church this weekend and the best definition would be missional. Our mission is to be the hands nad feet of Jesus to our neighbors here.

Kandy Flint brought a great sign for our children’s area that says, “Christ has no hands but ours.” That is a great reminder of the challenge we have as believers to bless the world around us with God’s amazing grace.

We are a diverse congregation. People of different backgrounds, colors, political persuasions and perspectives make up our church. Everyone is truly welcome and I love that. It’s what I think Heaven will be like.

We are festive and celebratory. Not just every church participates in the Mardi Gras Parade, but our krewe did. It was a day I will never forget. It is obvious that we have a serious mission but we also have a total blast in the process.

It seems impossible that we have done CFTH for a year. It has flown. I glance back with great gratitude for all I have seen God do and forward with deep anticipation for what will happen in the years to come.

Uncategorized

Two Years Ago

July 31, 2011 jinnyhenson

This August 2nd marks the two-year anniversary of life without Maggie Lee. The Shreveport Times ran a piece about a few of the amazing things which have happened because of Maggie Lee for Good. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20110731/OPINION0106/107310326/Jinny-Henson-Two-years-later-kindness-generosity-continue-blooming-from-tragedy

While I would give anything to have her back, and hear that that feeling subsides little as the years go by, I know that we will always be a table with three legs. As time goes by, you learn to put the heavy stuff on one corner and just where to place the chairs in case things topple, but these gymnastics only serve to remind you of what you lost.

Then again, at least I have a three-legged table while some people have no table at all. I am vastly aware of what I have left. August 2nd marks the one year anniversary of 6 Shreveport teenagers drowned while swimming, one mother losing three children on the same day. That is a pain I cannot fathom.

As we begin our third year of life without Maggie Lee, I have to be thankful for God’s sustaining grace, a loving family and the most unshakable friends in the world.

Christian Faith, God, Loss, Maggie Lee for Good, Sharing God's Love

SO a God Thing!

July 12, 2011July 13, 2011 jinnyhenson

When Maggie Lee was in Second Grade at Lakeview Elementary, I remember her rushing into my car at carpool line, bursting with excitement to share an amazing story. Eyes wide and face dancing with animation, she exclaimed, “Listen to THIS, Mommy….This is SO a God thing!”

Well, today, on the second anniversary of the bus wreck, SO a God thing happened that I could not keep this to myself.

Colleen Gibbs has been my bff since 7th grade. She was there for my first comedic performance at Camp Tejas. She worked in meeting planning for 12 years until I finally convinced her to book my events since both halves of her brain actually work. For her precious family’s Maggie Lee for Good project last October 29th, they held an art show at their home. This was no ordinary art show, there was a prayer station for my family, a build-your-own snack station and a fabulous display of Kathleen and Meredith’s art work.

Incredibly, The Doucettes raised $305.00 with this project and decided to donate the entire amount to our World Vision Child in East Khasi Hills, India; a girl named Rinky. Amazingly, just today when we returned from our trip to Houston, (Mimi got a new knee, LOOK OUT WORLD!) we received a letter dated 16/Feb/2011, thanking us for the donation. On October 29th, 2010, three precious curly-haired girls took on an art show as their Maggie Lee for Good Labor of Love. July 12th, 2011, their kindness boomerang-ed and fell into our laps at a most opportune time.

And, without a doubt, that is SO a God thing.

East Khasi Hills Area Development Program
16/Feb/2011

“Greeting from me and my Family. Once again thank you very much for your love and your support to me and my family. I have received the gift you send me through World Vision. With this money we have spent school fees, school uniform, school bags, Gass Chulaspot, text books, exercise book and trousercloth. These items are very useful for me and my brother and my sister. It has helped the burden of my father. We do not have anything to give you in return but only my gratefulnessand gratitude and prayers for you. God bless you.”

Christian Faith, Overcoming loss, Uncategorized

Where Have YOU Been?

July 12, 2011 jinnyhenson

I violated the Cardinal Rule of Web log posting: be present. Please forgive me for going dark.

The last post I wrote about our dear friend, Jay. From there we had Father’s Day and Vacation and our 17th Wedding Anniversary (can I get a WOO-HOO?) I could’ve posted about my incredble father, the great dad and husband John has been and how even the tame Hogwart’s Ride in Universal Orlando nearly made me vomit. Oh…so many ways to go there.

Sprinkled in-between those events were some really awful happenings: the discovery of a brain tumor one of my friend’s 4-year-old daughter (surgery is this Wednesday,) my newly-widowed friend, Aprile’s loss of her Father, and the diagnosis of cancer in two parents of other dear friends. It’s as if the tragedy fairy has been hopped up on Mountain Dew, wielding her two by four with a vengeance, happily head-smacking unsuspecting friends with life-altering circumstances. It’s been terrible.

Now today, two years removed from my own worst nightmare, I see from spectator’s perspective how faith in God and His ultimate resolution is the secret sustaining my bludgeoned friends. I see something larger than mere determination pulling them through the worst of times because humanly speaking they should not be prone at this point. What is there is more than optimism, good will or wishful thinking; it is acceptance of their portion of pain with a deep confidence that things will somehow work out.

As comfortable as we can make it, as beautiful as it can be and as perfect fleeting moments of our lives certainly are, I have crawled inside and worn this truth: this world is not my home. It does not mean that we stop living when hit by that two by four, no, I still have to live my life and make the most of my days, but at the end of the day, at the end of this life, no measure of what I have accrued, built or collected, (including a pain-free life) is important. “The best is indeed, Elizabeth Browning, yet to be.”