Ms. Norma

If you were in 8:30am worship on April 22nd, you heard our young friend Gabe talk about Ms. Norma.  Either way, this is a pretty neat story ...

In 2007, during our first family trip to Dulac, our family (Rod & Julie Rolffs) visited Miss Norma and her husband Mr. Jim.  We have fond memories of a fun visit with an engaging elderly couple.  Most memorable for our kids was the story about their cat who chased the alligators away from their bayou-side home.

We attempted to visit Mr. Jim and Ms. Norma again during the family trips in 2008 and 2010, but neither time were we able to find anyone at home.  This year, as I (Julie) was laying out who from our team would visit which families in Dulac, I had 1 opening for a team visit ... I had previously decided to pull Jim & Norma off the list, assuming that they were no longer living in Dulac.  On a whim ... or a whisper from the Spirit! ... I decided to have a visiting group from our team make "1 final attempt" to visit Jim and Norma.

Imagine my surprise the next evening, during the team report-out about their family visits, to hear that our team had made contact with Ms. Norma!

As it turns out, Jim passed away in recent years and Ms.  Norma is back in her home after having lived in Houma for a while.  She is wheelchair-bound, living alone, and unable to go anywhere.  Her daughter who lives 90 minutes away delivers groceries to her every 2 weeks.  Ms. Norma sits in her kitchen / dining area day after day, alone, watching the TV to her right or activities on the bayou to her left.  Our team members shared that she LOVED the apples from her care package and that she really LOVED having visitors.  We made a commitment as a team that evening to ensure that for the 6 days of our trip, Ms. Norma would have visitors every day!

A few days later, I had a chance to see Ms. Norma when I dropped off 5 girls and 2 women from our team who were planning to share a couple songs with Ms. Norma.  She didn't remember me from our visit 5 years before, but as with the rest of our team, welcome us all into her home and shared her many stories with us.  What a sweetheart!

                     

She SO enjoyed the girls' music and conversation with the ladies!  The girls sang "Amazing Grace" and "You Are My All in All" for her and Ms. Norma followed along with the words, later sharing that she liked this kind of music so much better than all the loud, clapping, dancing music so many people like today! 

 

Watching each of the girls in turn give hugs to Ms. Norma was heart-warming!

 

Our team had a wonderful opportunity on Good Friday to get Ms. Norma out of her home.  We picked up some new clothes for her, sneakily removing the tags, as she didn't want us buying her anything brand new, and offered her an outing.  She joined our team for dinner as we all thoroughly enjoyed dining on Bosco's (the cook) FABULOUS Chicken Gumbo and Potato Salad.  After dinner, Ms. Norma joined us at Clanton Chapel for a beautiful Tennebrae worship service. 

God gave our team an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus, providing us overwhelming blessings for doing so.  We have all fallen in love with Ms. Norma and look forward to future visits with her.

Will you join us in praying for Ms. Norma?  We can all pray for her health, for her spirit, and that God would send regular visitors to her that would help break up the monotony of living alone.

To Him be ALL the Glory!