Anonymous donors give example of holiday spirit

Stories of unbidden, often anonymous, Christ-mastime benefactors of the downtrodden are part of American lore, harkening to the Great Depression, but a similar empathy is sweetening the Midwest this year, reaching southwest Missouri and Nevada.

Starting in Michigan and spreading as news reports inspired additional donors, two such instances have recently been noted at Nevada's Wal-Mart.

Nevada Wal-Mart Assistant Manager Steve Weed said Tuesday that a woman had just come into the store, "saying she saw it on the news and it seemed like a nice thing to do.

"She paid a layaway account down to a penny," Weed said. "I first heard of a second (donor) here last week. No, sir, it didn't surprise me. It is a nice thing to do and it's good there are people out there with the holiday spirit."

Although Wal-Mart stopped having layaway accounts last Friday, Weed said benefactors may still come in and pay the bills of shoppers who look like they need help.

The Associated Press reports occurrences at Wal-Marts and Kmarts in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Montana, Michigan and Missouri, where Wal-Mart layaways have been paid off in Joplin stores.

"Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts and buying the Christmas gifts families can't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents," the AP wrote from Omaha.

"Before she left an Indianapolis store last Tuesday evening, a woman in her mid-40s paid the layaways of as many as 50 people. On her way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line.

"She didn't identify herself and only asked people 'to remember Ben,' an apparent reference to her husband, who had just died."

An Indianapolis Kmart clerk said it "was just like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store."

Nevada First Christian Church Pastor Bill Platt said his church's study of San Antonio, Texas, minister Max Lucado's 2010 book "Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference" was a good transition to the holidays. "We've been urging our people to exhibit a little bit of God within them," Platt said Tuesday.

"Lucado taps into the Book of Acts, where the church with the presence of the Holy Spirit did different things within the world so the world saw God. In our church family, we raise money to help Community Outreach and pass out baskets at Christmas and Thanksgiving."

Platt said First Christian once gave away toys, too, but stopped because it was duplicating the Vernon County Ambulance District's well-developed program. "We have taken our young people to participate in soup kitchen work for mainly homeless people in Kansas City," he said.

"They came back saying, 'Look how these people live compared to the way we live!' They were humbled and grateful. We very much feel that God supports the idea of generosity and helping those who don't have as much. Unusual generosity is a wonderful thing, paying off accounts at Wal-Mart or dropping a large sum in a Salvation Army bucket.

"It's sad that the only time you see it is around Christmas. It'd be good to show those examples year-round. We don't want recognition, we just want the opportunity to serve not only others but God himself."

Community Christian Church Pastor Kevin Moyers of Fort Scott said it "is customary for Christ's people to be thinking about giving to others during the Christmas season, when Christ was given to us by God.

"If we truly embrace God and his love for us, we should be willing to turn around and give that love to people whose names we might not even know," Moyers said.

"Oftentimes, we can help others by giving to an organization like The Beacon here, which helps the poor. We put together a list and deliver gift packages with food or certificates to the grocery store."