Joy Bins

Cancer Awareness month was coming up and it was on our hearts to support someone going through treatment.

Through meeting with cancer survivors and sitting in prayer, the idea of a joy bin came.

This would be a large sealed plastic bin that would sit outside so items for encouragement could be placed inside. The goal would be for this person to receive “joy” each day of their treatment.

In order to do this, the person chosen would need to be attached to a school or church as we would need help filling and did not want to reveal their address to Joy99 listeners.

While praying on this, we received a nomination for a young wife and mom who was diagnosed with leukemia and was about to begin treatment.

And you wouldn’t believe it but this lady’s husband was a youth leader and she was a teacher…we had our school and church support!

A sign-up was sent out and with an overwhelming response we had enough people for this family to receive something in their bin three times a day!

A card, a bible verse, something for her daughter or husband, flowers, books, whatever God placed on hearts is what was placed in the bin for four weeks.

Representing the JoyBus, I signed up to bring joy on the first and last morning.

During the planning I picked up a gift card for a photography session so on my first scheduled day I went to get that out of my desk drawer but something told me to put it back and bring her little girl activities that she could do while her mom was resting.

The last day came so I grabbed the photography gift card and went to place it in the bin.

When I got back to work, I had an email waiting for me from this mom.

It read, “Last night I couldn’t fall asleep because I was wanting to figure out how to have family pictures done. I’ve been in the hospital more days than out and I wondered how to even make this possible. AND THEN… I open that gift certificate to a photographer, que the tears! This just reminded me that our huge God cares about the littlest of the details in our lives, even amidst cancer and heart failure. Ah, I’m in tears.”

~Joy