Fund raiser now closed! $3,650.93!!

How about some unambiguously GOOD news on this otherwise politically tumultuous day? Here it is:

First of all, the solicitations are now ended!!!!! Donations are now officially closed!

But secondly, check this out: YOU have now raised in three weeks a total of $3,650.93 for our friend, Tonya!!!

Today I visited Tonya and presented her with THE certified cashier's check we've been waiting to give her. She couldn't bring herself to open it right then because she was weeping. I told her that I would be in touch if she wished for help in the actual purchase of a car.

I included in the envelope with her check a letter telling her how I went about raising the funds -- by means of this blog, direct emails, and Facebook posts -- all without disclosing her identity, as she wished. I also told her the number of contributions she received. And from where -- one from Mexico, two from Ireland, three from Canada, five from Plymouth, MI, one from Utah, another from Seattle, NC, TN, NY, etc. -- again, without disclosing any names.

I told her how touched I was by your exceeding generosity -- how gifts kept coming in through online donations and checks in denominations mostly in the $50.00 - $100.00 range, a few a bit less, a few much more. And the amazing thing was that MANY of these gifts were from people I've never met! And even more amazing was the fact that all of you were donating to someone unknown to you!

While donations are officially closed, there have been a few additional contributions that have come in, and I will see to it that these are forwarded as soon as possible to Tonya as well. For their most recent contributions, my thanks to Philip Lynch in Ireland (our second contributor from Ireland!), to Peter Paolini, and to Nathaniel Maas Blosser currently assigned to the USS Nimitz in the Pacific.

My hearty thanks to each of you, once again, for your thoughtfulness, kindness, and generosity in contributing to our fund-raiser to help Tonya buy her new (used) car! She told me that she was planning to write a thank you letter to all of you, which I will be posting in the near future. In the meantime, she asks me to convey to each of you her heart-felt gratitude. Not in a long time have I felt so keenly the significance of the metaphor, the 'Body of Christ,' with Christ as our Head and we as His members. I have been profoundly touched by your largesse, and I know Tonya has been too.

Thank you!