I've been a member of Cigar Box Nation for around 10 years, give or take. There was a gentleman who I later became friends with, sort of a penpal I guess. He gifted me boxes of guitar parts, the boxes so stuffed and large that I actually cried. I'm a big guy and I don't cry easily, but this guy, this guardian angel, was, and still is, pure heart.
He told me to pay forward, or sell, what I couldn't use. I love building, though, so I built and gifted whole instruments instead. Year one after moving to Scotland, I was blessed to gift 12 CBGs to a charity that works with able bodied and disabled clients to give them a trade, confidence, routine, and friendships. Much more too, I'm sure. I was asked to do a lesson on how to play the instruments when I dropped them off by prearranged appointment.
That experience, seeing the joy on their faces when they were able to make music in their way with the physical abilities they lived with, was the biggest blessing of my life. The person who gifted me the parts here on Cigar Box Nation, who I am so wanting to name right now but won't out of respect for their request not to, also gifted me that joyous occasion.
This photo shows the 22 guitars and other instruments (this may, or may not be the full haul) that I was able to gift away this time last year (January 2024), for any donation the recipient chose, to my local church. The initial gifter, the angel amongst us, here on Cigar Box Nation, enabled a dozen of those instruments to reach the lives and hands of children in my village and surrounding areas to have the joy of music fill their lives. Plus, the recipients gave £200 total to the local church who were finally able to get the new sound system that they had been needing for years.
So. You know who you are. I pray life rewards you with blessings as you have blessed me and others, my friend.
We all have the chance and ability to be angels in our communities.
God bless you all 🙏
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