Story Submitted by Lorri Brown

This all happened in a week! Last Saturday night, a friend, Lizabeth Alexander, shared with me the need for N95 respirators and an open source link for 3D printing of them. I thought it was a great idea and started reaching out to companies on LinkedIn. I put something on face book about it. Eric Burton has a 3D printer at home and started making prototypes. He would message me what he was printing. He was relentless in the hours he worked on this. I saw it was totally possible to do. I decided to try to buy ten small 3D printers. Eric got pricing! Heather Moore and Jim White encouraged me. We kept moving forward Saturday Tim Keeports saw my gofundme. Introduced me to Michael R Guinn. Michael had 14 3D printers he said he would donate for use and set up. We had a meeting with. Christ Fellowship of Tampa. They graciously gave the space for the 3D lab. Today we set up and are ready to print. #Thankyoujesus. Thank you to all! Every morning I prayed for God to lead me.

*On April 1, 2020 – the first mask ever made was used by a nurse.

Story Submitted by Caroline Brown

When my son was very young he was an extremely challenging child. He had A.D.H.D., O.C.D. and extremely difficult behavior. Virtually no one could control or handle him. At the time when he was going through his worst behavior, he was attending a Religious school where there was a young Rabbi. My son, Tyler, would not sit in class, nor would he behave even when punished. He was an incredibly difficult child, and it took a toll on me, my husband and anyone that had to deal with him. I remember sitting in that young Rabbi’s office, practically crying to him, and telling him I was literally at my wits end. The young Rabbi, having little to no experience in dealing with children, sat and listened to me. He didn’t say anything for the longest time. When he spoke, he said these words to me: “Your son is going to make you so proud of him one day” I responded by merely smiling and nodding my head. As I left the Rabbi’s office I though to myself ” You poor, poor deluded man. You honestly have no clue what you are saying, or what I am dealing with”. Several years later my family and I got very involved in local community theater and it appeared that Tyler had some ability to perform on stage. Actually as it turned out he was very talented. He performed in several musicals and plays. During Tyler’s ninth grade year the director of a High School for fine and performing arts came to me asked if I would be willing to allow my son to attend his program at the High School for Performing Arts. I asked Tyler if he wanted to go to that High School, he was very excited to join the program. We immediately took him out of his High School and enrolled him at the High School for performing arts. He excelled in the theater, and was involved in several of the shows in the years that followed. During Tyler’s 11th grade year, the Director of the theater program wrote a musical and Tyler got the opportunity to play the lead role in the show. Later the show was entered into a competition at the Florida Theater Conference. Watching my son, perform in a show, playing the lead role and then winning an award for his performance was an incredible moment in my life. A moment I will never forget. My heart was so full of joy! He truly had made me proud of him. More proud than I could ever have imagined. That Rabbi must have seen something that I could not see at that time. When I think about this story, all I can do is smile!

Story Submitted By John Sudar

It was the first night of Ramadan, and I was vacationing with friends in Luxor, Egypt. I became separated from my friends and wandered from the corniche that was situated along the Mediterranean Sea; this is where the tourists gathered. I was quite lost. As I wandered, it became clear to me that I had turned myself around and had lost all sense of direction. I continued to walk and realized I was now far from the tourist area, both in terms of topography and in terms of reality: I got the feeling that the area was economically disadvantaged. The houses were clay half domes, very much like what you’d see on Tatooine in the “Star Wars” flicks; several skinny cows lie lolling on the ground. Admittedly, I was scared. “Yes,” I said, “Could you tell me how to get back to the corniche?” “I will,” he replied. “But first come with me. It’s almost sundown and we are about to break fast.” He took me by the hand and we began to walk through the neighborhood. We must have made quite a sight: Here was this little boy leading this six foot four American in shorts and a Bob Marley t-shirt by the hand. We got to his family home. I crouched and went inside. Speaking Arabic, the boy spoke to the assembled family who were seated on the floor around the hearth. He must have explained that he had found this poor waif of a tourist. Through gestures and smiles and claps on the back I was warmly greeted and given a place to sit. When it was clear that the sun had gone down, a prayer was said and we ate delicious food and drank nice, strong tea. Throughout the meal my little benefactor translated between me and his family. (I learned that he knew seven different languages and had acquired none of them in school but rather had learned them speaking with the tourists). After the meal, I thanked them and the boy began to lead me back to the hotel I was staying at. It had gotten cold, and he gave me a shawl to wear to keep me warm. When we got to the hotel, I began to take off the shawl to return to him. He told me to keep it. As a souvenir of this special night. I told him to wait, and I went up to my room and gathered a few of my cool t-shirts. I returned to the lobby and gave them to him, explaining that I knew they were too big but that I thought he might like them. He said he couldn’t accept them, but I told him they were a souvenir of this special night. He thanked me. Before he left to return home I said, “I’m duh. I don’t even know your name.” “Yahya,” he replied. “Mine’s John.” “It’s the same in Arabic,” said Yahya. “Interesting,” I added. “And it means gift of God.”

Story Submitted By Allison Clark

Hi my name is Allison and I’m 15 years old and i.. i have a story! I once knew a little boy who was so young and new to the world and didn’t know basically anything! When the boy turned about 12 he knew something was off! Except he didn’t know what, he became Sad because he had no friends, and he didn’t know who he was and he caved in his own shell, until one day he realized he didn’t want to stay alone anymore so he decided to go out and try to make some friends! He met this amazing, and Beautiful girl named Savannah! She was so supportive of everyone and everything and always helped when someone was down she always made sure everyone was ok but no one ever stopped to ask her how she felt! One day the boy realized he was transgender and wanted to come out and become a Female! He was going to tell his new best friend but when he went to go to her he found out she had sadly passed away, she was bullied so much that she took her own life because she thought no one cared! The boy cared though he thought it was all his fault so he fell into a deep dark depression, until he came out and started going by a different name and asked to be called she instead of he! The boy became amazingly talented and still is learning, but he will do amazing things, and we all know it! That little boy is Me!!