This past week I had the most amazing experience. Sometimes with all the things going on in the world you feel like you’ve lost all your faith in humanity but then something happens that reminds you that there are still good people in the world.

Some of our friends did us a huge favor last month and since it’s Christmas  I wanted to send them something truly South African for Christmas. They have also been living in a foreign country for the past 6 years and sometimes you really miss things and foods from home. So… off I went onto Facebook and asked if anyone knows of someone who does this kind of special delivery. The next day I received a message from someone I don’t know who said that they’ll be able to help me with my delivery. When I asked her how much she will charge for this she said that she will do it out of her own pocket and that I should consider it as paying it forward. It was such an amazing gesture that it brought tears to my eyes. I was dumbfounded by the fact that a stranger would do that for another stranger, especially in a world where people take others for granted or are eager to cause others harm.

The concept of paying it forward is such an amazing idea. I remember when my husband and I just met. We were driving home from his parents house, he was still living with them, and his only means of income was his monthly allowance from his parents. He took me home and the gas light came on, he told me that we would make it to the nearest gas station. I lived about 35 kilometers from his house. About 2 kilometers from the gas station, the gas ran out and the car died. We had to push the rest of the way, and I was in a dress. Everybody passing us could see that we were in trouble and nobody stopped to help us but then a car driving in the other direction came our way… the 2 men in the car asked us what was wrong and we told them that we ran out of gas. My husband was scared to give strangers money for gas but they didn’t even ask for money. About 10 minutes later they came back with enough gas to take us home and they drove off, after refusing payment. A few years later, my husband saw a young man at the petrol station asking strangers for money for gas, he was a rep who came to Johannesburg to try and sell his products and didn’t have enough money to get back to Pretoria, so my husband game the gas attendant some money for gas. That ways paying it forward, my husband did something for someone that someone else did for him years ago.

I thank God for all the amazing people still left in the world even when we stop believing in goodness especially over this Christmas period.