Mysterious Gift

[Christina]

Mysterious GiftMysterious gifts follow family of volunteers"Good deeds are always rewarded" is not merely a phrase that encourages people to do charity work. Nantou's Household Support Center worker Lin Shishao and wife Wen Xuhua are volunteers, and a few years ago they a bag of fruit began to appear in front of their doorway. Not only are husband and wife grateful, they have also urged their two sons to do good works as well. Lin and his wife met doing charity work 24 years ago. They hit it off, and soon married. Their eldest son, Lin Yiyi, 20, and his younger brother Yizhu, 19, say that if it weren't for the center's teams, they wouldn't be alive today. They swore to follow the example of their parents in doing work to help others, and hope that the next generation of the family will also get into volunteer work, so that the idea that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" can be passed down another generation. For the past 24 years, 13 villages and towns in Nantou County have been touched by the Lins' work. Both brothers devoted their spare time outside of school to volunteer work in Jiayi, but the case that moved the entire family the most was that of a child we'll call "Xiao Qiang" (not his real name). Wen says that one time when she happened to be buying food at a local market near Caotun, an elementary school boy suddenly appeared and addressed her as "Teacher Wen." After the boy introduced himself, she realized with a shock that this boy was one on whose case she had worked earlier. The boy came from a single parent household, and after the family had harvested their fruit, the boy would go along the streets and lanes hawking it. Wen bought the entire basket of fruit from the boy, and from that day, there often appeared a bag of fruit in front of the Lin family home. No one in the family could figure out where the bounty was coming from. After quite awhile, finally they were able to ascertain that the same boy was leaving the gifts. The boy said that he couldn't do much, but he could pay back something with fruit from the family's orchard. The Lins had a hard time convincing the boy to stop giving them gifts. Lin says that the boy's actions were very inspirational for the entire family, and became a strong motivation to them in their volunteer work. He hopes that the family will be able to pass on the bright flame of helping others to the next generation, to bring some hope and help to the disadvantaged and forgotten in society.