Some volunteers burst through the front door of the Grace Klein Community office and impact the very atmosphere of a place. The deep down joy that a person has makes everyone start giggling and inspired to do something.
Have you met Cheryl Oatts, spelled OATTS? She is our lemonade maker. Life gave her a pile of lemons, less than two years ago, when her husband unexpectedly died. But she got the sugar out, pulled up an old stool, and started squeezing those lemons into a new trendy pitcher, adding water along the way. What she is creating, with the Lord’s help, is a mighty fine batch of lemonade.
Cheryl is one of those people who carries that pitcher, wherever she goes, and serves up a fresh glass of lemonade for everyone she meets. Her lemonade is a tonic of hope, laughter, compassion, energy, peace, comfort and love. If you can imagine, it is like her handing you a sweet and tart glassful of Jesus. Drink it slow and drink it good. You want every last drop.
As she sits there with you, she learns your story. She’s sympathetic to your pain and encouraging to your future. The last thing Cheryl wants is for you to get stuck in your mess. She will even get her boots all muddy and pull up her skirt to get you out of that mire you didn’t even realize you were stuck in. Something about her lemons allows her to see how your lemons can turn into some delicious lemonade too. Before you know it, you will be passing out lemonade!
Cheryl Oatts is a huge asset to Grace Klein Community as she goes all over this city spreading Jesus’ love. She thinks about those we forget. Cheryl makes her way to every fire station in our city, especially thanking first responders. She meets young mamas and teaches them how to share with other young mamas. She remembers foster care families and the impact they are making by raising children from our DHR system. Next, you will see her at the gas station listening to strangers tell their stories and being a friend to those she does not know. Then, she may pull into a shopping center and meet others struggling to make ends meet, healing from unexpected surgeries and the family whose head of household just lost their job. Every person she loves and treats equally, valuing them just the way they are, and cherishing their differences.
Cheryl implements “Love Does” all over our city through resources Grace Klein Community acquires from our daily food rescue program, the GKC Trade Market. When some volunteers see twenty cases of apples or forty-eight cases of lettuce, they feel overwhelmed, but Cheryl, all she sees is dozens of families who need that food and her mind is spinning on how to distribute all the food, as quickly as possible, with the most intentionality. A “normal” love day for Cheryl may start at 2pm and end past 11pm. An overtime work day of love.
How does she have the time to give so abundantly and cheerfully? All because life gave her lemons. In that pile of lemons, when her husband died, she was afforded a little secret treasure. He set her up so she would never have to work. Her husband generously provided so that if something happened, she would be fully ok, in the provision sense, and she is. So, as she has sorted through the lemons and squeezed out the good, she has discovered she has the full freedom to give her life away to others. Not only has she discovered the freedom to live openhanded, but she daily makes the choice to live in that freedom!
She carries on, one foot in front of the other, out of bed another day, to go share her lemonade with the world. We need her courage, her inspiration and her joy to learn how to face our own piles of lemons, to experience the complexity of grief, but possess the power to not be swallowed up by the trouble. Cheryl’s life is a beautiful picture of Jesus and the way our lives can embody the hope of all He is. We are better with Cheryl Oatts, every bit of her spontaneous, on-the-go, turn that frown upside down, crazy self!
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope,comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Some volunteers burst through the front door of the Grace Klein Community office and impact the very atmosphere of a place. The deep down joy that a person has makes everyone start giggling and inspired to do something.
Have you met Cheryl Oatts, spelled OATTS? She is our lemonade maker. Life gave her a pile of lemons, less than two years ago, when her husband unexpectedly died. But she got the sugar out, pulled up an old stool, and started squeezing those lemons into a new trendy pitcher, adding water along the way. What she is creating, with the Lord’s help, is a mighty fine batch of lemonade.
Cheryl is one of those people who carries that pitcher, wherever she goes, and serves up a fresh glass of lemonade for everyone she meets. Her lemonade is a tonic of hope, laughter, compassion, energy, peace, comfort and love. If you can imagine, it is like her handing you a sweet and tart glassful of Jesus. Drink it slow and drink it good. You want every last drop.
As she sits there with you, she learns your story. She’s sympathetic to your pain and encouraging to your future. The last thing Cheryl wants is for you to get stuck in your mess. She will even get her boots all muddy and pull up her skirt to get you out of that mire you didn’t even realize you were stuck in. Something about her lemons allows her to see how your lemons can turn into some delicious lemonade too. Before you know it, you will be passing out lemonade!
Cheryl Oatts is a huge asset to Grace Klein Community as she goes all over this city spreading Jesus’ love. She thinks about those we forget. Cheryl makes her way to every fire station in our city, especially thanking first responders. She meets young mamas and teaches them how to share with other young mamas. She remembers foster care families and the impact they are making by raising children from our DHR system. Next, you will see her at the gas station listening to strangers tell their stories and being a friend to those she does not know. Then, she may pull into a shopping center and meet others struggling to make ends meet, healing from unexpected surgeries and the family whose head of household just lost their job. Every person she loves and treats equally, valuing them just the way they are, and cherishing their differences.
Cheryl implements “Love Does” all over our city through resources Grace Klein Community acquires from our daily food rescue program, the GKC Trade Market. When some volunteers see twenty cases of apples or forty-eight cases of lettuce, they feel overwhelmed, but Cheryl, all she sees is dozens of families who need that food and her mind is spinning on how to distribute all the food, as quickly as possible, with the most intentionality. A “normal” love day for Cheryl may start at 2pm and end past 11pm. An overtime work day of love.
How does she have the time to give so abundantly and cheerfully? All because life gave her lemons. In that pile of lemons, when her husband died, she was afforded a little secret treasure. He set her up so she would never have to work. Her husband generously provided so that if something happened, she would be fully ok, in the provision sense, and she is. So, as she has sorted through the lemons and squeezed out the good, she has discovered she has the full freedom to give her life away to others. Not only has she discovered the freedom to live openhanded, but she daily makes the choice to live in that freedom!
She carries on, one foot in front of the other, out of bed another day, to go share her lemonade with the world. We need her courage, her inspiration and her joy to learn how to face our own piles of lemons, to experience the complexity of grief, but possess the power to not be swallowed up by the trouble. Cheryl’s life is a beautiful picture of Jesus and the way our lives can embody the hope of all He is. We are better with Cheryl Oatts, every bit of her spontaneous, on-the-go, turn that frown upside down, crazy self!
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope,comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Some volunteers burst through the front door of the Grace Klein Community office and impact the very atmosphere of a place. The deep down joy that a person has makes everyone start giggling and inspired to do something.
As she sits there with you, she learns your story. She’s sympathetic to your pain and encouraging to your future. The last thing Cheryl wants is for you to get stuck in your mess. She will even get her boots all muddy and pull up her skirt to get you out of that mire you didn’t even realize you were stuck in. Something about her lemons allows her to see how your lemons can turn into some delicious lemonade too. Before you know it, you will be passing out lemonade!
Cheryl implements “Love Does” all over our city through resources Grace Klein Community acquires from our daily food rescue program, the GKC Trade Market. When some volunteers see twenty cases of apples or forty-eight cases of lettuce, they feel overwhelmed, but Cheryl, all she sees is dozens of families who need that food and her mind is spinning on how to distribute all the food, as quickly as possible, with the most intentionality. A “normal” love day for Cheryl may start at 2pm and end past 11pm. An overtime work day of love.