Christmas Needs Tech Support, Too!

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Homeless Santa I ran across a blog entry on the ZDNet website and I was so inspired that I decided to write my own version of the blog and recount my own experience.

A number of years ago, a refugee family from Africa found their way to our fair country. Our church had decided to support them in various ways and they petitioned the congregation for help. Since they had literally nothing (They truly knew the meaning of “nothing but the cloths on their backs”), anything that we could give would be useful.

Wanting to help, I dug up the old computer that I had just replaced with a new system. I cleaned it up and talked with the local internet provider to see if they could provide them with free Internet access. They agreed to help.

At the Christmas Eve service, I pulled the father of the family aside and surprised him with the computer. I apologized that it was not the fastest or newest computer but it was reliable and worked well. He and his family were ecstatic! I offered to help set up the system but their oldest boy wanted to try by himself first. Soon after, they quit coming to our church and I never heard from them again until…

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from the father whom I gave the computer to. In the e-mail, he apologized for not sending me the e-mail earlier but he wanted to let me know how that computer changed their lives.

The first thing it did was get him his first job. He got a job translating documents but one of the requirements was that they have a computer at home do the work. The system allowed him to do that job!

The other thing it did was strike an interest in his oldest son (the one who wanted to set up the system). He was now attending university in the Computer Engineering field.

What I would like to do is challenge each and every one of you DCoTers to take a look through your older computer equipment and see if you can put together a system that could help out someone in need during the holiday. It may just be a “pile of junk” to you but it can make all the difference in the world to someone in need.

If you have ever done something like this or you plan to do something like this, I want to hear about it. Leave your Christmas Tech Miracle stories in the comments for all to read.