The 11th Box
What is your most memorable Thanksgiving？ For me， it was on the eve of the day. The church had the names of 10 families scheduled to receive food baskets. A local merchant donated hams， and groceries were purchased from the food bank. As we packed the boxes in the fellowship hall， these families were excited over the food they were taking home. It would be the best meal many had enjoyed in months. As they were picking up their boxes， another family arrived. Father， mother and three children piled out of an old pickup truck and came inside the hall. This was a new family， not on our list. They had just heard there was food being distributed by a church.
I explained that we did not have enough for an extra family. And as I tried to assure them that I would do what I could， an amazing thing happened. With no prompting a woman put down the box she was carrying and quickly found an empty box to place beside it. She began removing items from her box to share. Soon others followed her lead， and these poor people created an 11th box for the new family.
你最難忘的感恩節是什么樣的？對我來說，就是感恩節的前夕。教堂預約了10個家庭接收食物籃子。火腿是當地的商人捐贈的，蔬菜則是從食品庫買來的。我們把這些箱子堆滿了交易廳，這些家庭對于要帶回家的食物感到非常的興奮。對許多家庭來說，這將是他們數月以來最豐盛的一頓菜肴。正當他們打開箱子的時候，另一個家庭到來了。父親、母親和三個孩子從一輛舊皮卡車里擠出來，走進大廳。這個家庭不在名單之列，是新來的。他們只是聽說教堂有食物要分發。
我解釋說沒有足夠的食物提供給另外的家庭了。當我盡力保證我會盡力幫助他們時，出乎意料的事情卻發生了。沒有人提示什么，一個婦女放下手中的箱子，并很快在旁邊找到一個空箱子，她從自己箱子里拿了一部分食物放到那個空箱子里。很快地，其他人也跟著效仿，這些窮人為這個新來的家庭提供了第11個箱子。
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