By Jim Holmlund, Executive Director | Love INC Heartland
Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas (Tabitha) had made while she was still with them. Acts 9:39 NIV
There’s a woman in the Bible named Tabitha. Her story is found at the end of Acts 9—just a few short verses among many miracles God performed through Peter. But what happened in those verses is remarkable: Tabitha died, and Peter, through the power of our risen Lord, raised her back to life.
Recently, at our local Love INC Converge event we listened to a message by Pastor Jeff Manion about this very passage. He introduced something he called The Tabitha Factor—the idea of doing something seemingly ordinary, with amazing consistency, to accomplish extraordinary things.
The Bible tells us that Tabitha spent her days making clothes for widows in her community.
These weren’t store-bought garments. They were hand-stitched—carefully, lovingly crafted.
When she died, the widows were devastated. They stood beside her body, holding the garments she had made for them, weeping.
These clothes were more than just fabric. In that time and place, they represented warmth, dignity, and hope—especially for widows, who were often left with nothing. Tabitha didn’t make headlines, but her daily acts of love left a legacy that impacted lives.
That message deeply encouraged me—and it reminded me so much of what we do here at Love INC Heartland.
We don’t always have flashy statistics to share. We’re not distributing thousands of meals or paying off mountains of bills.
But what we are doing, day in and day out, is investing in people the way Tabitha did.
We offer spiritual warmth through relationships rooted in Christ. We help restore dignity by walking alongside people with compassion and respect. Most of all, we help renew hope—the eternal hope found in Jesus.
The work we do may seem ordinary at times. But in the hands of our extraordinary God, it becomes transformational. Thank you for partnering with us in this quiet but powerful ministry.
Let’s keep doing the ordinary, with amazing regularity. Who knows how many lives it might raise back to hope?
Here are some ways you be a part of the ordinary actions that us make an extraordinary difference in the lives of the people we serve:
Pray — We need your continued prayers for this ministry and the people we serve.
Volunteer — Sign up to serve in our Connection Center, Fresh Start Program, Thrift Stores, or as office support.
Donate — You can be a part of this vital ministry by donating a financial gift to our General Fund
- Bring A Team to our Golf For Love Tournament or sponsor a hole
- Support A Family in our Fresh Start Program
- Sponsor A Backpack for the Back to School Bash Gap Ministry in August