As Faithwire reported this week, some good news is going viral and it’s a nice break from all the negativity, division, and anger that routinely fills the airwaves.
When Kate McClure ran out of gas near Philadelphia, a homeless man ended up advising her to stay in the vehicle, locked, while he went off to retrieve some gas. Kate had no money on her at the time, so the man – Johnny – spent his last (and only) $20 on gas for Kate.
She eventually went back to his spot and repaid him the money, and then followed that stop up with several others. After getting to know Johnny a little better, she and her boyfriend decided to set up a GoFundMe page to see if anything could be done to help Johnny get off the street.
Incredibly, the campaign has gone viral and currently has $326,000 and counting.
That’s clearly a life changing amount, but to Johnny, who admits to making “bad decisions” and also having “bad situations” that led to his homelessness, said it felt good to get a “second chance at life” in light of all the generous donations.
A video Kate posted before the story went mega viral, however, escaped most of the spotlight because it was posted on Kate’s Youtube page, not the GoFundMe page. In the video, which you can watch below, Kate and her boyfriend are driving in the car and secretly filming Johnny, who is in the backseat reading a newspaper article about the donations.
“Seven hundred and sixty-nine dollars. Holy sh**. That’s amazing! Dang, y’all did all that? That is AWESOME,” Johnny exclaims, clearly blown away by what is happening. When you are homeless, $769 can be a life changing amount of money. But Kate and her boyfriend have an even bigger surprise – they’re about to give him the real-time update.
“We got a lot of donations today,” Kate’s boyfriend explains. But before he can reveal the number, Johnny waxes poetic about how he’s met more good people in Philadelphia than bad. That’s when he shows Johnny the updated number, which is $1,764.
“That changes my life, right there,” Johnny says, clearly overcome with emotion. You can watch the wonderful surprise here (language warning):
If Johnny thought $1,764 was life changing, one can only imagine what he’s feeling right now. The GoFundMe campaign has $327,421 and seems to continue climbing with each refresh.
The trio all appeared on BBC Radio recently, check out that clip below: