If you need a ride, a meal, a babysitter, advice or just a listening ear, Lisa Breedlove is there.
Breedlove received the annual Fisher Family Good Samaritan Award. Redemption Inside the Walls and News Tribune partnered to select five good Samaritans who have gone above and beyond to help Mid-Missouri.
After receiving 21 nominations, the News Tribune asked the community to vote on who it thought was most deserving of the award. Breedlove received the most votes.
She is the pastor's wife at Landmark Church and can often be found in the nursery, filling in for teachers, teaching home Bible studies or anywhere else she is needed.
She often does one-on-one Bible studies with other women and then helps them with any problems they may have, giving them advice on anything from family issues to ways to deal with anger.
"I love to help people," Breedlove said. "I just want to help where I can if there's a need. My husband's motto for our church is if there's a need in the city, our church needs to meet it. But if there's a need with an individual, I want to try to help them if I can."
Being raised by a single mom of seven children, she especially loves helping and mentoring young women and single moms, teaching parenting classes and helping them restore lost relationships with their children.
Growing up, her house always had an open-door policy where everyone was welcome. She has instilled the value of giving into her three children and continues to surround herself with kind people.
"I've always been around people that are very helpful and giving," she said. "I've just grown up that way, and it's just been a part of my life."
No matter who they are, Breedlove is always willing to help someone in need.
"The parable of the good Samaritan is all about helping someone even if they're different," she said. "That's kind of our commandment as Christians is God is telling us to help everyone, so I feel good about myself knowing that I'm restoring dignity with someone else."
Breedlove aims to spread kindness every day.
"They might come in here homeless; they might come in here in the middle of winter with summer clothes because that's all they own," she said. "I want to help them restore a sense of who they are through Christ. Their differences or who they are, none of that matters. What matters is they matter to me and they matter to this church. And they matter to the kingdom of God. Anything I can do to make them realize their worth, I will."
Every day, Breedlove aims to follow the golden rule of doing to others what you would have them do to you.
"I want to wake up with the thought that no matter how someone treats me, even if it's bad, they deserve to be treated good because I don't know what morning they had," she said. "I don't know what they went through. So I'm going to treat everyone with kindness, no matter how they treat me."
Many lives in the community have been touched by the kindness of Breedlove.
"I'm just one of many, many people just doing what we all should be doing, and that's being kind and helping others when no one's looking," she said.
The other four Fisher Family Good Samaritan Award recipients are Heather Gieck, Sherrie Downs, Erin Evans and Margaret Thoenen.
Related:
Good Samaritans recognized at Redemption Inside the Walls
Erin Evans strives to help children in need
Margaret Thoenen takes time to care for others