A Secret Santa knew just what to give a pastor in Island Park, Idaho, after he lost pretty much everything he had in a fire.
Pastor Tom Shanor, who leads the congregation at Little Church in the Pines, had been living in his RV when it caught on fire, reportedly due to the furnace, and burned down in October, East Idaho News reported Tuesday.
Shanor and his cat escaped without being hurt, but he was only able to grab his keys, glasses, wallet, and cellphone in the process. To make the situation worse, when he went to buy replacement medicine and clothing later that day, he hit a deer with his car which totaled the vehicle.
Secret Santa heard about the pastor’s situation and wanted to help him get back on his feet. Therefore, he sent the outlet’s Nate Eaton to surprise him with a gift of $10,000 as he was shopping at a local Sam’s Club.
Eaton eventually caught up with Shanor as he entered the store and told him they had been waiting for him. “What for?” the pastor said with a smile on his face.
“We have a gift from a secret Santa,” Eaton told him, to which he jokingly asked, “There are such things as Secret Santas?”
Shanor said the people in Island Park had been taking good care of him after he lost pretty much everything. One neighbor, he said, gave him a tiny house to live in for free with his beloved cat.
When Eaton handed him the gift, Shanor opened it and could not believe what he saw. “That’s amazing,” he said.
“Thank you so very much. I appreciate it,” he added.
Social media users reacted to the sweet video, one person writing, “You did it again, Secret Santa. Pastor Tom is such a sweetheart.”
“What a Gent,” another user said.
Secret Santa recently blessed another Idaho resident, a single mother of four kids who had previously been living in a camper with her family, according to Breitbart News.
