PORT ARTHUR, Texas — One woman who spends her time serving others is now full of thanks after an early Christmas gift from five strangers.
Margaret Samano showed up for work at IHOP in Port Arthur, like any other day.
"It was a super busy day as usual for a Saturday. It was very, very busy," Samano said.
The restaurant was filled with people when Shilo Carr and her four friends arrived.
Carr started 'LOVE Lunchsack Ministry,' which is 'a brown bag lunch ministry – that offers a simple lunch and a whole lot of LOVE,' according to its website.
"We held hands, prayed," Carr said. "Asked the lord to lead us to the person who needed him to show up most tangibly in their life today."
Samano ended up being that person, serving the group Saturday morning.
It's what happened after Carr and her friends finished eating, that's so remarkable.
"She was like 'you're going to want to put those plates down for this,'" Samano said. "I thought 'oh no, what happened or what's wrong?'"
Carr began recording on her phone.
The video shows Carr talking about their prayer before each member of the group handing her a $100 tip.
Samano was moved to tears.
"They started handing me the money, it was amazing," Samano said.
A $500 tip, just in time for Christmas.
"It means a lot to me, I've never had anything like that happen to me before ever," Samano said.
Carr says she wanted to offer a blessing for the holidays.
"My goal was to just bless her in the name of Jesus," Carr said.
Carr posted the video on Facebook, and in four days, the video has been viewed more than 2 million times.
"I am confident of how much the Lord loves you, and you have made our Christmas so much brighter," Carr can be heard saying in the video.
Her post cited a Bible verse, saying, "Acts 20:35 “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Margaret, May the Lord’s face shine upon you today! I’m very thankful to my friends who joined me in this Christmas blessing. GIVERS are my people."
Samano said she plans to use the money for bills and Christmas shopping for her 10-year-old son.
"There is still a lot of good in humanity," Samano said. "There's still a lot of really really wonderful people out there."
Since Saturday, Samano and Carr didn't speak.
That was until Wednesday when the two happened to run into each other while Christmas shopping Wednesday morning in Beaumont.
That picture is below.
