One Harris County Couple spreads heart-shaped messages of kindness; a mission to bring joy to others

After Ken Freeman retired from Synovus Bank in 2010, he was looking for a way to use his free time. “I always enjoyed woodworking.” Ken said, “So I thought, well, I’ll just try to make some of these. And, I have been blessed and make a lot of them.”

Since the couple started counting eight years ago, they say they have made close to 30,000 hearts. Each one hand cut, painted, and stamped with a verse of scripture.

The hearts began as a gift while celebrating their 50th anniversary. “We wanted to have something to give to all of our family and friends that came to our celebration and so we made hearts.” Sandra said, “and we put our ‘couple’s scripture’ as we call it, Ephesians 4:32 which says, ‘be kind and tender hearted to each other, forgiving each other as Christ Jesus has forgiven you.’ From that people began requesting hearts with certain verses on them. ”

The Freemans, now married nearly 58 years, have grown the craft into a way to spread love and faith from the Chattahoochee valley all the way to Alaska. “We had some friends who went to Skagway, Alaska, on a trail and they saw one of our hearts at one of the stores in Skagway.” Sandra explains, “we don’t know how that’s happened.” She says they have also given the hearts to Missionaries who brought them to other countries.

Locally, Ken says he brings a bag of the hearts with him everywhere he goes, spreading the message of kindness to anyone who will receive it.

“I’ll never forget, this older lady, she looked me and said ‘yeah, I’d like to have one,’ I gave her one and she started crying,” Ken continues, “she said, ‘thank you so much, you just made my day, my husband died two days ago.’ You never know how the Lord might use what you do to help others.”

Sandra says that is what they hear most, ‘you just made my day.’ She says, “that’s a blessing to us and we hope it is to them. The Word of God does bless us. It’s eternal and we’re very grateful for it, we love spreading it.”

The Freemans’ hearts are not for sale, they say the items are gifts of encouragement, but any donations they do receive go straight to their church.

The hearts can be seen all around the Chattahoochee Valley, in doctor’s offices, restaurants, and hospitals. They hope each one continues to brighten someone’s day, as they leave a trail of hearts everywhere they go.