Imagine you’re walking alone along a dusty dirt path, enjoying the sweet summer breeze as it gently whispers across your face. As you lower your gaze back to the area of trail directly in front of you, a small patch of Black-Eyed Susans catch your attention. You take a step closer, but notice what appear to be several tiny “W’s” lined perfectly in the dirt, as though they were leading you to the collection of wildflowers. You’re quick to realize the tiny “W’s” are actually just the footprints of a small bird, but the sight has already made its impact. Your mind begins to wander back to something you once read by Maya Angelou:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
No matter what we do in life, that fact remains that, just like that small bird, we will leave a footprint; we will make an impression. Often times, however, we confuse making significant impressions with making sizable impressions and the sheer weight of performing a miraculous task keeps us from doing anything at all. The children who attended Grace Kids Camp this year, however, have provided us all with an excellent illustration of how even simple acts can make a huge impact.
Hands of Hope was the mission focus of Grace Kids Camp 2012. The hope was to inspire children attending to look beyond their personal window of wants and needs and begin viewing the wants and needs of children throughout the world; more specifically, those felt by the children currently living in India’s Faith and Deeds Children’s Home.
It was simple. Each day, as they went about their regularly scheduled lessons, the children of Grace Kids Camp were invited to bring in whatever funds they could in order to assist with a new building project Faith in Deeds is currently undertaking. It was a tiny invitation, a small step, but through that seemingly trivial request, something miraculous happened. In total, the children of Grace Kids Camp raised $6,079.50 enabling Faith in Deeds Children’s Home to purchase 7,152 bricks!
The task was simple. There were no height or age requirements, no spiritual maturity tests to pass. All that was required was a willing heart, standing ready to make significant impression.
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.”
-1 John 3:18