Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
As a parent, it's a bittersweet thing to watch your kids grow up. Bitter in the sense that they grow to need you a little less every day. Of course, that's the way God designed it. They need to be ready for life on their own by the time they leave home. Still for parents, it's the hardest thing to let them go.
But watching kids grow up and mature can also be a sweet experience and God let me have a taste of that sweetness on my last trip to India. My 13-year-old daughter, Stephanie, went with me on that trip. Throughout the week that we were there, doing a vacation Bible school program with 800 kids from the slum villages, I could see her heart becoming softer and softer to the needs and the conditions she saw around her. I saw her shed tears as she thought about the lives the kids went back to when they left the VBS. I saw her get too attached to one little kid that we initially thought was a boy, but turned out to be a girl. Kavya is the youngest of four kids in the family and the only girl, so everyday she wore the same tattered shorts and teal and white plaid button-up shirt, no doubt hand-me-downs from her older brothers. She was cute as a boy and cute as a girl, so we didn't care! If Stephanie could have brought her home with us, she would have. And little Kavya would have come too! On our last day in India, we arranged a visit to Kavya's house, and when we were getting into the car to leave, Kavya tried to get in the car with us! It tore our hearts out to tell her no! We all wanted her to come, but we knew she couldn't.
On that trip, I watched Stephanie care for her fellow team members. I saw her give her heart to a dirty little boy-turned-girl with a smile that's unforgettable. I saw her turn from worrying about clothes and food and accommodations, to trying to figure out how she, being too young to have a job, could earn enough money to sponsor Kavya. She grew up that week right before my eyes.
What a moving post. Thank you Lori. Stephanie is such a blessing and an wonderful example to other youth. Stephanie, keep up the good work. We love and appreciate HHI and have a special place in our heart for your family!
