Most of the time it is the smallest moments that seem insignificant that make the biggest impacts on our lives and not the big earth shaking ones that we expect. I had one of those exact moments last month when we were doing outreach in the Philippines.
Our outreach consisted of showing up, playing games, doing a skit, interacting with the locals, feeding them a meal, and giving them food for their families. We had done outreaches before that were pretty great but none compared to the day I danced with little Sally under an overpass.
On our two hour drive there we were told that the place we were going to that day was a place where a lot of homeless families stay because it is shelter from the weather, it is near a busy road to pick up “scraps”, and it’s right by, 100 feet, a landfill where they may find food or things to help raise their families.
We arrived and the first thing I noticed was that there were more people here than we had seen at any other outreach. And the number of kids there was just incredible. I walked around and introduced myself and some of the kids even did the same for me. It took a whopping 5 minutes before the kids warmed up to us enough to play with them. I picked up this little boy and threw him up on my back and we galloped around in the dirt making horse noises for what seemed like hours but was most likely 5-10 minutes. After that a whole group of little kids crowded around me and wanted to touch my hair. Apparently people with long blonde hair is a pretty uncommon thing in Asian countries. It was really fun to see the smiles and giggles on their faces every time I picked one up, threw them in the air, or sat and kicked a rock in the dirt.
But, the thing that I will never forget about that day was the little girl that stole my heart. For her privacy we will just call her Sally. Sally came up to me, touched my hair and giggled as she ran her fingers through it. She laughed and then ran around me to hop on my back. We played for about 20 minutes and then I put her down while I took a break. A few minutes later a song came over the speaker we brought that she knew and she came running over to me and yanked me over by the speaker.
The next question she asked me was in pretty broken english but I knew exactly what she was asking. “Can you dance me? I no dance a lot.” I about lost it but fought back the tears and danced my heart out with little 10 year old Sally under the overpass. The smile on her face and the sound of her giggle made fighting back tears harder and harder as every second passed. I grabbed her hands and we jumped up and down while spinning in circles. I would grab her hand and spin her around and watch her light up even more and giggle in delight. When the song was done she embraced me with a big hug and giggled as she touched my hair again.
I am not sure what little Sally did to me that day but I am definitely not the same person. The joy she had was as real as the dirt on her face and the holes in her clothes. I realized just how powerless I was when I was with her. There was nothing I could give this little girl that she didnt already have. I left that day learning more form her than I could have ever hoped to teach her. The Joy of the Lord is alive and well in little Sally.
