August 1, 2033
Dear Future
Children,
Twenty
years ago I moved to Ecuador for the summer with your Aunt Brittany. I learned so many wonderful things on that
trip that I would like to share with you. One of the biggest things I learned was how the
littlest things can make the biggest difference. First of all, you kids should
know that I went between the summer of my junior and senior year of high
school. There were only 4 people, including me, who decided to move to Ecuador
and do an internship with Go International. One of those people was your aunt
and the other two we met on the trip. We
all loved the big events we were apart of but my all-time favorite thing was
the little things we did to make a difference in people’s lives.
I
first learned this valuable lesson on a beautiful Thursday morning. My team had
been planning on working with girls involved in human trafficking. That plan did not work out; however, something
even better came along. We had a couple of hours to do whatever we wanted in
our new city, Quito. We decided to stop at a beautiful flower shop that we had
seen only in passing. We bought two dozen roses and went to sit at Parque
Carolina, a park as pretty as a picture in the center of Quito. As we sat on
the grass with our roses we suddenly got an idea for what to do with this random
purchase. We quickly got some construction
paper to write down Bible verses that told people how beautiful they are. We
then tied the papers on each rose with some yarn and we were ready to go. Each
of us grabbed a handful of flowers. We
walked through the park to find people who seemed to need a little something to
make their day better. As we passed them out to people they were shocked that
we were giving flowers to them for free.
Once they read the words we wrote on the paper they started grinning
from ear to ear. They were basically speechless from the kindness we had shown
them. It amazed me how a simple rose
could make such a huge difference in someone’s life.
This
valuable lesson continued on another day.
Your Aunt Brittany had a wonderful idea of what we should do with the
couple hours we had to spare. Wherever you go throughout Quito you find women
selling things such as fruit, coloring books or a shoeshine. Since these women
were out in the sun all day long their hands became very rough and dry so we
decided to do something to change that. We went to the store and bought some
hand wipes and lotion. After going to buy the materials, we headed to this
place in downtown Quito called Plaza Grande.
There are so many women selling and doing shoe shining due to this being
the poorest part of the city. When we got out of the taxi our eyes went
straight to this old lady sitting at her shoe shining station waiting for her
next customer. As we walked up to her she just stared at us wondering what we
were doing. We then began to talk to her and find out her story. Her name was Rosia. She was in her late sixties and the
deep lines in her face revealed that life had been hard. At her age she was
looking after her mother and her young niece and nephew. With a smile on her
face she began to remove her gloves, which revealed many scars on her arms that she
had been carrying since her twenties. As
we massaged her hands she entertained us with stories from her past. It only
took an hour of our time yet this small act seemingly took years off of Rosia’s
face.
The
lesson that began that summer in Ecuador has continued for the rest of my life
and I wanted to pass it on to you kids. After returning from that trip, I stopped
measuring my impact on people’s lives only when I did something big, instead I
began to focus on doing something small each day. I may never know the true impact I have
made, yet I do know that the littlest things make the biggest difference in someone’s
life. Never forgot that.
Love,
Your mom
As a result of this letter, our team and the friends we’ve made here in Ecuador have been searching for ways to make a BIG difference in people’s lives by doing seemingly small things. We would love to have you join us in this endeavor. Find something small you can do this week that will make a difference in someone’s life. If you have instagram, post the picture of what you did with the hashtag #pequeoesgrande (small is big). If not, you can post the picture to Facebook or as a comment in this blog. The picture is secondary to the act of kindness of course, but we are hoping that these pictures will serve as an inspiration to others. I look forward to seeing what you do this week to make a difference in someone’s life. You just might be surprised to find that the biggest difference you make is in your own life. : )
