This past Valentines Day had to be my favorite of all time in the history of my life. Let me tell you why! My teammate Christy and I woke up early to make chocolate chip pancakes for the rest of the team, only to find that it wasn’t doable and our stove gas was running low, so we quickly made french toast and bacon instead! We had a feast of breakfasts foods- banana bread, french toast, bacon, a fruit platter, eggs and my homemade mochas, it was amazing! As Frank Sinatra played in the background, we all exchanged gifts of cards(some funny, some sweet), flowers and chocolates. All of our faces hurt from smiling so much! I then facetimed my momma and opened all of my Valentine notes from home! From there we left for ministry at the Women’s Center where we surprised the ladies with candies and cake! I sat in and watched my friend teach them english (which I have now taken over and teach everyday!) and then we all gathered in the main room for some fun! I got called up out of nowhere to explain what Valentines Day means to me. I shared that it is one of my moms favorite holidays and that growing up, my mom never made it about being loved by men, but rather your friends and family. I shared that I love celebrating this day because we are fully known and fully loved by the creator of the world!
After class, Kenna, Christy, Lydia and I went to a shop to buy flowers. We put these flowers in the front pocket of our overalls and handed them out to strangers on the streets of Kathmandu! Many smiles, namastes and hugs were exchanged. I have never seen people so happy and grateful to receive a flower! That was a day maker for sure. If I had a dollar for every smile I saw on the street that day, well, Id have quite a lot of money! We skipped and laughed and did all those cheesy valentine girly things that you would typically see in a 90s movie. It was so much fun and very life giving! Theres a video of this on my Instagram (@lissiebutler) and will also probably be on my YouTube soon.
Once done frolicking and handing out our flowers, we went to pick up trash at the soccer field to prepare for a game with the street kids! A few of us hopped on a local bus to go to a slum close by and gather children from the slums, the sweetest and most wild little tots! They were beaming ear to ear as they knew what was ahead for the evening. We all arrived at the fields, played a few soccer games and sat down for dinner! A couple of us did a skit about the good samaritan for them and then served rice and curry along with a valentines cookie! My team then walked home and ended our night with popcorn, hot chocolate and a rom-com! It was a good day, to say the least.
What I learned this Valentines day was that the smallest act of kindness, whether that’s attempting to make pancakes for your team, a small watercolored card, sitting down to teach a woman in her 30s the alphabet, giving a flower to someone you don’t know or a cookie to a kid… the smallest acts of kindness usually are what mean the most to others. These acts are guaranteed to get ya a smile! My challenge to everyone reading this is to do something sweet and simple for somebody this week! If you really do, please tell me what it was! Thank ya for reading 🙂 please feel free to subscribe to my blog for more updates!
