So sometimes short term missions get a bad wrap. Some people think an impact can’t be made in such short time frames.
Honestly I have moments where I even question whether or not spending a month or two somewhere matters much.
But I remember something that was said at training camp and/or launch. Someone talked about this very thing, and asked us if anyone came into our lives for a short amount of time and made an impact.
And I have a story about a little someone who was in my life for only a few hours who made quite the impact on me.
See El Shaddai has a separate home for the youngest kids. It’s usually referred to as the baby house. And the babies and little ones came to El Shaddai to celebrate Christmas.
One toddler girl in a purple dress and I ended up spending a good chunk of time together. She smiled a wonderful smile a lot. But a few times she cried, too.
I was in a nativity skit as part of the Christmas Olympics (I played Mary). In between doing the skit for the different teams, I’d go chase her or copy her. After, we walked around. Colorful plastic toy balls were all over the place. I mean everywhere.
And she would pick them up and throw them. And she would pick them up and use her dress to hold them. And she would pick them up and have me use my dress to hold them. And she would have me drop them, so she could pick them back up. Then we’d do it all again. And sometimes we walked around with them. And if one fell she noticed and pick it back up. And if she found another she’d grab it, too.
Now I tried and tried to get her to do or play something else…anything else. But she was perfectly happy doing the same thing again and again and again and again.
Finally things got changed up when the kids got a snack. It was a good snack: watermelon, ice cream, and a cupcake. I helped her and another little one eat their snacks.
Shortly after the kids and workers from the baby house had to go back. They all piled into one vehicle to go. One of the workers I had just met called me Sisi (sister). I put the girl I’d spent a good deal of the day with in the car. She started crying. I almost started crying. Really we only spent a handful of hours together, but it was difficult watching her and the others go. Almost all of them energetically waved goodbye.
Even though we spent a very short amount of time together, she made an impact. And even though she is so young, she made an impact. I would love to have more time with her and all the kids. As great as that would be, more time was not necessary for a positive impact to be made or for love to be shown. And it might not seem like much, doing the same old thing over and over again, but on Christmas this girl had someone spend some time with just her doing what she wanted to do.
I know it can be difficult for this kind of thing to happen, because there are more kids than staff. And even though she probably will not remember, it matters just for the day it happened and the fun she had.
So I know greatness can happen in short time frames, because I’ve seen it happen.
We make impacts everyday of our lives wherever we are. We do it with our words and actions. We can make impacts on the people we’re closest to, people we don’t even know, and strangers. All we need to be concerned about is whether we are making positive or negative impacts.
Thanks for reading. Much love!
P.S. If you haven’t watched the movie About Time, I recommend you change that.
