It’s always been such fun giving gifts to people. To see a person’s face light up when they see what your gift is and you feel so satisfied. To give someone a gift in America is nice and the person’s thankful for it, IF they like it. But then the person you gave that gift to moves on with their life and they basically forget about your gift and what it meant.
Well, let me tell you something.
Africa is redefining what giving a gift REALLY means.
When you bless someone with a gift here, you finally discover a true satisfaction and happiness at gift giving you’ve never experienced.
Karli, Natalie, Aubrey and I went to visit Gladys and her family, a lad who we have become very close with and whom I love dearly. Instead of just visiting her though, we brought her a gift.
A normal deck of playing cards.
Gladys, Candy and the rest of the family LOVE to play Crazy 8’s. They’ve played it so much that their cards fell apart and they had to tape them back together again. Seriously, they love that game so much. So we brought them some new, plastic coated, regular cards that cost us around $2.50.
You would have thought we were buying her the world!!
I have never seen anyone light up that much from such a simple, cheap gift! Gladys wouldn’t stop saying, öh these are so wonderful!”and “These are the MOST beautiful cards ever!” Seriously, who would ever respond with those words for a deck of playing cards???
No one.
When we left and gave her hugs, she said, “I just love you guys so much!”
So in turn of trying to bless someone, I was instead blessed in return. There’s barely anything better than that. 🙂
Psalm 118:26-27a
