A Small Act of Kindness

We left for Romania two weeks ago with hearts full of love and hope, praying that we would find somewhere that we could make a difference.  A place that we could help others and share some of the blessings that our lives have been filled with to this point.

It was a great two weeks for my family and we wouldn't trade this experience for anything.  We are now back in Canada and while we were in Romania we were able to put some smiles on some people's faces.  The interesting thing though is that while we were attempting to bless people there they were blessing us at the same time.  I don't think it would be possible for us to have an impact on their lives as much as they impacted ours.  Three of my kids kept journals of our adventures and I asked them to share some highlights they had on my blog so that will be coming in the future.

Throughout our time their I was overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy.  I wanted to make life better for everyone.  I wanted to help all the children.  I wanted to feed all the hungry, heal all the sick, mend the broken families.  I wanted to make this world a better place.  The truth is all I could do was this one small act of kindness.

We were able to make some people smile.  We made a number of new friends.  We played with children who couldn't speak with us because we didn't understand their language, they did know how to throw snowballs though.  We gave presents to some, food to others.  One lady was so happy we brought her a food hamper she said she was speechless, then continued to talk so long and fast that our translator gave us with a shrug of his shoulders and said, "she is happy."

At the same time it was heartbreaking  to see the brokenness of many of the families, the lack of hope many had with no work to be found, the struggles with addictions, the unusually high numbers of abortions.

It was also very humbling when you see the gratefulness of the people there.  One place where we dropped off a food hamper the mother was 35 years old.  She had 8 children and lived in a two room house.  The one  room was taken up by a sick grandmother so the rest of them had to live in the other bedroom/kitchen/dining room/laundry room.  She explained how grateful she was because she has been able to feed her entire family once a day all winter long.  I had a hard time getting over that comment.

All I can give is a small act of kindness.  It sounds small but when passed on to others and more people join in then the one small act of kindness becomes a great thing.  That is how one small act of kindness changes the world.  It doesn't start or end with me.  I am just passing on the blessings that I have had because of my great parents, my family, my friends and because I have spent most of my life following the teachings of Jesus.