Story of Giving

When thinking of stories of giving I learned more about giving from some Peruvian friends. While visiting in November 2009 after some conversation a lady I met in the village ‘New Jerusalem’ wanted me to see her baby, so we went to her home and later I also met her friend and next door neighbor. This village had one source for water, people were limited on what time of day they could fill their buckets. There was limited electricity and very small homes. Through my broken Spanish (from my high school and college Spanish 1 classes) I wanted to share with my new friends some domino necklaces that my friend Jenna made—these ladies, probably in their early 20s were so excited to receive this gift but then they told me to hold on (in Spanish, that was all they spoke) and went to the back room, one of the girls went back to her house, this went on for about five minutes. I had no idea what was happening since my Spanish was limited so I just sat there. My new friends came back and gave me a hot pink purse and a necklace and earrings. I was speechless, but knew that I needed to accept this gift as that was part of their culture. I experienced a gift from people I saw as not having much at all, but no matter what material items they owned, they had hearts of gold and wanted to share what they were blessed with too. Giving is not about giving whatever is left over, but giving is off the top sharing with others around us; giving of our time, talents, and treasures. From my Peruvian friends I learned that giving is not about what we do in our spare time or the giving of leftovers. Giving is at the core of who we are as children of God.