As a missionary I have people occasionally ask if I could spare them a few dollars. To be honest I say no quite often, because the money will often been spent on things like rum. However there are some I’ll give to if there’s money to spare.
One man I will give to every once in a while is a VERY hard worker (which is why I give to him). He’s always going up and down the road doing some kind of job for people.
Yesterday he asked if I had a dollar to share and unfortunately I didn’t. He then changed his mind and said, “you know what? I want to buy you a drink!” making sure to explain it wouldn’t be alcoholic :-).
I honestly didn’t want to do it because he didn’t have a lot of money. But he was very clear, if I refused to let him buy me something to drink, he would be very upset.
So we walked inside the shop….
And I let him buy me a coke
It was a joy to see how proud and excited the man was to tell the lady at the shop to “give me something to drink!” Walking down the road while drinking my coke I was reminded how small acts of kindness have a deep impact. This man who I would give some money to every once in a while was suddenly DETERMINED to pay back the debt!
That coke cost $5 EC dollars (around $2 US). But the generosity of the man made it cost so much more than $5.
Johnhwilburn.org 