girl's got heart

samantha wants to be a missionary. after learning about it at church, and having a former sunday school teacher go to peru as a missionary, samantha has talked about it several times. and there's a boy in one of her classes at church who's parents will be going overseas this year. one day samantha told me "oh, i just wish i could go right now with them and tell the people about Jesus!" she has such a big heart for people and their need for God, so it didn't really surprise me when she said that. so i told her that she could be a missionary any time by showing God's love to people and telling her friends about Jesus.

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so i don't know why i was surprised when i caught her doing this about a month ago.

she had fashioned her own assembly line. first she cut the pages out of her small notebook, then she'd stamp 5-6 pieces of paper with her hello kitty stamp, followed by "God... Loves... You..."

"what are you doing samantha?"

"i'm writing 'God loves you' so that i can hand it to all the kids so that they can know about Jesus."

i caught myself before i discouraged her endeavor out loud and thought to myself, it's not like she's really going to hand those out. i mean, she's home-schooled so it's not like she'd hand them out at school. she'll forget about it anyway.

"oh that's neat, honey. you're making a lot."

"yeah. i'm making one for every kid in the whole world."

"really? how are you gonna give one to every kid?"

"we're gonna drive in the car and i'm gonna throw them out the window and they can run into the street to get them."

i admit i discouraged that idea a little. afterall, we don't want the kids running out in the street!

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later that night she showed her daddy the fruits of her labor. we counted all the papers she had made--27!

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the next day the papers disappeared and i didn't think anything of it. the day after that went to my one-stop-shop for some needed supplies and food. and of course samantha brought her purse. while i was busy searching for a certain type of cereal, she walked over to the employee who was busily restocking the shelves. "here, this is for you." she held out a paper, then turned and walked back to me before the lady could say anything. i don't know why, but i was shocked again! wow... she actually did it!

she handed out 3 more to random employees who seemed confused rather than touched by her gesture. then we headed over to festival, the real grocery store. she gave one to the butcher who was also uninthused. then as i was checking out she gave one to the cashier, and the 18 year old sacker boy who both seemed genuinely appreciative! the boy kept saying "that's so awesome," and "thank you very much!" it was cute. i think he made her day with his excitement!

on the way home i told her i was proud of her for sharing God's love with others. she was so excited and exclaimed in her grown-up-wanna-be-14-year-old voice "i know!!! i just can't believe that i'm a missionary now!!!"

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the following week she handed a few more out. she tried to remember to take her purse everywhere so that she could pass them out to people, usually employees. then we hadn't gone anywhere for couple days, so i had forgotten about it.

until...

...we all went back to festival to grab a few dinner ingredients. when we got to the checkout line, she again handed a paper to the cashier (not the same one as before) and the lady bagging our items. they were both impressed. the one lady said she was going to hang it on her fridge, and the other was going to put it up in her office. while they were talking to samantha another cashier came over and the sacker lady said to her "look what she just gave me!" to which the other girl excitedly replied, "oh my goodness!!!!! i've been waiting to meet you! i've heard all about you from the other employees that you gave a paper to!!" and samantha happened to have just one left in her purse so she gave it to her.

she was practically beaming as we left the store.

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so was i surprised when i found she had started to made another stack of these...?!

...nope!