Little Things

For a while now I have followed the ministry of Seacoast Church (www.seacoastchurch.com)  in Mt. Pleasant, SC, a suburb of Charleston.  Last summer Michelle, the kids and I visited her sister who was, at the time, living there.  Will and Ellis were more interested in staying to play with their cousins, so Michelle and I hauled Savannah to their Saturday night worship service. 

We fully expected that Savannah would want to stay in the adult worship service with us- but we thought we’d at least try to get her to go to a class designed especially for kids with special needs.  Upon seeing the classroom, she looked at us and decided that she didn’t want to stay.  Two or three steps away from the door, she changed her mind and said, “I’ll stay.” 

Michelle and I were able to go into the worship service and be ministered to- all the while Savannah was in class.  At different intervals during the evening, I’d double-check the pager number we’d been given, just to make sure we weren’t missing a “call for help” from her teachers.  The call never came. 

Once the worship service was over, we shuffled down to pick her up.  Opening the door, we found Savannah surrounded by three of the volunteers; she was all smiles.  One of them said, “Oh, you can’t take her with you… we want her to move to Mt. Pleasant!”  Fat chance of that happening… but we were blown away by the comfort level our little girl, who doesn’t like very much change, achieved with these relative strangers in just an hour and fifteen minutes. 

Fast forward a year… Michelle forwarded on this email to me from one of the volunteers in the room that night. Here it is…

Hello Al and Michelle — my name’s Karen and I was blessed to be
volunteering the night Savannah came in and wowed us with her beautiful personality and bubbly spirit.  We were thinking of her the other day and wondering how she is?  We would love to have her come visit again.  I hope you are all enjoying the summer and all is well with your family.

We were there 12 months ago… that ministry has probably seen many kids come through that classroom… they knew Savannah’s dad was a pastor and didn’t live in SC… and she took just five minutes, tops to drop us a line.  I can’t tell you how much that small gesture meant to us.  It reminded me of the importance of taking the time to do the little things.

There are some letters I need to write, some phone calls I need to make… little things that mean alot.

 And if you ever find yourself in Mt. Pleasant, SC…