Being Fully Here by Callie Shepherd

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, this week is one for the books. It is filled to the brim with love for each other, the work we are doing (despite being super tough), and for the big man upstairs for bringing us all here. The kids respond with nothing but love and trust too.

I don’t think that there was a single person who wasn’t touched by or had a sweet spot for at least one of the kids. In my case, it was this sweet little boy named Nicholas who every single day greeted me by running to me and enveloping me with his arms. He had such an unending love and trust for me, so much so that during the last part of VBS yesterday he wouldn’t say anything to me because he didn’t think he would see me again after the activities ended. Of course, once I told him i was going to see him at the end of the year ceremony, he immediately jumped into my lap and grabbed my arm as though nothing was wrong in the world.

I knew that I couldn’t take any time with him, or any of my other little buddies, for granted. Looking back on the week, I began to somewhat regret, for lack of better words, all the times i had been checking my phone for the time, or glancing at my pictures, or basically any time I didn’t spend engaging with the kids. I would do anything I could to be able to spend just five more minutes with these kids and to be surrounding by their unconditional love.

Not even just at VBS. I would do anything to be able to go back to the Antioch school and keep helping out. I would help out with anything and everything they asked me to do because I would know how much of an impact it would make, even if it was some seemingly insignificant task. I would know that the more I (and everyone else) help the quicker they will be able to expand and create more buildings and take in more kids. They already have some ninety-odd amount of kids that go there, and these towns aren’t that big, so the amount of lives that they are impacting just by going home and telling their friends and family about that cool school that they go to. Because of that being in my mind, I tried to keep working and take enough breaks so that i wouldn’t become dehydrated.

Overall I mainly tried to stay in the moment. I tried to make sure to be fully aware and present wherever I was and during whatever I was doing. It made such a difference to be fully there and to not keep thinking about other things because God wanted me to be here and if He wanted me to be there, I would be. He wanted me, and everyone else on the team, to be here, with these kids, doing these jobs, for a reason and I think that is pretty awesome.