There is nurturing in each of us I was waiting for my husband and a group of his students. The day was blistering and the heat so powerful that many in our group eventually suffered heatstroke. To escape the heat I walked up the steps of the old church, thinking to wait inside.

Just inside the doorway and off to the right an old lady was stretched out on the floor. Curled and snuggled against her abdomen a child of two or three years slept. I had just finished drinking my water and had started in on a cold Pepsi. The old lady opened her eyes, sat up, and reaching toward me, she asked for a drink. I could see the flush of color from the heat on her and the beads of perspiration on the upper lip of the child. I handed her my pop and wished I had not just polished off the water as it would have been more hydrating for both of them. I left her with the drink and continued into the church wishing that I’d had some money with me. I experienced anxiety over the predicament of the two beggars in the doorway yet there was nothing more I could do.

Some twenty minutes later the group I was supposed to meet arrived to tour through the church as part of their cultural anthropology course. My husband was speaking to them outside explaining the history of the building and then they all filed in past the beggars, that same old lady and the child

When the students reached the far end of the church in a small side area my husband commented on the old lady and child. “It is thought by many that when you give to the beggars at the door of the church that your blessings will be multiplied”, he said. Then he continued with the tour. Later as the students filed out, one by one they stooped to drop pesos into the palm of the grateful woman.

I remember the overwhelming sensation of gratitude I experienced as I watched the charitable actions of the students. I had been out of money and unable to do more. Now the feeling of helplessness was gone, replaced by the goodwill actions of the Canadian students. Thank God for the capacity to give. Just thoughts.

Ellie Braun-Haley shaley@telusplanet.net