Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

Lory Giddings, Students for International Mission Service

Students from Loma Linda University took time from their busy schedules to "adopt" a child for an afternoon. As many as 200 children and their parents attended the annual Adopt-a-Kid Christmas party.

How do you interpret God's promises in the Bible? Do you believe He will provide for you? I sometimes doubt God's promises because I don't understand how and when He chooses to deliver His people.

On December 5, 1997, SIMS sponsored the Adopt-a-Kid Christmas Party. The event took place at theSAC-Norton clinic in San Bernardino.

This is an annual Christmas party for community children. In the past, we have invited children from one Headstart School.

Planning for the party was great because the school provided a list of children, their names, ages, gender, and would also bring them to the party and take them back to school at the end.

This year, we decided to recruit children a bit differently. We invited children from the Waterman Gardens Headstart School, fromCurtis Middle School, and from clientele at the SAC clinics.

We also told members of the community to invite their friends with small children.

Lo and behold, on Friday, the fifth, we had between 150 and 200 children and their parents show up for the party. In addition to the parents and children, we also had 57 Loma Linda University students who had signed up to "adopt" a kid for the afternoon. This added up to 200-plus people to provide food and activities for.

This is where the goodness of the Lord began to shine through. We had planned to accommodate about 70 children, and had gifts and a meal prepared for them.

As we surveyed the crowd of expectant faces and then looked down at our table of food, all I could think was, "Lord, you fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two small fishes. I know you can feed the 200 with haystacks!"

This may seem insignificant by itself, but combined with the gift situation, I have to say my faith in God's providence was boosted by the outcome.

You may ask, "what about the children's Christmas gifts?" Though we had a pile of gifts under our tree, with the extra children, there didn't seem to be enough to give one to each child.

Santa began handing out gifts, and the pile steadily receded until only one gift remained.

We looked around at all the children, hoping that none were forlornly waiting for a prized gift. All the children were contentedly playing with their trucks, stuffed animals, and tea sets.

Somehow, our pile of gifts silently multiplied. Not to mention that the forecasted El Niño downpour that was supposed to occur during the middle of the afternoon did not occur until midnight!

This story is not meant to be proof of God's miracles, but is merely the recounting of what happened at the SAC-Norton clinic one cloudy afternoon in December.

If it touches your heart and inspires you to trust in God's providence a little more, then so be it.


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