I’ll be honest: when I signed up for my first volunteer trip with Luna Seeds of Love, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I’d donated money online before — clicked a few buttons, felt good about it, moved on. This was different. This was two weeks away from my job, my family, my comfortable New Jersey life.
Our first morning, we drove to a church on the outskirts of Moca, The neighborhood was alive — children running, music playing from open windows. There was something I can only describe as richness — not financial, but relational.
“I had confused poverty of money with poverty of spirit. These families had very little of the first and an abundance of the second.”
On day three of the workshops, a boy named miguel — maybe nine years old — took the cards from my hands, rearranged them, and showed the other kids exactly what to do. Then he looked at me and said: ‘Now you try.’ The whole group laughed. I laughed too.
What you give when you show up in person is something harder to quantify: presence. Witness. The message that says, “You matter enough for me to get on a plane.”
I came back to New Jersey thinner, sunburned, and more grateful than I have been in years. Generosity isn’t about having a lot to give. It’s about giving what you have.