SAN ANTONIO—A young girl’s birthday present became a Valentine’s gift of love to hungry children.
On the Sunday before Valentine’s Day, Pastor Dan Trevino at Harlandale Baptist Church in San Antonio made a brief presentation about showing love and meeting the needs of hungry people through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger .
That same Sunday, an eight-year-old girl in the congregation—Kimberly—celebrated her birthday. In keeping with the traditions of her Hispanic culture, she wore a money corsage made of dollar bills that friends pinned to her dress.
Earlier that morning, when the congregation sang “Happy Birthday” to Kimberly, Trevino had noticed the length of her corsage. Near the end of the service, the pastor noticed her taking the corsage apart, but he assumed she was just passing the time counting and playing with her money.
But as the deacons collected the offering, Kimberly approached the pastor on the platform, holding in her hand all the money she had received except for a single dollar pinned to her dress.
“Pastor Dan,” she said, “I want to give this to help feed the hungry children around the world.”
Trevino walked to the pulpit where he had a Texas-shaped bank provided by the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission to collect loose change for the world hunger offering.
Kimberly put all the money in her hand into the bank, and then she unpinned the last dollar from her dress and “placed it in the offering plate for Jesus,” Trevino recalled.
“The amazing part is Kimberly and her family are recipients of our food and clothing ministry. They are a very poor family, and this was going to be her biggest birthday ever," he added.
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When Trevino told the congregation what Kimberly had done, “there was not one dry eye in the sanctuary,” he said. “God moved through the thoughtfulness and heart of a child. People at the end of the service as they walked out were putting dollar bills in my coat pocket for world hunger.”
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