 In the most recent mission to Honduras two missionaries Melina Martinez and Shilpa Prasad worked hard prior to their arrival to hold the greatest birthday party for the children of this orphanage. From Melina’s first visit she was touched by the children here and wanted them to all have something special, celebrating birthdays here is acknowledged but the cost of having an actual event for each child would be astronomical. Melina and Shilpa etched out a plan to have a gigantic birthday celebration for every child there, filled with decorations, balloons, party gifts, cake and the happiest smiling faces you could ever imagine.
As the group tried to keep the decorating under wraps the kids started to gather around the building peeping through windows and conspiring as to what was going on.  Finally we opened the doors and had them all line up single file and enter. As each child entered they where given a birthday hat and a bag loaded with party gifts. All of the missionaries where lined up on both sides and blew bubbles on them as they walked in.
“It was really one of the most touching moments of my life”, said Melina. “When you watch someone else have so much fun you just live that moment of theirs through them”. Some of the kids would keep running back and forth through the line jumping around in all the excitement. Others where so shy that they had to cover their faces almost seeming to not know how to handle all the overwhelming emotion.
After the cake and food the kids took their Birthday cards with so much pride and asked all of us to sign them, I signed every card handed to me and honestly I felt like the most important person in the world that they cared so much to have my signature on their card. We never know  completely how the things we do for others will affect them. This moment in time could one day be a memory that forty years later they still look back on with a smile.
   
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