Bearing Fruit Can Take a While, But It's Worth the Wait!

Two weeks ago I came home from a long day down in Port Aransas, and when I walked into the kitchen at my house there was a small package on the counter for me, from Hong Kong. As I reached for the parcel, I was scanning in my brain any recent emails or conversations with my HK friends to try to remember if someone was sending me something. I turned it over to see the return address ... and it was from Hilary! Hilary is a seventeen year old Canadian girl, living in Hong Kong, that I met while I was there. The thing is, Hilary is very quiet and reserved. She's fearless in a lot of ways, since the chaos of Hong Kong does nothing to phase her and she will do anything by herself with no reservations. But on the other hand, she is very closed off with people and it's very hard to get her to let you in.

She reminds me a lot of myself. It takes me a long time before I will open up to someone. It's a trust thing I guess. Anyway, I feel like in a lot of ways Hilary and I are similar. And while she has her teenager moments, she's pretty mature for her age (which I'm sure at least partly comes from growing up on the mission field and being around adults so much).

I was in Hong Kong for 13 months, and in 2007 I was there for three months. So, in a total of 16 months of spending time with Hilary, including sending birthday cards to her after leaving HK and emailing and Facebook-ing with her, it wasn't until probably my last two or three months in HK that she really started to let her guard down. And I had such a hard time leaving her, just when I felt we were finally connecting.

I sometimes feel like a big sister to her. She doesn't have a big sister, and she's not going to talk to her mom about a lot of things. I felt like we connected in a sisterly way. She even came to the airport with me to see me off. It was very sweet.

So to receive a package from her, unexpectedly, was so touching I almost cried. I just see it as evidence that I made some impact on her. She wrote me a letter and included photos, and also sent me some candy, a bracelet and a small wooden cross. Again, I was just so touched! I'm trying to think of something I can send to her now.

She is also starting to look at where to go to college, since she graduates high school in May. She wants to come back to North America somewhere, or go to Australia - any place she knows other people. She told me she was looking at some schools in San Antonio, too. I thought that was so sweet.

It's such a huge blessing to see God use you for things, even when it takes so long to see the fruit of it. I am so happy to be used!