“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” – Acts 20:35

Earlier this summer, several friends and I had the opportunity to leave our comfortable, middle class American lives and return to Honduras, where 52.4% of souls live in poverty and 13.3% in extreme poverty. We hoped to make a difference, maybe change a life or two. By now I should have known, it would be our lives that would be changed.

Among various projects, we set out to build a house for Marta, a 42-year-old single mom, and Amiel, her precious 4-year-old daughter. (The name Amiel, quite fittingly as you’ll see, is of Hebrew origin and means My People Belong to God.) The young girl and her mom had been abandoned by Amiel’s biological father and were living in a small, primitive dwelling—a place you might store a riding lawnmower and a few tools. Marta struggles to make ends meet by buying and selling American clothes and cleaning people’s homes. Like many in Honduras, this family owns next to nothing.

Throughout the day, our team interacted with little Amiel, and two of our younger ladies spent considerable time with her. As the only Honduran child on the job site, she was thrilled to be the lone recipient of various toys, snacks, candy, and attention. Our loud hammering was interrupted throughout the day by the 4-year-old’s delightful cackling, as she blew bubbles and swung on a makeshift swing.

Toward the end of the build, as we were nailing the final few nails and gathering our tools, I felt a tug on my leg. Little Amiel was making the rounds, giving each missionary a calf-level hug. That alone would have been enough—just seeing a small child express appreciation for our efforts.

But Amiel wasn’t finished. She reached into her bag of goodies—pretty much everything she owned in the world—and pulled out a smaller bag of candy that had been given to her earlier in the day. She wanted me to have it. I felt a lump in my throat and wiped my eyes. Although she had, to my knowledge, little to no direct exposure to Jesus’ teachings, she was embodying the point of today’s passage. Giving something back, even though she owned so little, brought her joy—it blessed her.

Chilean author Isabel Allende writes, “You only have what you give. It’s by spending yourself that you become rich.” Though just four years old and living in poverty, Amiel discovered that day what it means to be rich, and in doing so, taught us all a valuable lesson.

Amiel, Amiel, a name so fitting—your people belong to God.