{"id":6800,"date":"2013-02-09T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T20:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6800"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:55","slug":"im-beginning-to-think-hes-one-of-those","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=6800","title":{"rendered":"I’m Beginning to Think He’s One of Those…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

… one of those kids you read about in news magazines or see on TV.\u00a0 The kind who gain notoriety for all the right reasons – they have collected big\u00a0money for a sick friend’s hospital bills.\u00a0 Or they have started a new ministry like distributing blankets to the homeless during winter months.\u00a0 Or they\u00a0raise awareness\u00a0regarding some often\u00a0ignored problem or injustice.\u00a0 <\/span>The circumstances differ but the stories always have some things in common: 1)\u00a0 They arrest the attention of even the most cynical adults –\u00a0who, even in spite of themselves,\u00a0feel a glimmer of hope for the future.\u00a0 2) The kid is the humble-type who never sought attention in the first place.\u00a0 And 3) The actions spring from a motivation which is others-centered and pure.\u00a0 <\/span>I’m beginning to think my oldest is one of those.\u00a0 <\/span>This is not to detract from any of the other three – who are each wonderful and faithful and self-giving in their own rights, but I have to share what “Dats” – at 11 years old – is teaching me these days.<\/span>(By the way – I call him “Dats” here because that was his first nickname.\u00a0 It’s what his one year old sister called him when he was two.\u00a0 I’ve been trying to make it stick ever since.)<\/span>My new understanding of Dats hit home this week.\u00a0 For months he has talked about doing a talk about Haiti at school.\u00a0 He worked on a PowerPoint for it several weeks ago.\u00a0 To my shame, I never really asked him much about it.\u00a0 This past week the time finally came for him to present.\u00a0 (It seemed to be good timing since just a couple of weeks ago, Melissa and I had decided he should go with me to Haiti – but more about that later.)<\/span>I guess I thought\u00a0his presentation\u00a0was some long-term project or something – just another school assignment.\u00a0 It didn’t even hit home Wednesday night at dinner when he announced that he had given his presentation at school.\u00a0 <\/span>“That’s nice.\u00a0 How did it go?”\u00a0 <\/span>“OK.”<\/span>Later that evening Dats asked if he could take some prayer cards to school on Thursday to pass out after his presentation.\u00a0 “I thought you\u00a0spoke today<\/em>.”<\/span>“I only spoke to the first half of the 6th grade class today.\u00a0 Tomorrow I speak to the other half.”\u00a0 <\/span>It STILL didn’t hit me.\u00a0 I didn’t give a thought to the fact that he goes to one of the biggest grade schools in the state – I think there are something like 120 or more students per grade level.\u00a0 He had voluntarily given a speech in front of 60 to 70 of his classmates that day and was preparing to do it again the next day with a new crowd!<\/span>The next morning Melissa called just after the start of school to say Dats had forgotten the prayer cards.\u00a0 Truthfully, I was a little irritated to have to make an extra run to school.\u00a0 It wasn’t until I actually stepped into the school building that I felt a nudge – I believe from the Holy Spirit.<\/span>He seemed to be saying, “Hey, Knucklehead – wake up!\u00a0 Pay attention!”\u00a0 <\/span>My dimwitted first response was “Wow … I almost missed a photo-op.\u00a0 I need to find out what time he is giving the speech so I can take some pictures for the blog or Facebook.”<\/span>His teacher assured me that Dats wasn’t speaking until 2:10.\u00a0 When I returned in the afternoon with my camera, I was still clueless about the significance of the moment.\u00a0 <\/span>When I walked into the room to witness Dats being introduced as their guest speaker for Social Studies, it started to sink in.\u00a0 He turned the projector on, brought up his slides and confidently jumped right in.\u00a0 He showed maps so the kids would know where Haiti was located.\u00a0 He talked about the poverty entrenched in Haiti and he showed a picture of a malnourished baby – Sammy, who is now being\u00a0nursed to health\u00a0by some missionary friends of ours.\u00a0 The picture\u00a0came from their recent newsletter and it is shocking.\u00a0 At one year old, Sammy was only about 8 pounds.\u00a0 Dats explained how these missionaries, Bud and Jane, were helping with a local orphange and that we would be taking some supplies to them next week when he accompanied me to Haiti.\u00a0 <\/span>Well, his classmates asked some great questions after Dats finished his presentation.\u00a0 They were genuinely interested and very curious.\u00a0 One little guy’s question: “Aren’t you going to miss us when you move down there?”\u00a0 (I wanted to hug that kid.)\u00a0 A young lady asked: “Do you need any help with raising funds for your family?”\u00a0 (I restrained myself from yelling, “YES!\u00a0 Give me your name and phone number!”)<\/span>When all was said and done, Dats had had about 40 minutes of class time and as school dismissed, one classmate gave him a five dollar bill “for Sammy” and another was talking to Dats’ teacher about planning a big fundraiser for our family.\u00a0 His teacher\u00a0told the class that she hopes we can Skype from Haiti during one\u00a0of the school days we are there.\u00a0 The next day Dats\u00a0and another student were\u00a0given time to type up a “newsletter” to send home with all the 6th graders about voluntarily collecting some baby food and formula and soap and sheets for\u00a0Sammy and the kids at the orphanage.\u00a0 They are even going to try to raise some cash donations to help pay for the extra luggage!<\/span>And to think I almost missed witnessing\u00a0the whole thing because I\u00a0wasn’t paying attention to\u00a0what God was\u00a0orchestrating right under my nose!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Dats shows the class where Haiti is located in relation to Florida.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\"\"\/
All in a day's work – Dats had to rush off after his presentation in order to man his post for safety patrol. "Keep to the right, please."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

P.S. One of our small group leaders invited Dats to give his presentation at small group to his peers last night.\u00a0 Through their generosity, he raised $61 for the orphanage!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for \nthe believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”<\/em>\u00a0 – I Timothy 4:12<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… one of those kids you read about in news magazines or see on TV.\u00a0 The kind who gain notoriety for all the right reasons – they have collected big\u00a0money for a sick friend’s hospital bills.\u00a0 Or they have started a new ministry like distributing blankets to the homeless during winter months.\u00a0 Or they\u00a0raise awareness\u00a0regarding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6803,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800\/revisions\/6803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}