“Helping others isn’t a job you apply for, it’s something that’s in your heart”, says Miranda Christina Jobe, aged 9. Miranda has found joy in finding ways to help others around the world and sharing a message of service with others.
When Miranda, a 4th grader from Danville, Virginia, found the ADRA booth at the Potomac Camp Meeting, she immediately wanted to know what ADRA was doing to help people, and if she could help at the booth.
For Kimi-Roux James, the help and Miranda’s enthusiasm were welcome. “When she came to our table and asked to help, how could I say no to her enthusiasm and jubilant attitude,” says Kimi-Roux.
Miranda did whatever she could to help Kimi-Roux, including arranging the books on the table and meeting the new people who stopped by the booth. By listening to Kimi-Roux, she learned what to say to people and built up her confidence to talk to them about ADRA. “When people came by and asked who she was, I said she was my manager and she really was” said Kimi-Roux.
Her time at the Potomac Camp Meeting sparked Miranda’s imagination. What if she were able to set up an ADRA booth in her local church and help even more people? On their way home from the camp meeting, Miranda asked her mom Griselda if they could put a booth in their church. Griselda serves as pastor for the Piney Forest Seventh-day Adventist Church in Danville.
Miranda got her wish, and after getting some pamphlets and give-a-ways donated by ADRA, she set up her table. Each week she stops people as they come in the door, and asks them to come to her table and hear about ADRA’s work around the world.
Miranda cares deeply about other children, and when she and her parents looked at the ADRA website, and they found projects that involved orphans. “When we were looking at the website,” she says, “it talked about helping orphans, and I liked that and wanted to help.” Miranda shared information with her primary class and now they as a class are raising money for orphans through ADRA.
Her parents, Wesley and Griselda are proud of the young girl Miranda is and the care she has for others. They’ve worked to instill a sense of service in both their daughters. “True happiness and a strong relationship with God is experienced through service,” says Wesley. “The more we serve and help people, the happier we are and the stronger our relationship with God becomes.”
Griselda agrees, in a world where there is so much selfishness, she feels it’s important for kids to understand the world is bigger than themselves. “I think we have to make effort to grab our youth because the world is becoming very self-centered,” she says, “so we want our daughters to see the need in others and always be willing to help.” Griselda is happy to see Miranda’s work with the orphans and ADRA because it’s something outside her area of the world that she can connect to.
Miranda says helping other people “makes me feel happy, and like I’m actually doing something to make a difference.” She hopes other young people get involved in serving others like she does.
Miranda’s desire to help others is inspiring. Do you want to be like her and be part of ADRA’s mission to help the most vulnerable? Maybe you can’t go around the world as a humanitarian, or join an ADRA Connections trip. But here are some suggestions on how you can serve too! You could hold an event at your local church like this Adventurer’s club in Tennessee! Or, you could be a Prayer Ambassador and pray for ADRA’s work around the world each week!
You could also participate in your local community. Go Green with ADRA and pick up trash at the playground. Other ideas could be, offering a smile to someone who seems lonely, making friends with someone at work, school, or in church, who may not have many friends or helping your family around the house. Whatever you do, remember what Miranda says about helping and service—it’s not just a job, “it’s something you have in your heart.”
