From Handprints to Heartbeats: Why Giving Tuesday Matters

How generosity grows from witness to choice-and why your gift matters

From Handprints to Heartbeats: Why Giving Tuesday Matters

If you've been scrolling through social media or checking your inbox lately, you might have noticed something called "Giving Tuesday" starting to appear. Maybe you've wondered: What is this? Another made-up holiday? It's a fair question, and one worth answering.

What is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday began in 2012 as a simple, powerful idea. After the shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, what if we carved out a day dedicated entirely to generosity? A day to give back, to lift others up, to say yes to something bigger than ourselves. What started as a small movement has grown into a global day of giving, uniting millions of people around the world who choose to make a difference.

But here's what makes Giving Tuesday special: it's not really about one day. It's a reminder. A pause button in the middle of a busy season that asks us to remember what we're called to do, and that is to live in community with one another, to care for those who need us most, and to be part of something that lasts.

A Story of Growing Up in the Mission

I first traveled to Honduras when my son was just four years old. He was too young to understand words like "mission work,” "donor intent," or “transformation,” but he understood what it meant to help. He stood beside me at fundraisers carried out over consecutive weekends, carefully arranging handmade gifts given to us by children in Olancho that we displayed for people to see and greeted donors with a shy smile. As he grew, visiting priests and bishops became familiar faces at our dinner table. The mission wasn't something separate from our family life; rather, it was woven into the fabric of who we were.

I never asked him to carry this forward. I simply lived it, and he watched.

Now, as a young adult, he's chosen to step into leadership with Healing Hearts Honduras. He serves on our board of directors and just returned from his first trip to meet the children and families we serve. Watching him walk through those hospital doors took my breath away. He was no longer a child being included, but an adult choosing to give back. His story reminds me that generosity isn't just something we do on occasion. It's a gradual becoming that unfolds through witnessing, deepens through participating, and culminates in choosing it for ourselves.

One Day, One Movement, One Heart at a Time

This Giving Tuesday, we're not asking you to give because it's trendy or because everyone else is doing it. We're inviting you to become part of a story that's bigger than any single day. It is a story of healing, hope, and transformation. For Healing Hearts Honduras, this story is playing out for people with nowhere else to turn in Hospital Santo Hermano Pedro Betancourt in Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras.

Whether this is your first time giving to Healing Hearts or you've walked alongside us for years, your gift becomes a heartbeat of hope for a child who desperately needs it. You're not just making a donation. You're building a legacy of healing that will ripple forward into the next generation.

Maybe one day, years from now, someone you inspired will choose to give back too. That's the power of community. That's the promise of Giving Tuesday.

Let's make this Tuesday more than a moment. Let's make it a movement by choosing one heart, one gift, one child at a time.