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Posted on December 08, 2008
Parkinson reflects on helping children in Peru with Samaritan’s Feet
By PEDRO VELAZCO
Tribune sportswriter
Tribune sportswriter
Austin Parkinson was braced for a difficult visit.
When the Samaritan’s Feet group pulled up to a shelter in a rural area outside Lima, Peru, he expected a soul-crushing experience.
Instead, he was uplifted.
“It was a shelter for sexually abused girls. It was probably the most powerful of all the places we stopped because I was there with the idea that these girls would be scared of us because of what they’d been through,” Parkinson said a few days after returning from Lima, where a group of volunteers, including a contingent from IUPUI, distributed shoes to impoverished children.
“It was the exact opposite,” he said. “A little girl named Andrea jumped into my arms. She was only three years old. It was so sad she had to be in a shelter like that, but it was so neat that we got to bring her and the people there shoes.”
When the Samaritan’s Feet group pulled up to a shelter in a rural area outside Lima, Peru, he expected a soul-crushing experience.
Instead, he was uplifted.
“It was a shelter for sexually abused girls. It was probably the most powerful of all the places we stopped because I was there with the idea that these girls would be scared of us because of what they’d been through,” Parkinson said a few days after returning from Lima, where a group of volunteers, including a contingent from IUPUI, distributed shoes to impoverished children.
“It was the exact opposite,” he said. “A little girl named Andrea jumped into my arms. She was only three years old. It was so sad she had to be in a shelter like that, but it was so neat that we got to bring her and the people there shoes.”
There’s more to it than that. Parkinson, a former Northwestern High School and Purdue University basketball player who is now an assistant coach at IUPUI, was one of 27 people in the Samaritan’s Feet crew, including IUPUI coach Ron Hunter. They spent 10 days in Peru, washing children’s feet, handing out shoes, visiting with the kids, playing, singing, and serving a Christian mission.
Lima is a sprawling urban blanket on the coastal desert, constantly growing as poor people move in from the countryside. The Samaritan’s Feet crew went to neighborhoods where the need was greatest, away from the modern parts of the city.
The images burned themselves into Parkinson’s brain. He saw levels of poverty he’d never grasped — shanties on the sand, homes without water, dirt floors. Yet he was consistently heartened by the warmth of the people he was there to help, and the Peruvian volunteers that assisted the group.
“You can’t be prepared for what we saw,” he said. “I think it was a life-changing thing, and not just on the level of what we were able to do for them. I think it did as much for us, from a spiritual standpoint.”
The Samaritan’s Feet crew returned late Monday night to Indianapolis. A few days later, so many things came back to Parkinson as he talked about the trip. He was reflective, yet bursting at the seams to talk about it.
“It was life changing,” he said. “I played in front of sold-out crowds at Purdue, but this was just as exciting.”
He met a woman who cooked mass meals for children every couple weeks. She was so grateful for the visit that Parkinson remembered she said, “‘Next time you come back, we’ll get everybody together and cook you dinner.’ It just broke our hearts because there’s no way they have enough money to do that.”
Then there was the bus driver from Lima, Waldir.
“Our bus driver was the first one there every day and the last one to leave,” Parkinson said. “He’d become a Christian on one of these trips like this. We found out not only was he not being paid to drive the bus, he’d rented the bus with his own money just to drive us around.”
And of course, the kids Parkinson was there to help left their mark.
“Seeing the kids and washing their feet, and they’ve got knots on their feet because their shoes are too small, or they didn’t have shoes … or flip-flops,” he said. “To be able to do that was a really good experience to be able to help them in that way.”
Parkinson said the trip was a great experience for the IUPUI contingent, which included the coaching staff, three players and a couple former players.
“It was really neat for me to see because in this profession, you see a lot of these coaches have these macho personalities,” Parkinson said. It was moving “to see coach Hunter take the team down there, and see how transparent he was, and how bold he was in his faith to take his team down there.
“I know it was huge for our players. The last night, our group talked in the room and reflected on the highs and lows of the trip and I’m not sure there was one person that wasn’t crying by the end of it.”
Seeing how much harder life can be was a shock to the system. Parkinson hopes to appreciate more what he has in his life in the U.S. He figures the change in perspective will be permanent.
“That’s one thing we talked about. Right now, when you’re going through the trip you’ve got all these warm feelings and [are] excited to do all this,” Parkinson said. “Eventually, that feeling fades but what are you going to do with this feeling when you go back to the Untied States?”
He said he plans on helping out Todd Melloh, the Samaritan’s Feet national director of marketing, in the future.
“I’ve never been on a mission trip before,” Parkinson said. “Now, it’s going to hopefully provoke me to do the same.”
Samaritan’s Feet:
• For more information on IUPUI’s trip to Peru including player John Ashworth’s blog and Brian Drumm’s photo gallery, visit www.iupuijags.com.
• For information on how to donate to the Samaritan’s Feet organization or info on upcoming projects, visit www.samaritansfeet.org.
Lima is a sprawling urban blanket on the coastal desert, constantly growing as poor people move in from the countryside. The Samaritan’s Feet crew went to neighborhoods where the need was greatest, away from the modern parts of the city.
The images burned themselves into Parkinson’s brain. He saw levels of poverty he’d never grasped — shanties on the sand, homes without water, dirt floors. Yet he was consistently heartened by the warmth of the people he was there to help, and the Peruvian volunteers that assisted the group.
“You can’t be prepared for what we saw,” he said. “I think it was a life-changing thing, and not just on the level of what we were able to do for them. I think it did as much for us, from a spiritual standpoint.”
The Samaritan’s Feet crew returned late Monday night to Indianapolis. A few days later, so many things came back to Parkinson as he talked about the trip. He was reflective, yet bursting at the seams to talk about it.
“It was life changing,” he said. “I played in front of sold-out crowds at Purdue, but this was just as exciting.”
He met a woman who cooked mass meals for children every couple weeks. She was so grateful for the visit that Parkinson remembered she said, “‘Next time you come back, we’ll get everybody together and cook you dinner.’ It just broke our hearts because there’s no way they have enough money to do that.”
Then there was the bus driver from Lima, Waldir.
“Our bus driver was the first one there every day and the last one to leave,” Parkinson said. “He’d become a Christian on one of these trips like this. We found out not only was he not being paid to drive the bus, he’d rented the bus with his own money just to drive us around.”
And of course, the kids Parkinson was there to help left their mark.
“Seeing the kids and washing their feet, and they’ve got knots on their feet because their shoes are too small, or they didn’t have shoes … or flip-flops,” he said. “To be able to do that was a really good experience to be able to help them in that way.”
Parkinson said the trip was a great experience for the IUPUI contingent, which included the coaching staff, three players and a couple former players.
“It was really neat for me to see because in this profession, you see a lot of these coaches have these macho personalities,” Parkinson said. It was moving “to see coach Hunter take the team down there, and see how transparent he was, and how bold he was in his faith to take his team down there.
“I know it was huge for our players. The last night, our group talked in the room and reflected on the highs and lows of the trip and I’m not sure there was one person that wasn’t crying by the end of it.”
Seeing how much harder life can be was a shock to the system. Parkinson hopes to appreciate more what he has in his life in the U.S. He figures the change in perspective will be permanent.
“That’s one thing we talked about. Right now, when you’re going through the trip you’ve got all these warm feelings and [are] excited to do all this,” Parkinson said. “Eventually, that feeling fades but what are you going to do with this feeling when you go back to the Untied States?”
He said he plans on helping out Todd Melloh, the Samaritan’s Feet national director of marketing, in the future.
“I’ve never been on a mission trip before,” Parkinson said. “Now, it’s going to hopefully provoke me to do the same.”
Samaritan’s Feet:
• For more information on IUPUI’s trip to Peru including player John Ashworth’s blog and Brian Drumm’s photo gallery, visit www.iupuijags.com.
• For information on how to donate to the Samaritan’s Feet organization or info on upcoming projects, visit www.samaritansfeet.org.
Copyright 2003-2009 Samaritan's Feet. All rights reserved.
Not affiliated with Samaritan's Purse.
Not affiliated with Samaritan's Purse.
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