Responding to the call

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Stacey Booth spent her first year of college at Oklahoma Christian University as an education major, but nursed a passion for something more.

“She was doing education, but she really wanted to do special education …[and] OC doesn’t offer that,” sophomore Kendall Bosse said. “After her freshman year, she was going to go to UCO to major in that.”

According to her friends, special needs children have been Booth’s passion for a long time.

“She is very loving,” sophomore Jenisha Spivey said. “She loves kids, loves all kids … She has a really big heart for special needs children, that’s … her ultimate passion.”

Booth also has a special place in her heart for Honduras, having been on multiple mission trips to the country over the years.

“The first time I came to Honduras, I knew I loved it, but living here never even crossed my mind,” Booth said. “It wasn’t until the fifth time visiting Honduras that I knew it was where I wanted to be.”

Not only has Stacey visited Honduras on multiple occasions but her sister, senior Allison Booth, visited often and lived in Honduras for a year in 2009.

“I started going to Honduras in 2006 with our church,” Allison Booth said. “It was a week-long trip over the summer. In 2008 I went back, and Stacey was old enough to go with [me], so we both went and then in 2009 was when I went for a year, and she’s gone to Honduras every other year, just like that.

It was through Allison Booth that Stacey Booth found an opportunity to serve long term in Honduras.

“I also lead spring break mission trips to Honduras, and so her freshman year here, last year, she went on my trip with me,” Allison Booth said. “So that was the first time that we really went to Honduras together on our own that wasn’t through a church organization or anything like that.”

This trip led Stacey Booth to Bencaleth Orphanage, a home for special needs children.

“I went down last March with an OC group that my sister Allison Booth led, and we visited Bencaleth Orphanage,” Stacey Booth said. “I fell in love with the kids and felt an immediate urge to live there. We got on the bus to leave and I remember saying to my sister, ‘I wonder if they would ever let me live at the orphanage.’ Seven months later I was unpacking my suitcase in my new room at Bencaleth Orphanage.”

Stacey Booth made the decision to put her college plans on hold while she pursued another opportunity.

“She literally dropped everything when she heard God’s call and felt like that’s what she needed to do, and she went by herself,” Allison Booth said. “That is so brave and it takes a lot of strength to make a step like that.”

At Bencaleth Orphanage, Stacey Booth helps care for the day-to-day needs of 23 children.

“My job here is pretty simple: to love,” Stacey Booth said. “Every day I am given a new opportunity to show these kids that they are loved and that they are special in so many ways.

According to Allison Booth, her sister loves being able to care for the children, regardless of the work involved.

“She has really hard days where she just wants to turn around and come home, and then she has days where she never wants to get back on a plane,” Allison Booth said. “It’s hard work that she has to do, and her living conditions are very different than being here. Despite any of that, she’s in love with these kids, and she’s told me how rewarding it is to kind of be a parent to these kids and to see them experience things for the first time through her.

Stacey Booth is quick to admit her strength is found in the words of the Bible.

“It can be exhausting and difficult, but then I remember James 1:27, which states ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world,’” Stacey Booth said. “God calls us to love the orphans of this world and for me, that’s all I need to read to remember why I’m here and who I’m serving.”

Stacey Booth’s passion and willingness to serve are some of the qualities her friends notice about her.

“She’s just a very down-to-earth, servant-hearted girl who loves kids,” Spivey said.

Allison Booth isn’t a stranger to the humility her sister demonstrates.

“She’s my little sister, but sometimes I feel like she’s the big sister because she inspires me so much and she’s so humble too,” Allison Booth said. “She’s so humble she doesn’t realize what an inspiration she can be for so many different people: her friends, family, so many people.”

After a year of working with the children, Stacey Booth expects to return to the United States to finish her education.

“She’ll be back this summer, and I think she’s applying to universities right now to find a special-needs program so she can start doing that,” Spivey said.

Despite the plans she has, Stacey Booth knows that it is important to not cling to them.

“I’ve learned my plans are pretty insignificant compared to the ones God has for me,” Stacey Booth said. “So I’m excited to say I’ll be leaving my plans in the hands of God and I’m ready to follow wherever he asks me to go.”