A Daughter's Love

At a girls' club meeting at Whit's End, Connie welcomes a special guest: Min Eng, a young woman visiting America from Singapore, where she works with a family ministry. When Camilla Parker arrives, she is grumbling about her father, who won't let her attend her soccer team's backyard sleepover because he doesn't know the host family well enough. Camilla thinks he is being overprotective, and she asks Min whether she has ever had father problems too. Min answers quietly, "My father was a thief."

Min then tells her story. She grew up in Singapore with her father, Hawk, a playful man who called her his little butterfly and loved taking her to the zoo. But he was never good at business, and when Min's mother died, his spirit was crushed. He began drinking and stopped going to work until his boss fired him. Instead of telling Min the truth, Hawk spent his final paycheck on one last wonderful day of fun with her. The next morning, a woman from Child Protection Services arrived at the door and gently explained that Min's father had called them: he could not care for her anymore, and he was not coming back.

Min spent the next three years in foster homes until a kind American couple, Matt and Leanne, who ran the Singapore Family Ministry Centre, invited her to live with them and eventually adopted her. They patiently loved her even though she was bitter, and she felt like part of a real family, though she always refused their invitations to the zoo. Then, about six months after she came to live with them, Min walked back to the family car during a shopping trip and caught a man breaking into it. The thief turned around and said, "Hello, Butterfly." It was her father.

Hawk fled with the stolen packages, and Min told no one who he was. When the police caught a suspect and brought Min to view a lineup, she was torn between loyalty to her father and telling the truth. She chose loyalty, claiming the robber was not there, and Hawk went free. Days later, the police called: the same man had been arrested robbing a house, had broken his leg badly trying to escape through a window, and had confessed to everything, including that he was Min's father. Ashamed, Min packed her bags to return to the children's home, certain her new parents could never trust her again. Instead, Matt and Leanne told her that love is bigger than hurts and wrongs and never abandons anyone. Matt explained that no one can take away their own shame, but Jesus can, and that night Min prayed and asked Jesus into her heart.

Hawk was sentenced to four years in prison. When Min visited him in the hospital, where he learned he would never walk again without a cane, she told him about the love of Jesus. But her father refused to open his heart, calling himself a coward who deserved his shame, and told her not to visit anymore. For four years Min kept trying to see him, and he always refused, while she prayed every night that God would open his heart. When his sentence ended, the ministry center hosted its first "Date with Dad" event for fathers and daughters. Min spent all her savings on two tickets, sent her father a flyer with a special question written on it, and heard nothing back. At the event, her father's seat sits empty, and Matt tenderly tells Min what a joy she has been to him - then reveals that someone else has come to speak to her. Hawk has arrived after all. Weeping, he admits he has been a terrible father, but says her unshakable love is stronger than his pride, and he wants to learn where that love comes from so he can do better. Min tells the girls that her father became a Christian and now works alongside her at the center, because only Jesus could take away their shame and give her father back his heart.

When Camilla asks what Min wrote on the flyer, Min smiles: "Will you go to the zoo with me?" Moved, Camilla decides she should apologize to her own dad for her attitude and spend time with him, and Connie announces that the club's next meeting will be a Date with Dad event, with Min honored to help plan it.