I keep writing these posts on Africa and I keep saying, "we have so much to be thankful for." I have a question for myself and for anyone else wants a piece of it- is it possible that just being thankful isn't enough? Maybe I out to try and do something about the enormous disparity between what I have and what they have.
And you know, it is not that I have a 6 year old Honda civic that has 100k miles on it [but is a really good car] and they have a car that is a 1979 AMC Pacer that barely runs. We often think of haves and have nots like, well, they have the stuff, but it is just not as nice of stuff.
This is completely different. I met people who do not have food and do not have clean water. They live with the constant veil of malaria hanging over their heads. How can I have so much, and they are so hungry that they will gladly welcome a half a sandwich from someone at a sidewalk cafe.
Imagine that is you or me. Walking by Chipolte on 40 highway, smelling the food. Hungry, but walking on. You have no money. Someone at one of the tables calls out to you and offers you the remaining part of their lunch. Inside you are ecstatic, but you don't want to show how happy you really are. You thank them and take the food. You go around the corner and eat every little bit of it.
We have so much to be thankful for.
What am I going to do about this?
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
3 comments:
The answers to the dillemas faced by the people you visited appear to be complex. Unless you've visited Mozambique, you don't have a clear understanding of specific things it would take to help these people. Those who have not visited probably do not have a clear understanding of the cause(s) for their plight.
Has drought or other famines caused them not to have adequate food? Has the lack on learning about how to produce food kept them from having more food. Are infrastructures and education about how to support them needed, with the involvement of countries who care? The answers seem to lie in discovering the cause and determining what specific things would help allow these people to have adequate food, clothing and shelter. How did this all happen in the first place? I think the answers would not be the same in all of Africa.
To the Mozambique people's credit, they have sometihng to offer us. A spirit of determination; a spirit of loving others, if it means sacrifice for them.
If and when they ever get access, on a daily basis, to the necessities of life, they will appreciate them more than we do. And they will still have the love of others that they have today.
No answers. Just more questions.
It isn't enough just to think about the situation. Feeling bad doesn't help anyone, but it is the first step to action. One decision to help one child or one family helps that one. That's what we can do. We're helping one child If every family at WCC helped one it would be hundreds - we can multiple the one many times over. Keep posting. We all need to hear this.
The Sunday Kansas City Star featured an article on the desperately hungry people in the Kansas City area. It is also about the Harvester's Virtual Food Drive. When I read about the sheer numbers of homeless children in Kansas City, and read about a mother who is working three jobs to try to put noodles and bread on her three kids' table, it just takes away my appetite. The working poor in Kansas City is becoming a greater and greater problem. It seems like not-for-profits, churches, and school districts are not being able to keep up with the needs for hungry children to be fed. You are so right, in your sermons, about how over-indulged many in our society are.
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