I think maybe I waited a little too long to blog this time. I have so much to talk about.
I think the last couple weeks I've really began to realize one of the biggest frustrations as a missionary. How do I help all the people that need it? There are so many needs and so many people who are desperately trying to stay alive. There are people here who wake up every day and have no idea where their food will come from or if they will even get any food that day. Even more people have severe medical problems that need treatment and need a hospital urgently but can't get it because they can't afford it.
There's a group of children from around where I live that sometimes walk with me to my flat and I don't know what their situation is, but one in particular never has shoes on and all of them have rags for clothes. The first time they walked all the way back with me my heart broke for them and I wanted to take them into the flat with me and tell them they could sleep on our couches. But the reality is that as an individual I could help a few of them, but I could never help all of the children here that are in need.
So how do we look at these needs everyday, these desperate people, and not feel compelled to fix it? Better question, how in the world do we fix it?
My flat mate Sara and I have been talking through this question for awhile because one of the most frustrating things we've found is feeling helpless when seeing all the immediate needs. We felt overwhelmed and confused about the best thing to do. We wondered how it could be possible that here in this country, in this world, people are dying in the streets everyday, they're sick and can't get treatment, they're hungry and can't get food and nobody knows. At the same time people in our countries are getting a Starbucks, complaining that their steak is overcooked, some people are taking a trip on their private yacht when people here would do anything for a clean glass of water or some crackers.
This, of course, surfaced a new question: How do we go back to our lives after our mission experience is over? Do we just go back to our jobs and to getting our usual Pumpkin Spice latte in the morning? (I love Pumpkin Spice lattes) Do we need to feel bad for having cars and food and laptops? Do we need to feel bad for liking our wifi and hot showers and trips to restaurants?
So, this was obviously a long conversation filled with all kinds of different ideas, but I think we finally came to a bit of a breakthrough. In reality, we live in a fallen world that will always have problems too big for us to handle. This huge issue can only be solved by God. It's too big for man and so we need to be in prayer for God's guidance and direction in these situations. One of the best things that we can offer all of these people is the love of Christ and gift that he's given. The best thing about his gift is that it's free, it's completely free and it's for anyone no matter what they've done in the past. That gift means these people putting their lives in his hands and trusting in him to provide for them and to be with them through anything. It also gives them a hope that this life is not all there is; it is not permanent. There is something much better waiting for them once this life is done and they will be the ones truly blessed there.
Not only that but the poor in our world will have a deeper and closer relationship to God than we will ever be able to. They have to completely rely on him and they are the perfect picture of his grace. Of course, I'm not saying this clears us of the responsibility to give and try to help these people. I still think it's important to help local organizations who can then help the people there. The best thing about local programs is that they know who really needs help and they often have programs that provide food and other basic resources but with the ultimate goal of teaching the people to use their skills to become self-sufficient. More about this in the book, When Helping Hurts. Check it out, it's a great read. I'm getting off track...
Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that it's easy for us to become humanistic and think that we somehow have to solve everything ourselves. Instead of becoming overwhelmed and discouraged by the amount of needs, we should be giving those problems to God and focus on sharing his love and his gift of Jesus with those people.
Phew. Hopefully you stayed with me through that whole thing. I was also going to talk about my last two weekends, which have been crazy experiences in this post, but I think it's long enough already. I'll post again maybe at the end of this week and talk about that (also add in some pictures). Here's a sneak peak:
One of these past two weekends was spent in Antsirabe teaching a dance seminar, which was a truly amazing experience and the pictures are from that. If you have Facebook you've already seen them but for those of you who aren't on the book of faces, these are for your enjoyment and hopefully I will post more later.
We've been getting slightly better sleep so thank you for those prayers and keep 'em coming :) we really like sleep. I haven't heard about the two boys lately, but hopefully I can get an update soon and let you know.
One prayer request for this week: Provision for the people here and opportunities for them to come to know Christ.
We urge you brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
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