Pastor Mordekai has been staying at our house this past week. He has been going through the phone book, calling pastors, asking them if he can come meet with them and share his story. We were at a church this past week in Fountain Hills that was serving and reaching out into their community in great ways...the pastor had such a tender heart. They were giving us a tour of their preschool when we came across a room with rice all over the floor.
Pastor Mordekai looked at the room with a very confused look on his face. His eyes wandered to a table...filled with rice and toys. "Is this a toy?" he asked the pastor, stunned. The pastor replied with an I-know-what-you-are-thinking, "yes". Pastor Mordekai lost it...his eyes filled up with tears and a look of pain came acros his face. He just groaned and paused, then said..."You Americans..." he continued to stare at the table filled with rice. "In the villages in my country...this is their food. Their only food. The children, the families, only have enough to eat twice, maybe three time a week. And your children are playing with it...throwing it all over the floor. Ughh...you Americans."
He wasn't disgusted, he wasn't angry...but I think his heart hurt...as did mine...as did the pastors. I haven't been able to get the facial expression he made out of my head or heart all week... I am not so sure what I am going to do with it yet...I just know that the Lord is moving me, more every day, into a place where I am sickened by how much I spend on self and comfort.
On those lines...if you haven't read Dale's post and article about the 600 million children living in poverty...please take the time to read it.
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9 comments:
it reminds me of the time an african pastor came to my home church in wisconsin. right before he entered the sanctuary, he encountered a table stacked with bibles, he turned to the pastor with delight and commented on how wonderful it was to see a church giving bibles away to those who don't have one.
our pastor's smile dissipated into a painful look and his eyes fell to the floor: pastor, those aren't for people who don't have one. those are bibles people have misplaced.
it's hard to swallow all the "extras" that we abuse here in america that could be given freely to others in the third world.
ignorance is not bliss. our national ignorance of the world's condition allows for 1 child to die every 30 seconds in africa from malaria. we somehow think that our sending used clothes tends the needs of the impoverished.
how does a pair of socks feed a starving child?
in the immortal words of dwight jones, we need to get off of our blessed assurance and do something.
Yes Dennae, it is hard to fathom, and grasp just what the Lord has blessed us with, and the wasteful attitude we have with it. The Lord has been using Ephesians 5 to challenge me lately, especially verses 5-20 (I have been reading them in the Message)
5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them - the usual variations on idolatry - will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. 6 Don't let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him. 7 Don't even hang around people like that. 8 You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! 9 The good, the right, the true - these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. 10 Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it. 11 Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. 12 It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. 13 Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. 14 Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! 15 So watch your step. Use your head. 16 Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! 17 Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants. 18 Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. 19 Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. 20 Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ
I especially am challenged by Verse 11 where He tells us "Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork..." and then actually calls them "Darkness" in our lives. I am beginning to see that anything that takes our eyes away from what God wants us doing is "Darkness" in our lives, because it takes our eyes off of Him...The Light of the world! Miss you...God Bless!
Brent
Uncle Brent...awesome passage of scripture, I love the part that said, "wake up from you sleep, climb out of your coffins..." What a bold challenge for each of us to live. I don't want to waste time on useless work... miss you too!
David, 1 child dies every 30 seconds...that JUST in Africa, JUST of Malaria...when is enough going to be enough for us? I wish I was in a place where I was living off the bare necessities of life and giving the rest to those who can't get their own necessities...so I realize that as I preach from my soap box, I still personally have too much "extras" in my own life...like I said, I don't know what I am going to do with it yet...but I know I am sick of living with such excess while children are dying by the millions.
Miss you so much... esp NOW!
Pastor Mordekai is amazing, and service this morning was so powerful!
Go Jesus!
We're such ignoratant people sometimes. We have so much and yet we feel like we deserve or need so much more. We don't realize that so many people have so little and yet we complain when little stupid things in our lives go wrong. I am guilty of it too. Gosh we're so blessed I wish we could all realize that a little more often!
Would he have been bothered if that rice was sand? That toy actually helps to train a child in skills that will equip him in his future.
I dont see anything wrong with using rice to teach a child a skill that can develop his abilities and equip him in a future that may turn around and help those villages someday.
I totally understand about this whole money thing and how things are so different everywhere.
Ok, I just can't express with my words right now, that we have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
So what is the solution, we minimize education, and sacrifice what? Our children.
We have a powerful country and God has allowed us to be one. Our land is plentiful and we are teh LARGEST GIVING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. WE OUT GIVE ANY COUNTRY BY FAR.
When the world hurts, we give.
When we hurt, they look say "oh we are sorry for you"
I love americans, most americans, and i really belive they have a heart of giving. So maybe they arent at where we would like them to be, but to say they are selfish i think is harsh.
As for the rice, I think it is a cheaper option than others.
The fact is, God has blessed other countries, but there government is so corrupt that they blessing never makes it to the people. So the truth is, only prayer can change it anyway.
If we want to STOP POVERTY, it isnt giving money and wearing a white rubber band on our wrist. It is teaching, training and equpping.
But most of all PRAYING FOR LEADERS TO RISE UP.
while jill's comparison is confusing and incomplete, i can see her initial point. a better and more complete example may have been to ask if he would have been as mortified if he had seen macaroni noodles or cheerios on the floor. no one actually depends on sand for a meal. he may, or may not, have been as upset and it is speculation and circumspect at best. the concept is still the same, our cheap toys may actually have helped to lengthen someone's life, be it macaroni noodles, cheerios or rice.
i don't see how rice is detrimental to the development and education of the american child. my sisters are teachers. they have classrooms full of students, moreover, my father taught students for over 30 years, never once have i witnessed a child who's edication suffered
because they didn't play with rice as toys.
it is true that the final total sum of money given out of country is immense and it is larger than the amount of any other countries, but here is something to ponder... the ratio of those who can give to
those who actually give is significantly less than the same ratio of people in other countries. here's something else, according to a recent study done by newsweek, out of the major donations that the u.s. government gives, 90% goes to the u.n. of these donations, the u.s. cannot specify what programs the funds are used for and so much of the money gets lost in the shuffle between programs and gets tied
up in either beurocracy or ends up in illegal programs such as the
oil-for-food fiasco.
let's look at a smaller scale. 67% of what you give to the american
red cross actually goes to the designated program that you think
you're giving to. the other 35% goes to a reserve fund or into
schematics. most of the blood donated by people after 9/11 (remember every one asking for donations to send to new york and washington dc?) stayed local.
consider these facts from the i.r.s.: 20% of americans give money to international causes on a regular basis. 48% give when there's a major crisis on foreign soil and 86% of americans give when there's a major crisis on our own soil. comparative to 68% giving to local charities on a regular basis. moreover, the i.r.s. speculates that if there were no incentives, such as tax breaks for financial donations to non-profits, the actual amount given would be far less.
i would never point at anyone i didn't know well and tell them they
are selfish. but if i know you and i know that you avoid giving at
whatever the cost, then i don't have a problem calling you out. and i know no one else as well as i know myself and i don't always give what i want to, but i'm working on that. so the only one i can call selfish is me. because if i don't measure up to my own standard then i cannot ask anyone else to measure up to it either.
for the world-wide renown of His
sovereign glory...
My point was not that we shouldn't play with rice...or that americans are selfish...or that we are unselfish...my point was that it is EASY to not notice how something as small as rice is an incredible blessing to someone. I was just sharing how the Lord has challenged me to be purposeful abount noticing small things I take for granted as blessings--gifts from God and to realize that everything I have belongs to God...the question cannot be, "how much do I give?" but "how can I keep for myself?" Changing the question is changing the way I spend every dollar, the way I dream about my future, and the way I live each and every day.
I love America and I love Americans...but they are selfish, I am selfish...it is part of the sinful nature. It isn't a condemnation or an acusation, it is a fact. Part of dying daily to self has to do with putting away our sinful desires...our selfish desires, and putting on Christ. But I absolutely agree with Jill when it comes to America giving to this world...she does, but it isn't about what we already do as a country...it is about what we, as individuals, are going to do each and every morning when we wake up.
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