We Have Everything We Need

One of my dearest friends posted a link to this article on Facebook this morning.  Just another kind word from my Savior, reminding me of what is truth.  I encourage you to read it.  I think it will speak truth to your life, as well.

Here are some snippets of what it contains:
"What if we believed in the deep places, the darkest recesses, that He always provided — and not just barely, but abundantly?  Wouldn’t we always be at peace — no matter what?"
"What if thanks in all things actually could be easy — because we believe that God always gives us the thing we exactly need?"
"And when God provides, He should be praised, and if God always provides, shouldn’t praise always be on the lips?"

Africa

On Friday, I went to a presentation on The Changing Landscape of Global Public Health. Dr. Alastair Ager was the guest speaker. I was attracted to this presentation because of my interest in health issues facing the Global South and because some of Dr. Ager's work involves humanitarian aid in Uganda. The information he shared was eye-opening, even for someone who's been to a couple of these countries. I feel compelled to share this information because I think most Americans are not aware of the situation around the world. Dr. Ager was gracious enough to share his presentation with me and I've included some of his slides below.

A breakdown of life years lost. Africa (the bottom line) has by far the greatest number of years lost, due largely in part to infectious disease and parasites, followed closely by HIV/AIDS and issues surrounding childbirth. These are preventable problems! Notice the lack of these problems in the top line, which represents high income countries. Access to clean water and sanitation can prevent many of the infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS is treatable with medication, and healthy, safe deliveries can be a reality with proper medical care.

And yet the number of medical staff practicing in Africa is decreasing rapidly. Dr. Ager explained that this is not due to fewer people being trained in the medical field, but rather due in large part to native Africans being trained in other parts of the world and then failing to return to Africa.

Africa is also losing lives to war. This map enlarges countries based on the number of war deaths. Note how bloated Africa is and how small the U.S. is.

However, when one looks at military spending in this same manner, the maps are reversed.

I think the saddest slide of all is this one. Africa is almost invisible.

These people are living in abject poverty, dying from preventable diseases and war. And yet the wealthy countries around the world are not sharing their resources. In fact, we are consuming the world's resources at alarming rates. What is happening in Africa cannot help but impact the rest of the world. We need to come alongside these countries and share what we've been so graciously given. Like the quote on my page says, "Where you live should not determine whether you live."

It feels like a daunting task. My heart is heavy-laden within me and overwhelmed by the enormous need. And yet I'm reminded of another quote: "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." I hope you will think about what you can do to help our brothers and sisters in need. "My children, we should love people not only with words and talk, but by our actions and true caring" (1 John 3:18).

What I'm Doing for Christmas This Year

I'd like to share an idea that has been in my heart since going to Uganda. It's especially pertinent now, as we enter the season of giving and celebration. This idea is found in 2 Cor. 8:1-15, where Paul encourages the believers to give to those in need:

"And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.'"

I am so convicted by the bounty we have here in America. Last year, America spent $460 billion dollars to celebrate the holidays (IBISWorld). That's enough money to completely relieve the world's need for water, with money left over. Think of what a difference could be made in the world if Christians alone used the Christmas season to give to those in need, instead of to our family and friends.

These thoughts were also reinforced by a couple of newsletters I got in the mail. The first one said, "I see some of my fellow Christians exchanging expensive gifts with friends and relatives, seemingly oblivious to the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in poorer countries have absolutely nothing. And these poor saints have no way to improve their lot unless we Christians in industrialized countries share our bounty with them." Why are we not sharing our plenty with these who have such great need?

The second newsletter reminded me of the reason we celebrate Christmas: Jesus' birth. Now when it's my birthday, people get me presents. They don't get presents for my friends or for my brother and sister. The celebration is all about me. :) So why do we celebrate Jesus' birthday by giving gifts to each other? Why don't we give to Him? Jesus has told us how we can give to Him: "'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" (Mt. 25:35-40)

I plan to celebrate this Christmas by giving to Jesus. I know of wells to be dug, children to be fed and sent to school, men and women who are victims of drought, children who won't get presents this year because their parents are in jail. All of these are ways we can give to Jesus for His birthday. I hope you will join me in celebrating true CHRISTmas this year.

Uganda

I know I haven’t given a very thorough report on my trip to Uganda. It is certainly my plan to do so, but I haven’t gotten the pictures from the trip yet. (I should get them this weekend – yeah!) But there is also the fact that so much affected me on my trip that it’s been hard to process everything and get it into words. This is my first attempt. Although I believe my trip made a difference for those we came in contact with, I think the real difference God wants to make with this trip is in the lives of those who went and in the lives of those we share with now that we’re home. I hope I can pass on even a portion of what I have learned from the ever-patient God who pursues me.

I saw incredible evil and pain while in Uganda. I spent two days with children who slept on beds with no mattresses, who took “baths” in plastic bowls and dried off with dirty t-shirts, who had no electricity, no toys, no shoes, no adult supervision, and who hadn’t eaten in eight days. I learned that the “pastors” who run the orphanage keep the children’s sponsorship money for themselves and that children who receive gifts are sometimes beaten until they relinquish the present. I hugged a child who was so sick with malaria, worms and starvation that he would not have lived through the night if he had stayed at the orphanage, and yet we had to insist that the orphanage leaders allow us to take him to the hospital. I gave shoes to a beautiful 12-year-old girl who had been repeatedly dragged out of her bed at night and raped by men whose faces she could not see in the darkness.

As I hugged these ragged children, held their dirty hands, and heaped rice and beans onto their plates, I felt like I was the hands and feet of Jesus. I was acting on His behalf; almost as if He couldn’t be there and had sent me instead. I had sung “Jesus Loves the Little Children” with some American kids before coming to Uganda and the words kept coming back to me: “Red and yellow, black and white - They are precious in His sight.” Jesus loves those children! They are precious to Him! If Jesus had been in Uganda with me, in the flesh, would He be repulsed by their smell? Would He be afraid to touch the heads spotted with ringworm? Would he worry about getting sick from the many ailments they had? Would He refuse to hold the baby who didn’t have a diaper and might pee on Him?

I think we all know the answer is no. When Jesus was on earth, His time was spent with the outcasts, the diseased, the sinners – the needy. He got down and dirty with the lowly of society. Matthew 9:35-36 says, “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages…healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited.” Jesus didn’t shy away from those in need. Those were the ones He had come to help! He had compassion on them and He met their needs.

I purposely kept this idea at the forefront of my mind as I struggled with an initial reaction of distaste for the dirt, smells and disease I saw. As I did this, God filled me with His love and compassion and allowed it to be poured out through me, a conduit of His mercy. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but in actions and in truth.” The hands and feet of Jesus move in love to help those in need.

The needs in Uganda are many; everything from clothes to shoes to food. Not “I need clothes” because I don’t like anything in my closet. “I need clothes” because the only shirt I have is five sizes too big, stained, and spotted with holes. Not “I need shoes” because none of the 25 pair in my closet match this outfit. “I need shoes” because I don’t own a single pair or the one pair I have is falling apart. Not “I’m starving” because I didn’t get my afternoon snack. “I’m starving” because my caretakers have declared this a week of “fasting” and have spent the food money on themselves. But the saddest need I saw, which costs nothing to remedy, was the need for love.

I met a little boy at church on our last day in Uganda. We danced together to the music that preceded the service and then sat down to listen to a concert. I put my arm around this little boy and he sat as close to me as possible. After a while, in the spirit of our previous dancing fun, I removed my arm so that I could clap to the music, hoping he’d join me. Instead, he immediately grabbed my hand and wrapped my arm around him again. This happened several times, until I finally stopped trying to move my arm. This sweet little boy just wanted someone to hold him, to show him love, to make a connection with him. I had to leave that church service early to catch my flight back home, but before I left I made sure that that little boy knew that I loved him and that God loved him – the hands of Jesus reaching down to hug one of “the least of these.”

Being the hands and feet of Jesus does not stop now that I’m back from Uganda, however. There are still people in need, both around the world and in my own town. James 2:14-17 says, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

I am in the process of learning how God wants me to serve in Charlottesville, but He is already using me to help internationally by sponsoring a child. My sponsorship pays for Karen’s care at a Christian home for girls. She is able to go to school (schooling is not free where she lives); is taught life skills, such as cooking and paying bills; and, most importantly, is raised to love God and serve Him. But that’s only the smallest of things I can do. There is so much more I can do! I can tell people what I saw in Africa and encourage them to use their own gifts to meet needs. I can sponsor more children. I can encourage and support missionaries who are in the country on a long-term basis. I can partner with the local church to reach out in making disciples and serving the community. Helen Keller once said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

I believe the message God wanted to teach me in Africa was that we are all called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Mt. 9:37). I saw the enormity of the world’s needs during my time in Uganda. The harvest truly is plentiful. But God is using His followers to make a difference. To meet people in their neediness and bring them healing. To love the unlovely and even the unlovable. To provide shoes for naked feet, rice for hungry stomachs, or friendship for lonely widows. Being the hands and feet of Jesus will look different for every person, but we can all do something.

Uganda