I gave a too-skinny mother (that I’m quite in love with despite her never smiling) some hot food. She put the container on her head only to have it spill over as she walked away.
I then watched her start picking each individual pea and chopped carrot out of the dirt to put it back in her bowl. I didn’t really know what to do and started helping her while offering more. I think she thought I was going to take it because she kept repeating 'I have water to wash it' while trying to bat me away.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the 5 second rule, but watching yet another person need food that desperately was quite painful. Being THAT hungry is something I will never fully understand.
Made me realize how my heart aches against poverty, in a place of people that aren't truly aware of how poor they are, as they sift through the dirt and trash for their daily needs...but how it doesn’t ache against materialism, in my own culture as I don’t realize how materialistic I am, while I sift through the shopping aisles for my daily wants.
I don’t really know how to battle against the self-indulgence raging within me (unfortunately, if we're not fighting it, it probably means we're giving into it)…one of my main ideas for combat is to close my eyes and repeat “live simply, live simply, live simply”…How effective will that be?…I‘m being serious, how effective?
But thank You, Father, for being a God that commands and reminds me not to “hoard wealth in the last days” AND a God that promises to be a “defense for the needy” as He loves and cares for both me and for the woman picking peas out of the dust for dinner.
Wow, Jenny! Thanks for this post...the contrast of them sifting through the dirt and trash for their daily needs and us sifting through the aisles for our daily wants is so convicting.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Beth . . . TRULY CONVICTING!
ReplyDeleteIt's way too easy to be on this side of the Atlantic and not even blink in remembrance of the hunger and need on the other side.
I am grateful to Beth for posting this on fb, and grateful to you for writing it. Such a timely reminder for me as we raise our funds to go back to Niger. Trying to decide what percentage of our "full budget" we can get by on. I know what God has called me to do and where he has called me to be. Now I need to choose to go with what he provides for my family. I hope to meet you, Jenny. We will be in Niamey (hopefully) in September
ReplyDeleteJenny, what you describe is the "default picture" in my head as I reflect back on Galmi. I cannot forget the woman I saw walking the path from my house to the village and PAWING the ground for anything remotely edible to carry home with her. I wanted to pull her back and give her the contents of my refrigerator, or even my compostable scraps of pits and peelings.
ReplyDeleteJenny, memories came flooding back as I read your word pictures about poverty lived daily,with dignity and courage. You have helped me get perspective again, yep I got tangled "sifting riches" in the material world. THANKYOU. ozziebron
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