Hello!! So much has happened this month I need to share. But I’ll do that later. 

For now, I’d like to share something I wrote back in Romania. While being on the Race I’ve gotten into expressing myself and my thoughts through spoken word. For those who dont know what that is, its poetry with rhythm. Like rap without music. This is the first one I’ve ever written and actually ended up sharing it at a coffeehouse my first night in Bangalore, India in front of a good chunk of people. Good times. Reading it will obviously be different than hearing me speak it, but as my teammates encouraged me to post it, I though I finally would. I havent given it a title yet though. 

Sometimes I wonder what has happened to humanity.

Because everywhere you look all you see is calamity

So easily ignoring the gravity of our reality

Falling deeper and deeper into depravity

Cause you see, 

We’ve put ourselves into this situation

Stuck in this complication

Where the truth of His affection

Has been lost in translation

Leaving us in this desperation 

Just to make it through another day in this mess we call life//

All around you see so many suffer

People stealing, cheating, killing each other

A daughter sold into slavery by her very own mother

Because 

She needs money and thats one less mouth to feed//

You see, 

Her husband lost his job so he’s been turning to the bottle 

Thinking

That maybe with one more sip all the problems will go away

Maybe with one more sip he can forget the way

Things are

But instead he just gets angrier and angrier

Staggering back home to his wife just so he can beat herd

Just so he can release the frustration inside 

Of watching his family struggling to survive

Little does he know with every swing he’s killing her

And his son is watching

Not really understanding

Whats going on

But he’s being made to think that whats happening really isn’t wrong

So when he has a family of his own someday

He’ll remember his father and handle things the way

He did

And the cycle continues. 

Meanwhile the daughter is living in hell

Her body has become something to sell

To the highest bidder

No matter how hard they hit her

She cant complain about the pain 

They’ll just inject some drug into her vein

Because her next client ready and waiting

No one cares about her

They only care about what they get from her

She’s a cash crop

A lifeless prop in the hands of men who could care less

About her feelings they just want to her undress//

So she grows up thinking she has nothing to offer but her body

Her dreams don’t matter because her life is controlled by somebody

else. 

Jesus, what has our world become?

In Uganda children are taken from their homes by the cover of night

Robbed of their childhood, they are forced to fight 

In a war they barely even know

Brainwashed into killing machines that rape and steal

More and more forgetting what its like to feel

Love and compassion, the warmth of a hug

Now all they know is how to be a thug

If they can escape where would they go?

Living in conflict is all that they know

Their families wont accept them

Their communities disowned them

So they have nothing left but memories to haunt them

In Thailand girls are sold into sex slavery

Raped by strangers and beaten daily

Her body is a toy they can have their way with

Not caring what happens or if she get’s pregnant

Slowly killing her spirit, destroying any remnant 

Of hope or joy she has left

Trapped in a prison of the body and mind

Never resting, always trying to find

A way out

I cant help but wonder 

Why 

Are so many homes breaking and hearts aching

Turning to drugs and alcohol

To relieve the pain of it all

Rather than seeking the love of the Father

The love that once tasted they’ll never have to bother

Seeking anything else to satisfy

Why

Do we judge the poor for being poor

When

We could always give more

Cause

He gave more than we could ever ask for

His very life

Why are we so quick to follow society

And its twisted ideology

That gives us the right to modify

The truth into a lie

That we can just hang people out to dry

That we can ignore the cry

Of those in need

Rather than trying to help them 

Because they have been deemed “inferior”

What we fail to realize

Is that

This world is filling us with lies

That its 

Okay to judge and criticize

People we despise

Blinding our eyes

To see Jesus inside of them

We’re told that

The addicts deserve whats coming to them

And

Prostitutes enjoy the life they’re livin’

And

The homeless oughtta  be more driven

And 

Those lazy beggars shouldnt be given

Anything

Because

Its a dog-eat-dog world out there

And we dont have time to spare to care

For one another

Cause caring means sharing 

And that just isnt profitable

So here I lift my eyes to the skies

To the One who hears my cries

Father take my hand

Take me higher

Help me to understand

Walk me through the refining fire

Break off these scales open my eyes to see

That there’s so much more to life than me

Its about Your kingdom that sets captives free

Your kingdom of love thats an eternal guarantee

That we are forever Yours//

Jesus You humbled yourself and entered our story

That through depravity could shine Your glory

That by Your death on the cross

You could make something beautiful out of us

To do something beautiful through us

Your Spirit is calling us 

Come up higher

Come into Me, beloved one

Let the blood of My Son

Wash over you

Let My love cover you

And I will make you new

So Jesus show me how

To see You in the here and now

Your Kingdom alive and thriving

Give me the strength to keep striving

In bringing heaven to this earth

Binding up the broken and the hurt

Loving the lonely like they’re worth

Your cross speaks of a better way

Of the love that won on the third day

Through Your redemption we can see

The way things are is not the way things have to be


An update on this past month in Nepal coming soon…