Last Spring, not long after beginning the search for where/when/how I was going to spend a year overseas in ministry, I found this video. I’m usually not one to pass on videos or forward emails. But a year later, this video still strikes a chord in my heart that I can’t quite explain. It challenged me, and still does. For a while there were a couple quotes from the clip posted in my apartment…
It’s not fair that there’s a generation who are choking on their obesity while at the same time there’s 30,000 children who will die today for lack of food.
It’s not fair that we have no problem going about spending 3 or 4 dollars on what is basically glorified tap water in a bottle with a fancy label while you have entire communities that suffer at the hands of disease because the only water they have access to is foul and polluted.
It’s easy to forget this while surrounded by all that we’ve been blessed with. I’ve never had to worry about not having enough food or water. Most of us never have. And it’s not like this imbalance only happens in other countries. I see people, kids everyday at work who are living a life apart from mine. Their living situations, family dynamics, everyday concerns are completely separate from what runs through my head on a daily basis. I interact with them for a short time when they come to the ER. I can hope that something in the time I had with them had an impact. Or at least give them a band-aid. I feel like this next year of service will be a chance to live in that imbalance. I won’t be seeing it from the TV screen; I’ll be watching it, living it with them. It’s more exciting than I can say to have this chance. I know it’s going to cost. I know it’s going to hurt to see. But maybe I’ll be able to give them more than a band-aid.
