— I haven’t wrote on my blog in awhile, so first things first, I would like to apologize to the friends and family that are subscribed. I’m a writer and this topic something I feel has been on my heart for a couple months now, but I’m having a hard time putting it into words. Thank you for baring with me while I was trying to find the words. —
“Why are you traveling to countries where something bad could happen to you when there are bad things happening in your own backyard?”
This is a comment I hear pretty often when I tell people that I am leaving for the World Race in August and will be traveling to 11 different countries. To be completly honest with you, I didn’t really understand this comment until last weekend. I have always had a huge heart for the homeless, it’s hard for me to pass someone on the street holding a sign without stopping. I often will buy the man in front of the grocery store a hot meal while I buy my food. I even sat with a lady in the rain outside Starbucks for a little after buying her a hot cup of coffee. But, when I would compare the people I was helping here to child soldiers, sex trafficking victims, genocides, religious wars, starving children, and people not having access to clean water, there was almost no comparison. I have always felt called to go overseas when it came to mission work. It doesn’t matter how many times I heard this comment, I was so taken back every time that people were asking why I would want to help people? Why I would want to tell people about our Savior in countries they don’t know about Him? And maybe the most simple, yet most important, why I would want to show these people love?
I prayed about the negativity surrounding my trip and God definitely opened my eyes to show me what people meant by “my own backyard.”
I was at a women’s shelter in LA last weekend serving breakfast and after we were done serving I sat down and ate with a woman. We got to talking and I asked her what her plans were for the day. She looked up from the food and simply answered, “my pimp dropped me off to eat breakfast so after this he’ll pick me up for work today.” Then went on to tell me she got into prostitution at a young age when she moved to LA. My heart immediately sank to my stomach and my eyes couldn’t help but fill with tears. She also told me that she was two years sober from a five year Heroin addiction and relapsed two weeks prior to meeting me because a man she met that was a user offered her a place to stay when she didn’t have money for a hotel. “I know I shouldn’t have went but I wanted to feel loved. I feel loved when he’s holding me, even though I know it’s only because I’m using with him.” I asked her if she knew God and she told me of course she knows Him, she goes to church every weekend. She said, “I know God, but I’ve really messed up this life. I’ve sinned in ways you couldn’t imagine. Babydoll, I don’t know if God wants to know me.” I felt God pushing me to tell her the story of one of Jesus’s most devoted followers and female disciples, Mary Magdalene. I told her that yes she has sinned, but so have I, so has the person sitting next to her, and so has the preacher at the church she attends. This moment was so intimate because I was able to tell her my testimony and God showing me His never ending love in my life taught me to really love myself. I was able to pray safety over her, that God would show her that same love, and it would be enough to not seek though men and drugs. I plan to go back and volunteer again so we can catch up on what’s happening in her life now. (side note: please keep my friend in your prayers.)
After our group left the women’s shelter we decided it would be great to hand out water bottles on Skid Row. Like many people who are living or working in LA, I have drove past the area of Skid Row many times, but this was my first time ever walking on the streets. There are blocks, and blocks, and blocks filled with tarps and homemade tents. People wearing minimal clothing. You can smell the human urine and feces on the ground. There was a man building a little fire on the block, which I’m pretty sure is illegal, but he was using it to cook Ramen noodles. The saddest part about this whole experience was that this community of poverty (this was way beyond homelessness) is blocks away from million dollar corporations in one on the best known cities in the US. Million dollar corporations in America. This isn’t the middle of Uganda or Haiti, where maybe you would expect poverty, nope. This is happening in the land of opportunity, equality, where dreams are made and you can become anything you want. This is in America.
After praying with some of the people on Skid Row and handing out water I cried in my car for two hours.
I’m not naive to know that a lot of these people have stories that lead them to the streets, and I’m sure the government is trying to find a solution for homelessness in LA, but I think we’re all forgetting something simple, that is that these are HUMANS. We get so worked up about a lonely dog on the street (and believe me I’m the first one to take the lost dog home) but we turn a blind eye to the brothers, daughters, sisters, wives, fathers, friends, PEOPLE living on the streets of Skid Row. I am thankful that God gave me the insight of what people meant when they referred to me staying and helping in “my own backyard” but I also feel like I wouldn’t be doing any favors if I didn’t truly express how I feel about that statement now after seeing poverty in the US.
I’m upset.
I’m upset that people are telling me that I shouldn’t be going overseas because my country suffers from the same problems, but only few people bold enough to make that statement in the first place are taking action themselves. And to be honest, I don’t think it’s that people don’t have time to volunteer and help, we all make time for the things we want to make time for. I think the problem is that America is turning a blind eye to the people that need help the most because it’s easy. Why would we spend our time focusing on the scary stuff like women being sold into sex slavery, children dying because they don’t have access to clean water or food, and five-year-olds being forced to kill their families when we have a roof over our head and food on our table every night.
watch this: https://youtu.be/asHs0mVuHM4
I want to challenge the people who are following my blog to see the world in a different perspective, through Jesus’s eyes. I can say I honestly didn’t know what people meant by “my own backyard” until last weekend, but maybe now it’s time to ask yourself the same question you’re asking me. If we all made the choice to open our eyes to view people as humans and not the stereotypes American news makes them out to be, I think all of our hearts could be changed in amazing ways. What if we didn’t help the homeless man on the street, the orphans in Zambia, the children affected by sex trafficking, the refugees, and the prostitutes because of what has happened to them, but simply because they are humans, just like us, who just need an extra hand? I know there are bound to be bad seeds in every garden, and I’m not naive to that part of the world either, but I really do believe we could change the the world one day with one simple weapon if we wanted to; LOVE.
“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.” -William Wilberforce
