Feedings are normally a pretty interesting and heart breaking thing to attend. In the beginning you arrive with three fairly large and decently heavy bins that are full of this oat like soup that they call lugaw. Then about five seconds after you get the bins out of the car the kids come running down the street with bowls and cups or just small plastic baggies to get some food to eat. Sometimes you get lucky and there’s enough food to go around and everyone’s happy. Unfortunately, a lot of the times that isn’t the case and there are young children who look at you with empty bowls and cups or just that plastic bag and you have not to much to give them at that point. There is something amazing that happens though. The ones who received food go right back to their homes to eat it, but the ones who didn’t receive food stay around, giving us the privilege of talking to them, playing with them, and sharing the love of Christ with them.
Now one afternoon I was going on my second feeding of the day. We arrived and some of my team just started to distribute food. While that was going on I just went around talking to the kids, saying hello asking them their names and how old they were, Then this man came up to me. He said hello and started talking some in English. Some of his speech was slurred and some of it was in a different language. I wasn’t really sure what he was trying to say most of the time, but I kept listening and tried to understand what I could. At one point he said he had a brown book and I asked him if was the Bible and he said yes. He was telling me a longer story about how his Bible was either lost or destroyed, so I asked him if he would like another one. He responded yes. The following week I would return to this man with a bible, but this man continued to talk to me. A woman came by and told me “Don’t listen to him; he’s insane, he’s crazy.” I politely ignored the woman and kept listening to this man and looking into his eyes. When I looked back to see my teammates still feeding the children, instead all around me was a pretty large crowd all staring as I talked to this man. After a few moments the crowd dispersed. I didn't really think too much of it at the moment, but later I realized I had left a huge impact on that community. I was a westerner who could have ignored this man, but instead I listened to him. He spoke little English and everyone knew I didn’t know what he was saying, but I still listened. Through this I realized God was trying to teach me how to be patient and kind to those the world likes to ignore. Everyone on earth is created in the image of God; whether they acknowledge that fact or not is up to them. However, we as Christ followers should pay attention to those the the world would like to ignore.
