One thing I’ve realized, and come to embrace this month, is that helping people isn’t easy. It started with a one night stay in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The extremely generous man who let us stay with him, Aven, has a ministry in Tegucigalpa that works with street kids. Basically, he talks to them, feeds them, tries to give them opportunities, ect. He was telling us about his work. He had some really cool stories but he said his favorite was one of the most simple. He was going out to the town dump to bring clean water and some food to the kids that hung out there. He was down that day, he was sick of what he was doing, sick of going back to that place over and over again and never seeing any progress and never seeing anyone’s life move forward. He got out of his car and went over to an assumed parent with two little girls. He tapped the first girl and she looked at him and he handed her some water. “Thank you” she exclaimed with a bright smile on her face. Then he handed some to her sister. “Thank you” said the sister. Aven said it was such a simple story but it completely changed not only his day and his outlook. He told us, it was like God himself was saying “Thank you, don’t stop what you’re doing”. You see in all of Aven’s work with street kids not one of them has EVER said thank you to him. Those words simply aren’t put in a child’s vocabulary when they grow up without parents, or with parents that they run away from.
I myself have been feeling the difficultly with helping this month. We are working at two locations. The first is an orphanage and the second is a before/after school program for disadvantaged children. I love the kids to death but in all honesty they can be tough to handle sometimes. They fight with each other, they talk back (in a language I mostly can’t understand anyway), they don’t eat their food, they refuse to do chores. Part of me gets frustrated, partially at them but also at myself. I wish I could speak spanish so I could help them more with homework. I wish I knew their culture better. Some of them, I wish I could just transplant from their current situation so they had a better hope for their future. Its been over 100 degrees every day this month and some evenings after drinking my 8 liters of water for the day I wonder “is this worth it? Am I even helping at all?”.
The passage that the Lord keeps putting on my heart is: Galations 6:9
9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
It can be hard to not grow weary especially when the results are not immediate or are difficult to tangibly assess. When I think about this, I am drawn to two facts:
1. I can’t “not grow weary of doing good” when I rely on my own strength (at least it doesn’t seem to work well when I try). To not grow weary I need to continually fill and renew myself in the work that Christ has already done at the cross and the future he has already earned for me in eternity with him. When I think/meditate/pray on this I get energized. When I think about 10 kids climbing on me in 100 degree heat I get exhausted.
2. God knows exactly what it means to not grow weary. He knows what its like to love people and have them not appreciate that love. He knows what its like to love and receive hate in return. I’m sure Jesus felt weary when he would heal a bunch of people and then be accused of doing it through Satan’s power. I’m sure God felt a little frustrated when he brought Israel out of Egypt through 10 extraordinary events only to have them demand a golden calf to worship right after the fact. (talk about a poor thank you!) The point is, I have a God that can relate and he’s not asking me to do anything he himself hasn’t already done.
So to all of you doing jobs that can be difficult, monotonous, or just plan thankless. To all of stay at home Mom’s, customer service reps, teachers, police officers, and youth pastors: “Do not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Thank you for all you do!
