Poorest of the poor - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Today we only got a taste. Pastor Glen took us to the Barrios that team Nessa and half of our media team will be ministering to this next month. These people are the poorest of the poor here in Nicaragua. Their homes are often sheets of metal and plywood piled together to form walls. They have tin roofs to cover their heads and barbed wire fences to keep the dogs in or out. Hand-scrubbed clothes hang on clothesline everywhere we look. This is the sixth 3rd-world country I’ve been to and this kind of poverty doesn’t surprise me anymore. I no longer ask God ‘why’ nor do I feel guilty for being born in a rich country like the US. Instead, I feel that God has put me in a position to be able to come here and serve. I think we all have that chance in America, Canada and similar countries. It’s up to us to do something with that. God has given us so much and there is so much out there (out here)! Whatever He calls you to do… if it is to send money or go yourself, DO IT. I have to warn you though, if you GO you will forever be changed. Being out on the mission field will rock your world and change you in incredible ways I cannot adequately describe. Giving up your life for Christ and following where He leads is
living fully ALIVE.
I love it out here. We’re dirty, tired, sun-burnt and way out of our comfort zones and I love every minute of it! I love the people we meet, especially the poor. While serving at Emmanuel Orphanage
in India this summer, God opened my eyes to the richness of the poor. The children there have nothing in material possessions yet bear an intimacy with the Lord that most of us don’t understand. Because of their poverty they depend on the Lord for everything. He is the sole provider of their next meal, their next anything! That’s what I saw today walking through the barrios. The poor are desperate for the Lord. They know they need Him. They know they can’t survive without Him. I wish I could say that! I’m asking the Lord to break my heart so I can know Him on that level. Matthew 10:39 keeps running through my head lately:
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
If I hold onto the things I desire and insist on getting my way, I’m going to miss out on really living. I’ve always been afraid of mediocrity; of one day waking up 40 years old with regrets of never ‘going for it’. Jesus tells us that if we give up our lives and follow Him we will know what it is to truly live! I want to live this life! God, break our hearts and our wills for Your glory! Show us what it means to LIVE.
When I walk through the barrios and the dumps where the poorest of the poor reside, I deeply envy them. They know something I about poverty in Spirit that I do not. They understand a part of God that I can only pray for. So here’s my question: Who truly is richer? The man with a plush carpet and food in the fridge and a need for nothing? Or the widow providing for 3 children in a rickety lean-to full of joy in the Lord?