“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“What have you had to eat today?”
“Nothing.”
That was my conversation with a 5 year old while sitting outside our team house last month in Swaziland. The sun was setting across the African landscape and something within me said to go outside. I walked outside and was taken aback by the beauty. However, behind the beauty of Swaziland lies a darkness that has a stronghold on this nation. Alcoholism and HIV/AIDS are some of the strongholds that the enemy has on the nation. But as I walked outside and had a brief but heart ripping conversation with a 5 year old I understood the magnitude that poverty has on this nation.
Last month in Swaziland we shared water with the community of Nsoko, which is where three of our teams stayed for the month. Our team house was located at the end of the line for water. If someone from the community was filling up water at the pump then we wouldn’t be getting water. This was the first time that I experienced not having water easily accessible.
In America we are blessed with so many things but it seems that nothing can completely satisfy us. Food, jobs, transportation, shelter, clean water, etc. We are always in want of more. This is how I’ve lived my life. It took me a trip halfway around the world and a conversation with a 5 year old to realize that I have a ton to be thankful for back home in America.
As I walked outside and sat down beside the little 5 year old I could tell he wasn’t feeling well. I started off the conversation with asking him his name and age. Then I asked him the questions about being hungry and what he had ate throughout the day. I couldn’t help but ask God why would you let this little child go hungry. After praying and reflecting over the month and conversation with this little kid I realized how ungrateful I had been for the things I was blessed with back home.
Our society likes to preach that you always need more. More money. More power. More stuff. The problem with that mentality is that we end up living to please ourselves. We seek out what we think will ultimately satisfy us when it fact nothing ever can satisfy one’s soul more than knowing the One who created him. I’ll tell you what. If the 5 year old had a cold glass of water and a peanut butter sandwich he would’ve been extremely grateful.
I want to encourage you to step into a spirit of thankfulness as I am. The Lord has blessed me with many things and I want to be in constant communication of thankfulness towards him. Be in prayer for the people of Swaziland. That they’d be fed physically but more important that they’d be fed spiritually. Be in prayer for the D-team, Malloys, and Spraggs who are all following the Lord’s calling on their lives to minister to the people of Nsoko.
I want my life to be about sacrifice. It’s not my life. I want my life to say: All I need is Jesus. Life is nothing without Him.
Swaziland. What a month. Best month yet.
Philippians 2:1-8
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!”
