Last year I traveled all over the world. I learned the definition of poverty, from living constantly on a minimalist budget to seeing thousands have nothing of their own. My heart broke and eyes wept for the masses living below the poverty level. Children ran without shoes, went without education, and suffered sickness without treatment. Women stood in lines for a meal, hand washed clothes for their family, and sold their bodies for cash. Men killed their means of transportation for food, slept in tarp tents for shelter, and lost limbs to frostbite. I’ve fixed endless plates of food for lines you couldn’t see the end of. I’ve given away my clothes to people who couldn’t stay warm. I’ve laid hands on and prayed over more people than I could keep count.
But I’ve never seen these things, done these things, in my hometown. In being back home, I’ve had so many people ask me when I’m going back to the mission field. However, since being here I’ve heard the Lord telling me that this is my new mission field.
On the World Race, we call re-entry “month 12.” Well now I’ve moved into month 13, the next mission. Today, at the Grenada Soup Kitchen, I stood before a room of 35-40 people of all ages, Colored and Caucasian, waiting to receive food. For some of them, it would be their only meal for the day or the next few days. Some were new faces and some “usuals.” The smell of one lady, a new friend, took me back to our days in Lesotho. The smell of someone who hasn’t had a shower in a significant amount of time is a smell one will never forget. I flashed back to the freezing cold days of seeing people stand in line for hours to receive free medical help and a hot meal. A familiar feeling came along with the familiar smell, heartbreak. Like days in Africa, here too I saw a demon possessed woman, hungry people, and a need for salvation — a need for freedom. Like days in Africa, my desire to feed their soul greatly outweighed my desired to feed their stomachs.
Upon leaving the soup kitchen, I got in my warm dry car and drove to my mom’s work, where her loving embrace met my desperate tears. I explained to her how I’ve seen this exact poverty and need all over the world but I never expected to see it in my hometown, on my front door. It’s something about it that hits harder and hurts worse.
In driving away from the embrace of my mother, I wondered how I’ve lived here for 23 years yet never known this place existed. I wondered how I’m supposed to go back to my comfortable home while those 5 miles away are out in the rain. I wondered why we seem to value the lives of those abroad more than those in our hometown. I wondered how our thoughts get so jaded into believing those here deserve less of the generosity and grace of Jesus Christ. I wondered when our Republican thinking turned us away from living out the Gospel and instead towards thoughts like “I work to make my living and so should they.”
I can’t tell you how many times on the Race, people were picky and ungrateful when receiving free food. I can’t tell you how many people we met that were so spiritually under attack or mislead that couldn’t get jobs. Yet, we fed them. Why? Because by handing them a plate of food, we had the opportunity to love them, pray for them, teach them, and share with them.
America, we have poverty.
Mississippi, we have needy.
Grenada, we have broken.
We all have the opportunity to serve right where we are planted. We have the chance to be the hands and feet of the Gospel in our town. We must open our eyes and soften our hearts to the needs of those around us; they are there and there are many.
“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” – Romans 10:14
“For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.” – Romans 11:6b
**Thank you Mr. Steve and Mrs. Cora for your tenacity over the last 10 years of running the Soup Kitchen. Thank you Pastor James for inviting me to be apart of the body of Christ serving here.
With love,
KP
