Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
While on World Race, I’m finding out that rest of the world believes Americans are a rich Christian nation. The world knows about our Jesus. They know about His poverty and love of the underdog. They know he told His followers to care for the poor and to share. They may not understand His divinity or His theology, but they know He was a friend of the oppressed. So while Americans are living in excess beyond imagination AND the world cries out for intervention — we are completely misrepresenting God’s Kingdom. When people are impoverished and desperate and know we have everything they need in the cushions of our couches, an oppressive leader can influence them toward our harm. America is in trouble. Can you see why when Americans say democracy, the world hears greed? What seems like a basic freedom to us sounds like consumption to everyone else.
Silence is the splinter in the thumb of humanity. It’s what causes the church to sometimes behave more like a country club than a compassionate community of Christ followers. Remaining silent threatens our own security as well as the surrounding nations. We will never be safe if we ignore the extreme poverty of everyone else. I can hear Jesus’ words making sense: “Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27). It’s hard to hate a rich country that is feeding you, advocating for your orphans, and building up your schools and communities. It’s difficult to dismiss the idea of a redeeming Christ when His followers are pouring their lives out. It’s tough to hate the Christian church when the body refuses to sit idly on their luxuries while the rest of the world suffers.
I’ve witnessed people giving so generously of their time, their love, their money that I’ve been rendered speechless. Please don’t hear me say that America stinks and all our citizens are self-absorbed. It’s just that most of us have no concept of our own prosperity. Nor do we have an accurate understanding of the predicament of the rest of the world. Our perspective is limited, and our church culture is so consumer oriented that we are blinded to our responsibility to see God’s Kingdom come to “all nations,” as He repeated throughout scripture. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth, that’s a false idol.
Here’s a few facts for you America. America ranks number one in charitable giving internationally. Now before you go giving yourself a pat on the back, we are 5th to last (among all nations) when it comes to the percentage donated of our Gross National Income (Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances). Yes, America gives a lot of money. But the truth is, we don’t give a large percentage of what we earn. It’s estimated that roughly 2.1 billion people (about one third of the planet) identify themselves as Christians. Let’s just cut that number in half. Imagine if 1 billion believers, many with every necessary resource, obediently decided to love this broken world as they love themselves. We would then become good news to the poor (Luke 4:18).
So, while the rest of the world has their faces pressed to the window of our prosperity, will we notice? We stand at the intersection of extreme privilege and extreme poverty and we have a question to answer: Do we care? Are we moved by the suffering of all nations? Are we even concerned with the homeless guy on the corner? Are you willing to take the Bible at face value and acknowledge that God is obsessed with social justice? Ultimately it will come down to what I did. What you did. What we did together. It’s foolish to become paralyzed by the scope of suffering or discouraged by the limit of our reach.
Prior to the World Race, the Lord convicted me in a dream. He said, “My sheep will die today if you don’t feed them. If you truly love Me, you will feed my sheep. My people are dying, and you’re blessing blessed people and serving the saved.”
Alone we can affect few. Together we can change the world.
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Currently I am serving in Quito, Ecuador. My team is partnering with Anderson School, a school for kindergarten through high school aged kids. I’m the PE teacher for 3 weeks. Next month, my team will be serving in Cusco, Peru. The type of ministry my team will help with there will be one on one discipleship in house churches, discussing love and sexual education in local schools and working in an orphanage.
In order for me to continue serving with World Race, I need your help. Right now, I have $12,519 raised towards my final goal of $17,017. I have a deadline of $13,000 to be met by September 30th. Would you consider partnering with me in what God has called me to by donating? You can donate by clicking on the donate link at the top of my blog. OR you can donate through my GoFundMe or Venmo. If you have any questions, you can contact me via my contact link here on my blog! Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support!
My team made no bake cookies for women’s ministry night 🙂
Me and a couple kids from youth group got to pray for a woman, Sonja, in a nearby park 🙂
Teaching the kids in Ecuador how to play basketball
