Religion that is pure and undefiled before
God, the Father, is this: to visit
orphans and widows in their affliction
James
1:27A
So you wait once a week for the van
to come. You recognize it every time you
see it pull up into your village. And
when you see it, you come running, bowl and spoon in your little hands. It’s time to eat again. Every week, you wait in line to get your bowl
filled with a soup and rice. It’ll
probably be the only good meal, if not your only meal, that day. Possibly that week. Except this time, it’s different. You come running a little later this time,
the van already having been there for 30 minutes or so. And when you get to the table, you hear the
dreaded words, “Sorry. There’s no
more.” You turn away and head back to
your house, realizing the feeling of hunger will be lasting a little bit longer
this day.
This is the scene I had to witness
last Thursday at one of the feedings.
Every day, the ministry we’re working with goes to a different village
and brings food for the children. A huge
tub of rice and a huge tub of a soup-type meal.
On Thursday, for whatever reason, it was just hectic. There were a TON of kids. As we got towards the end, we ran out of soup
and had to just give out rice. And then,
as we were scraping the bottom of the rice tub, four or five more kids came
up. We scraped the last bit into the
first kid’s bowl. Then, after looking at
the empty tub, we had to turn to the four other hungry kids and say,
“Sorry. There’s no more food.”
And that breaks my heart.
A few days earlier, I had actually
been thinking about my experience on the World Race, particularly how it had
affected my heart. And I came to the
startling conclusion that my heart really hadn’t been broken yet. I mean, don’t get me wrong; I’m not a
monster. It certainly has made me sad to
see the poor kids in Dominican Republic,
the many orphans in Swaziland,
etc. But it hadn’t truly broken my
heart. And this bothered me. You know, I don’t think I actually prayed,
“Hey God, break my heart.” But
apparently, God heard me thinking about it and just decided that that’s what I
prayed. Because a few days later, I went
to the feeding and saw what I saw. And
the brokenness began.
God is breaking my heart for the
people of the Philippines. Every time I see hungry kids, every time I go
to Children’s home and see the orphans, every time I read a magazine article
about the homeless in the Philippines,
my heart breaks more. And it’s
hard. And I don’t know what to do. Except pray.
And pray some more. And then go
and serve God in this country in every way that He leads me. And that’s what I’m going to do. I have about a week left here and there’s too
much injustice in this country not to do something about it.
P.S. Remember that blog I wrote last week about
how you can donate to Kids International Ministries? Well, those four hungry kids are four
examples of how your money can be used by this ministry. So pray.
Pray some more. And then go to
the website and make a donation.
For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I
was thirsty, and you gave me drink . . . Then the righteous will answer Him
saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you
drink’ . . . And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it
to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.’
Matthew
25:35, 37, 40
