I expected to have an adverse reaction to the poverty, but I didn’t really know how it would affect me. Would I have compassion, would I feel sadness, would I be convicted of my own materialism and over-abundance? Yet, this morning as we walked off of the hospital compound and through the village on our way to ch-rch, poverty is what I was confronted with. We stepped over piles of trash and certain sewage as we made our way through a row of shops selling only food and necessity items (no commercialism here). We passed houses made from a mixture of cow dug and mud, as well as nicer concrete homes with high surrounding fences. We saw a woman pounding out bricks to make into concrete, cow dung molded around sticks and left to dry for firewood, and children working in the fields all as a part of daily survival. My reaction was more amazement than anything else. I am captured by the beauty around me. I am intrigued by the simplness of life. I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to meet the national people, and glimpse the special relationships that they have shared with Diana and her family in years past. Ken and Sue James have such an obvious love for others as they have all been greeted with such enthusiasm and honor after being gone for the past 10 years. So this is my sum: poverty doesn’t really matter, and wealth doesn’t really matter. It is simply our love for others and our willingness to extend ourselves… I hope that that can be my reaction.
Picture: Diana stopping to talk with children as we walked through the village
Picture: Me, Sue James and one of the babies that she fostered and found a Christian home for 18 years ago!
