Love and Jesus

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed in the presence of so much need.

At first, you see the kids need love and Jesus, and you can give tall of them that. 

Then, you notice their hunger and their thirst, so you strive to satisfy.

Then, you see they are shoeless and dirty and you strive to satisfy.

Then, it’s like a dam has broken and all the sudden everywhere you look you see needs: beds, soap, pens and pencils, shutters, mattresses, books, sanitation, jobs, medicine, combs, blankets, electricity, money, toys, paper, Bibles, education, futbols, toiletries, transportation, and the list goes on and on while your head whirls and your heart breaks because every need you see you truly desire to satisfy but you simply cannot.

So you start to prioritize as best you can and remind yourself of the purpose which you came for:

            You came to give the kids love and Jesus.

And immediately I’m reminded, more like scolded, that it is Christ who is the only person who can satisfy both any and all of those needs. And without Him, not a single one gets met. I am simply one of the tools He chooses to meet them. While He didn't give me all the resources in the world to help them, He gave me His love and Himself so that I can give Him away. And all the sudden a weight is lifted of my shoulders because it is not really me who meets the rest of their needs, but The Lord. And isn’t He so much better at that than I?

As my earthly father always reminds me, “you don’t have to solve all the world’s problems.” My response is usually, “no, but I can try.” But as much as I don’t want to admit it, God never asked me to feed every person who hungers. He never asked me to eradicate every disease and He never asked me to eliminate poverty entirely, just to give what I have to those who have none. Ending world hunger, finding cures for all sickness, and eliminating poverty are tasks that will never happen in my life time… or in any human being’s lifetime for that matter. But He does ask that through His Strength and provision, I do what I can to represent Christ in His absence (I’m reminded daily that though He is absent physically, His Spirit, hand, and presence, are not) wherever I am planted. Though I want nothing more than to take every 340,000 children orphaned from a brutal 15 year civil war and shower them with hugs and kisses, I cannot. But I can do that for the 52 beautiful, shining, perfect faces that run to greet me the second I dismount my motor bike every morning. And on special days, this “white woman” (as they call me) is blessed enough to get to play with a few extra kids from the village as well.

So the kids need love and Jesus… and by the grace of God, for three more weeks, I can give them that, along with a few other needs He's supplied us to meet. And though my heart breaks at every hungry, torn-and-tattered-clothed child I see, who I am unable to help, I rest knowing that soon and very soon, my King is coming. And when He gets here, every sin-tainted being and place will be made completely new and He will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Rev 21:4).