I’m at a loss for words. As I stare at the blank screen before me, I wonder how I can possibly communicate the countless ways in which God continues to work within this community, within my own life. I long to tell of the stories that fill my days, introduce you to the friends that teach me so much about living, and allow you to experience the joy & pain that accompanies life within this village. Words feel limited and don’t accurately articulate all there is to tell. How can I describe the tears that flow down Timone’s face or his words that, in the midst of loneliness & pain, insist “Mungu tu” (Only God)? Or how can I relate what it is like to sit with Mary, a widow & mother of two young boys? Her weakened immune system has allowed multiple opportunistic infections to fill her body; and yet, she explains: “Yesterday I was feeling weak & tired, but today I woke up & remembered my God. He is good.” Although I cannot adequately describe all there is to tell, it must be told that surely God is good & is working in this place. In the midst of a people who know hunger, poverty & suffering, I continue to be amazed & envious at the way their lives are filled with such faith, dependence & thanksgiving.
As I share life with these friends, I keep being drawn to a message Jesus first told thousands of years ago. Seated on a mountainside, he talked about a kingdom where blessings lie in what we so often struggle to avoid. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” In The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey writes: “With no where else to turn, the desperate just may turn to Jesus, the only one who can offer the deliverance they long for. Jesus really believed that a person who is poor in spirit, or mourning, or persecuted, or hungry & thirsty for righteousness has a peculiar “advantage” over the rest of us. Maybe, just maybe, the desperate person will cry out to God for help. If so, that person truly is blessed.” Yancey quoted a list of “advantages” to being poor written by Monica Hellwig. These describe so much of what I witness on a daily basis in the lives of the people I serve with:
1. The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.
2. The poor know not only their dependence on God & on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another.
3. The poor rest their security not on things but on people.
4. The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated sense of privacy.
5. The poor expect little from competition & much from cooperation.
6. The poor can distinguish between necessities & luxuries.
7. The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.
8. The fears of the poor are more realistic & less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering & want.
9. When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news & not a threat or scolding.
10. The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment & totality because they have so little to lose & are ready for anything.
In a way that baffles the standards of this world, I am learning & experiencing that God’s kingdom is offered & received by those who recognize their need for it. Just this past week, I met a lady named Teresa whose life demonstrates a dependence upon God. Her story continues to move & challenge me to live out the love of Christ.
Like so many others in the community, Teresa’s life situation is extremely difficult. Her husband, an alcoholic, abandoned her to raise their five children alone. She lives in a mud hut and survives through her small business of cooking & selling food to workers in the community. As if her life were not already full of struggles, one month ago Teresa took in a 5 month old little girl named Ivon. Ivon’s mother died in May. Her father was leaving Ivon in the house alone from morning until night while he was away drinking. Upon learning of the neglect & abuse that was occurring, Teresa went to Ivon’s father & asked him to allow her to take the baby. When asked why she decided to care for the baby, her only response was: “I felt sympathy towards her.”
Teresa’s generosity, in the midst of her poverty, humbles & challenges me. She has taken the message of 1 John 3:16-18, as it was intended, literally. It says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how can the love of Christ abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in action and in truth.” Since my visit, the sacrificial love of Teresa & the face of this beautiful child have not escaped my mind.
Let me close by sharing lyrics that speak of living with gratitude in the midst of unfulfilled hopes. This is the prayer of my friends & has become the desire of my heart. As Jesus said, the kingdom belongs to such as these.
Gratitude
By Nichole Nordeman
Send some rain, would you send some rain?
Cause the earth is dry & needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade.
Would you send a cloud, thunder long & loud,
Let the sky grow black & send some mercy down?
Surely you can see we are thirsty & afraid.
But maybe not, not today, maybe you’ll provide in other ways
And if that’s the case, we’ll give thanks to You with gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You;
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If you never send us rain.
Daily bread, give us daily bread.
Bless our bodies; keep our children fed.
Fill our cups then fill them up again tonight.
Wrap us up & warm us through,
Tucked away beneath sturdy roofs.
Let us slumber, safe from danger’s view this time.
Or maybe not, not today, maybe You’ll provide in other ways.
And if that’s the case, we’ll give thanks to You with gratitude.
A lesson learned: to hunger after You,
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead.
And if we never taste that bread.
Oh, the differences that often are between
Everything we want and what we really need.
So grant us peace, Jesus grant us peace.
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight.
Or maybe not, not today.
Peace might be a million miles away. And if that’s the case,
We’ll give thanks to You with gratitude,
For lessons learned in how to trust in You.
We are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need.
And if You never grant us peace,
But, Jesus, would you please?
As I share life with these friends, I keep being drawn to a message Jesus first told thousands of years ago. Seated on a mountainside, he talked about a kingdom where blessings lie in what we so often struggle to avoid. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” In The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey writes: “With no where else to turn, the desperate just may turn to Jesus, the only one who can offer the deliverance they long for. Jesus really believed that a person who is poor in spirit, or mourning, or persecuted, or hungry & thirsty for righteousness has a peculiar “advantage” over the rest of us. Maybe, just maybe, the desperate person will cry out to God for help. If so, that person truly is blessed.” Yancey quoted a list of “advantages” to being poor written by Monica Hellwig. These describe so much of what I witness on a daily basis in the lives of the people I serve with:
1. The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.
2. The poor know not only their dependence on God & on powerful people but also their interdependence with one another.
3. The poor rest their security not on things but on people.
4. The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated sense of privacy.
5. The poor expect little from competition & much from cooperation.
6. The poor can distinguish between necessities & luxuries.
7. The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.
8. The fears of the poor are more realistic & less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering & want.
9. When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news & not a threat or scolding.
10. The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment & totality because they have so little to lose & are ready for anything.
In a way that baffles the standards of this world, I am learning & experiencing that God’s kingdom is offered & received by those who recognize their need for it. Just this past week, I met a lady named Teresa whose life demonstrates a dependence upon God. Her story continues to move & challenge me to live out the love of Christ.
Like so many others in the community, Teresa’s life situation is extremely difficult. Her husband, an alcoholic, abandoned her to raise their five children alone. She lives in a mud hut and survives through her small business of cooking & selling food to workers in the community. As if her life were not already full of struggles, one month ago Teresa took in a 5 month old little girl named Ivon. Ivon’s mother died in May. Her father was leaving Ivon in the house alone from morning until night while he was away drinking. Upon learning of the neglect & abuse that was occurring, Teresa went to Ivon’s father & asked him to allow her to take the baby. When asked why she decided to care for the baby, her only response was: “I felt sympathy towards her.”
Teresa’s generosity, in the midst of her poverty, humbles & challenges me. She has taken the message of 1 John 3:16-18, as it was intended, literally. It says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how can the love of Christ abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in action and in truth.” Since my visit, the sacrificial love of Teresa & the face of this beautiful child have not escaped my mind.
Let me close by sharing lyrics that speak of living with gratitude in the midst of unfulfilled hopes. This is the prayer of my friends & has become the desire of my heart. As Jesus said, the kingdom belongs to such as these.
Gratitude
By Nichole Nordeman
Send some rain, would you send some rain?
Cause the earth is dry & needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade.
Would you send a cloud, thunder long & loud,
Let the sky grow black & send some mercy down?
Surely you can see we are thirsty & afraid.
But maybe not, not today, maybe you’ll provide in other ways
And if that’s the case, we’ll give thanks to You with gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You;
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If you never send us rain.
Daily bread, give us daily bread.
Bless our bodies; keep our children fed.
Fill our cups then fill them up again tonight.
Wrap us up & warm us through,
Tucked away beneath sturdy roofs.
Let us slumber, safe from danger’s view this time.
Or maybe not, not today, maybe You’ll provide in other ways.
And if that’s the case, we’ll give thanks to You with gratitude.
A lesson learned: to hunger after You,
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead.
And if we never taste that bread.
Oh, the differences that often are between
Everything we want and what we really need.
So grant us peace, Jesus grant us peace.
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight.
Or maybe not, not today.
Peace might be a million miles away. And if that’s the case,
We’ll give thanks to You with gratitude,
For lessons learned in how to trust in You.
We are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need.
And if You never grant us peace,
But, Jesus, would you please?
