Dallas and I attended a movie preview tonight promoting poverty awareness in Africa. It was a documentary about a small orphanage in South Africa that burned down. The children there were known for their singing, and they were eventually able to go sing in New York and raise enough money to rebuild their home. The film focused particularly on one girl and her family. Her parents had both died leaving behind 7 or so children. Of the older children, only one had a job, and they couldn't support the younger ones with food and schooling, so they put them in this orphanage. The movie was extremely touching. In fact, I had tears streaming down my face the entire last half of it. The girl's brother was dying of HIV, and eventually they had to bury him next to his parents.
As I pondered the reality of these circumstances and reflected on my trip to Kenya two years ago with a humanitarian group, I felt a strong desire in my heart to focus more of my time and money on causes such as these. There are so many ways to serve in the world. It's almost overwhelming, but even making a difference in one individual life is priceless.
Tomorrow, I will go visit the African refugees that I've been assisting lately. Maybe I'll take them a pizza.. Even though I feel guilty for contributing to such unhealthy eating, the Africans love pizza. I guess I can justify it when I think about how much worse they were eating back home.
They are such sweet people. Why is there so much injustice in the world? I ponder the question quite often. More significantly however, is the question, "how can I make a difference?" Now I feel like all of my trips this winter would be best spent focusing on service. I'll check into that and see how I can serve.
I thanked God this evening for all the good people in the world who are reaching out to assist the less fortunate in whatever ways they can. There's a lot of people doing good things in this crazy world of ours. I'm so grateful for them.
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