Back before CHRISTmas, I crocheted a stocking and was able to sell it on E-bay. With my earnings, I bought a new memory foam contour pillow. I've been having some trouble with my neck (along with other parts of my body), but this pillow is AWESOME.
But....almost every night when I crawl into bed under our electric blanket and lay my head on that sweet pillow.....I'm reminded that so many people in the world don't even know what a pillow is. I read Gracia Burnham's books about her and her husband's kidnapping and how they spent night after night on the jungle floor in the Philippines.
And, in Kisses From Katie, I learned how life can be for so many people living in Africa, how sick the little children are because of unsanitary living conditions. I recently read a first-hand account of some people who visited a family in Jinja and they lived in a 10 x 10 hut with a dirt floor. The man had no legs and he and his wife had 4 children, the youngest being only a week old....her name is Faith. He made his living by making and selling bread, but the hut where he made the bread had burned and he was buying bread from someone else and re-selling it and only making about FOUR DOLLARS.....a week!!!
Yes, I adore my new pillow and my running water and hot showers and a roof over my head and a car to drive (even if it is 12 years old, it's more than some people have). I'm privileged to have a fridge full of stuff that I don't even need, as far as being healthy, when there are starving people all over the world who have never set foot inside a grocery store. I have warm clothes to wear in the winter and cooler clothes for the summertime. I have shoes to put on my feet. I own several toothbrushes and too many tubes of toothpaste....and deodorant...and hairspray....and makeup. I have a toilet and a bathtub and a shower and a washing machine and even a dryer.
We live in a country where athletes make millions of dollars a year. We turn on the TV and see game shows and the prize for the winner is more money than I can even comprehend. I've wasted more money over the years than I want to think about, simply to satisfy something that I see now was nothing more than to feed my pride. I've paid too much to eat out, or an outfit to wear, or a haircut....or, whatever it took to make me feel good about myself at the time.
Now, back to the story of the man living in the dirt-floored hut with his family. The one telling the story said that this family was so happy....so proud to invite visitors into their home. They had little, but shared what they had with others. The thing is....these people probably didn't even realize that by American standards, they are living in poverty.
I have no answers....I just know that my heart is very troubled over this.
Our world needs to be bathed in prayer....and my prayer has to start with me
confessing my own faults and sins and shortcomings.
What can I do to help?
I don't know....but I'm asking God to show me!!
Luke 9:58
But Jesus replied,
“Foxes have dens to live in,
and birds have nests,
but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
In HIS Most Precious L♥ve....and with mine, too!!!
Blessings,
Deb
Thank you for sharing. Love u!!
ReplyDeleteHi Deb.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a good week. Yes sometimes it is hard to make sense of things.
We tend to feel guilty for living in our USA and enjoying the benefits of our labor doing work that God provides for us. We should NOT beat ourselves up for having abundance compared to those in other lands. There are missionaries and Christian organization who are teaching how to grow a garden, start a business, learn to read inorder to get a job. I have a list of missionaries I support with a stipend monthly, one is Samaritans Purse. They are a trustworthy organization and the overhead is not as great as some take to run their care for orphans etc. It is good to check and see how much of your gift actually goes to help and what portion goes for the CEOs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing at "Tell Me a Story."
You sure caught my attention. Never LIVED in Jinja, but have Ugandan and American friends who live there; have visited. But I certainly understand the differences. Bathroom issues, clothes, blankets, pillows ... our normal stuff. THERE a shower was a challenge, to say the least. A bathroom was sometimes not a bathroom ... a latrine, at the most.
ReplyDeleteSO, yes, we DO need to always keep on mind the fact that our way of living is significantly different than what others go through. [When Dave and I returned from Uganda, we were always readjusting. His joy? Hot shower and turning on the faucets and putting the water into a glass and drinking it ... instead of filtering, boiling, etc., the water. ME? The same, except having a nice clean bathroom.] AND we, even after all these years, have not assumed that we would never face those things here. AND tougher roads, less food, less housing items, and on and on. We may eventually join the rest of the world... and I wouldn't be surprised.]
Thanks for sharing.