Some days this landscape looks so bleak and so hopeless.
When I hear of mothers who sell their malnourished baby’s formula to buy
alcohol for themselves, I feel defeated. When I meet helpless malnourished old
women whose family members refuse to waste their food on the weak, I am
broken-hearted and livid all at the same time. When I hear of yet another man
who has taken multiple wives and produced numerous children and still, all of
his money goes to support his drinking habits, I want to give up and leave. Some days the selfishness in this place is
suffocating.
But today…. today is a very different day.
Today I witnessed something beautiful: a simple, honest act
of selflessness.
You see, yesterday I met with some of my Akiru women (visit
theakiruproject.com to learn more) for a Bible study. We did what we always do
and listened to a passage of scripture before discussing how we can do what it
says to do. Yesterday we listened to this passage from the book of Acts:
“They (the believers) devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many signs and wonders
performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything
in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke
bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising
God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.”
This passage really resonated with one woman in particular
named Auma, and unbeknownst to me, she immediately began making a plan to do what the Scripture said. As we finished up our discussion, the women
asked if I would be willing to drive them out to Auma’s village to pick up some
food. I agreed without fully understanding what was going on. After reaching
the village, Auma brought out a huge bag of dried corn and beans and I learned
that she was donating enough food to feed everyone at our weekly Akiru meetings
for the next three weeks. In our area where food is so precious, this was a big
sacrifice for her to make.
She had heard from Scripture that as believers, we should
share with one another. And so she
shared. Simple as that. No prompting needed by me because the Holy Spirit
was already at work in her heart. What a
beautiful act. Beautiful in its obedience and beautiful in its
selflessness.
Today we ate together with glad and sincere hearts. And I am praising God for these women and for the chance to witness these
sacred moments where the Kingdom of Heaven visits our humble stretch of earth
for just a little while.
Are you a doer of
the Word?
