Can I tell you what I see? This was the second time I had seen these little ones. My first trip to Ethiopia to Korah I was honored to meet them. Their memory burned in my mind long after I met them and I just couldn't forget. I sent a few packages across the ocean to them just so they knew that I hadn't forgot them. Their was some anticipation in my heart as I walked up the trash filled trail, to their little home, tucked behind a small corn field. And then this moment...I cannot hardly explain this moment...it felt like time stopped just for a few seconds...the sun was hot...the buzzards and other birds were circling above the trash in the blue sky...the smell of trash and "poverty" burned at my nose...tears stung at my eyes and a lump formed once again in my throat...and a thought crossed my mind..."Dear God, why?"
And then they were jumping into my arms and I didn't care one bit that they were dirty and sick...I just knew, in that moment, that God was asking ME and HIS PEOPLE the same question...WHY? Why have you let this happen? Remember? YOU are MY HANDS and MY FEET! This is your DUTY to take care of the Fatherless and the poor.
And sometimes I wonder what good it does to travel to a place like this just to visit and then leave again at the end of the week. How can you make a difference in that amount of time? The answer? You can't really...the journey you make across the ocean is more for YOU...God is reminding you of how much he has blessed you and He is reminding you that sometimes you have to see the poverty with your own eyes before you can begin to make a difference. It doesn't do anyone any good to go visit and come home to our blessed nation and then forget. And I struggle with forgetting...not really, but I get caught up in my day to day life and I tend to forget...but that is why I love this picture...I'm remembering again this day when I saw my little friends again...and the JOY I felt in my heart to have the chance to love some of God's most precious treasures.
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