"For I was hungry..."

This week, I have witnessed by far the most severe poverty I’ve ever seen in my life. I remember growing up, seeing these types of things on those sad charity commercials. You know, the kids living on dirt floors…no shoes… no bed… etc, etc. But none of those commercials could ever do justice to the reality I faced today. Because it was one thing for me to see it on t.v. when I knew it was far away from me, as I watched in my comfortable home, on my comfortable couch, cozied up with a cup of tea in my nice clean clothes. I would see it and think, “aw man, that’s really sad,” until the next commercial came on and suddenly that thought disappeared like sand through my fingers.

But when I walked up to the homes of multiple families today after driving through the remote dirt roads of Belmopan and saw it with my own eyes, I couldn’t help but feel extremely overwhelmed. This time it was real, it was right in front of my eyes and I couldn’t change the channel to make it go away.

We were delivering bags of food to these families. A few bags of rice, beans, some top ramen and cooking oil. Something most people would eat at home when simply trying to make “ends meet.” Truth is, this ended up being one of the biggest gifts and a delicacy to these people. They just could not thank us enough. We probably spent under $10 U.S. dollars on each bag of food.

It was one of those moments where we all couldn’t help but to cry. Almost every woman in our mission group was crying, the men holding it together silently with a loss of words as well. At one point, we walked into the home of old old man who probably weighed about 100 pounds. I could see his ribs clearly. This man lives in a hut that was about 8 feet wide and 9 feet long with walls made of skinny round wooden logs, and a thatch hut ceiling. It had no floor, he lived on the dirt ground and pretty much all that was in his home was a wooden bed with some pillows and a metal pot which I am assuming he cooks his rice in for his daily meal. Regardless of his incredibly heart wrenching situation, he was a great man of faith and praised God for “all that he does have.” My first thought was… what DO you have? You don’t have a floor, you don’t have enough to eat, you don’t have clean clothes… your entire house is smaller than bedroom at home! How is that fair? But he continued to express that he is thankful and gave praise.

Then we visited three families who basically lived out in the jungle. They were immigrants from Guatemala and are here illegally. They lived in little tin homes that were falling apart. I looked inside one of them and again saw dirt floor, one bed, and one chair. If the government catches them living here, they are forced to take down there homes, dig farther into the jungle and put their homes back together again hoping not to get caught next time. These people were so poor I think my jaw dropped the whole time I was in there. What if another hurricane comes? Their house will be lifted and gone in the blink of an eye… I asked my trip leader why they immigrated here to live in such horrible conditions and he responded, “because this is probably still better than anything they could get back at home.”

And then there was the woman with the sick baby. Her little one year old had a big swollen foot with some skin infection on it. She has had a fever for days but they don’t have money to take her to the doctor… they barely even have money to feed their children. Will her baby be okay? Will she live through this sickness, whatever it might be?

The crazy thing is that, of all the people we visited today, they each had one thing in common. They were extremely grateful and faithful people. Every one of them expressed how blessed they were to even be alive and how much they loved the Lord. I have to be completely honest… I was shocked when I heard those words. I felt like there was just no way that could be true. “How could anyone POSSIBLY be grateful living in conditions like these?!” I thought. “If they are this poor and sick…where is their faith even coming from?”  But then it hit me… maybe I should be asking MYSELF that question instead.

Where does my faith come from? Does it come from a real, honest trust in God or does it come from my dependency on my comfortable world? I felt really challenged by that today. I honestly don’t think that I would be as strong as those people if I were living their life. I would be angry… bitter. “Life is so unfair” I would say. I still do say that! But these people did not have one complaint. Not one. They were smiling, kind, thanking us and repeating over and over “God bless you!”

I think this shook my world up quite a bit. I am going to be thinking about it and processing it for a long time, wondering how to make sense of it all. I wish I could take away all the poverty in the world, but I can’t. What I can do, though, is help one person at a time. I have always heard “preach the gospel at all times…when necessary, use words.” To live like Jesus means to simply give all you can into loving and serving other people. Today I noticed that my sweet little friend Joselyn who is five years old hadn’t been wearing shoes since we first arrived in the village. I asked her where her shoes were and she told me she doesn’t have any. So the girls and me walked to the store and I got the opportunity to buy Joselyn two cute new pairs of pink princess shoes. J She was so excited and wouldn’t stop hugging me all day!

The world is a very, very hard place. But if the people I met today taught me one thing, it is that there is hope in Christ. I hope that I can be even half as faithful as they are one day. Until then I am just going to continue to do what I can to help one person at a time. After all, if  you can’t change the whole world, at least you can change one persons world.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

-Matthew 25:35-40