The least of these.

So far my team's type of minsitry has been hard for me. The majority of what we do is work with kids and if you know me at all, you know I have low tolerance for kids. I think they're dirty, grimy, and sometimes downright a bother.

But lately, what we're doing here and what our purpose is has really been hitting me. I have yet to see them, but I keep hearing from my teammates and others the living conditions that some of these people and children are under. For instance, a woman that helps out around our house and teaches the nursery school has a daughter named Grace. The woman and her daughter live in an extremely small house, and from what I understand she doesn't get payed to work at the nursery at the church (since it's service-based) and they're a struggling family. She told one of my teammates in private that she wants someone to sponsor her child because they can't make ends meet. Also, when we go to help out at the nursery school in the morning,s there are tons of poor children running around outside the church who can't afford to pay for a uniform to attend the school. On top of that, the children in the school need to be sponsored just so they can leave the nursery to go onto a higher level of schooling. And since the nursery is at maximum capacity of students, the children who come from poor families can't even go to the nursery until the other children leave and more space opens up. It's terrible thinking that these kids could go without being educated. Some of the children outside of the school live in houses half the size of my bedroom with their families, along with having one to no meals a day, and abusive parents.

My eyes have been continually opened to the fact that poverty is real and needs to be dealt with. It's something that can't be overlooked and pretended to be nonexistent anymore. These kids, although may seem annoying because they always have to run up and hug me or hold my hand, in reality just need love. God's love. They need me to be the one to step up to the plate and radiate the love God has so graciously shown to me. My team has decided to set up a sponsorship program for these children, and hopefully a website and ways to easily donate so they can be taken care of and sponsored. I couldn't help but sponsor a child myself and see that at least one succeeds and sees God's love.

Yesterday, my team had the idea of taking some children, some being the one's we have decided to sponsor, back to our house to bathe them and feed them before sending them back home. We already knew that the children didn't get the chance to eat much, but we also found out that they would only get bathed at least once a month, if that. Once a month. And I complain about going 3 days without a shower. And that the water's cold. And that it's not even a shower, just a bucket of water I pour over myself. I can't even describe how excited these children were to get a bath. These children were excited about being bathed. What child do you know is ever excited about baths?

Over the course of this trip so far I have been reading a book called The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. It's about a man (Shane Claiborne) who is radically changed by God's love and the way that Jesus lived. It's the story of his life and how he is striving to be a mirror image of Jesus. He gives away everything he has in the persuit of showing the love that Christ really is. It's all about shouting the gospel with our lives, not necessarily our words. (I didn't do the book justice with my description, so I definitely recommend you check it out.) 

One of my favorite quotes from the book is "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." Because it's true. No longer am I comfortable in my little suburban home, but I continue to feel more and more uncomfortable with the idea of comfort. Shane continues to talk about how it's necessary for the rich and the poor to collide, that when that happens, the poor won't just be "the poor" to the rich anymore, but they'll become people, friends. And this has happened for me. I know the poor, not just as the poor, but as friends and companions. I've grown to love them and see them as people. And these children, they're not just little African children, they're people. Little people maybe, but still people. And they're our future. As a Christian, as someone who says they love God, it's my obligation and conviction and purpose to serve these people. To feed them, to clothe them. To love them. Because He first loved me (1 John 4:19).

Blessed are you poor,

For yours is the kingdom of

God.

Blessed are you who hunger now,

For you shall be filled.

Luke 6:20-21
 

Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Luke 14:12-14

So far I've realized how selfish I am and how much I complain. I now know that I really hve it good, and others deserve better from me. God's changing me, molding me, challneging me, and making me into the person He made me to be. I relize now that this mission trip wasn't just to help and change the people of Rwanda, but also to help and change me as well. And I couldn't be more thankful.