Over the past six months the experiences Bethany and I had back in June have stuck in the forefront of my mind. I know they have stuck with Beth as well. On a daily basis I think of Allie. On a daily basis I close my eyes and am back in the hospital holding her little fingers. I hear the children laughing and playing at The Covering, feel the rain on my face as we danced in the mud of Kroo Bay, feel the children jumping into my arms with the brightest smiles...full of hope and promise.
You see. Even after we boarded the plane home these people's lives went on. Mothers kept pouring into the hospital with their dying children hoping for someone to save them. Children were brought to the doors of The Covering and given a chance at a better life. And I went home to begin another semester of grad school, working full time and filling up my schedule to the brim with things to do. As a product of corporate church I have gone on a few mission trips. Each one I have come home from having furthered my spiritual journey and, if I'm brutally honest with myself, have felt like I deserved a gold star for my good deeds for the week. Somehow life looks different when you have stared into the eyes of a child who was dying because there was not enough food for her. Not just one. But rooms full. Somehow your world view shifts. But the life you are surrounded by doesn't. Because, Corporate Church and Upper Middle Class America did not have the same experience so they go on functioning within their comfortable box. While we're left fighting to reconcile how life should actually look. Some days I've thought I was being too hard on the world around me. This is my passion. Not theirs. But then I stop and think...who's passion shouldn't be saving dying children?
As you can tell...I've struggled with the indifference we're surrounded by here in the U.S. I watched a video entitled 'Depraved Indifference' and they sum it up well by saying, "Oh we care, it's not that it doesn't move us on some level to hear about these kids across the globe...we care, but we can go home tonight and sleep just fine. How is that? It's because there's an indifference and it's naturally born within us. That life isn't affecting us, it's not in our backyard, we're not related to it...it's someone else's issue...in fact we start quoting scripture about God being a father to the fatherless...we're like thank you God that you are a father to that child...but God rescues the fatherless through US...God rescues the weak through OUR hands, our LOVE, our TIME...through YOU...and if you don't do it noone will."
These trips to Sierra Leone are more than just "mission trips." It's more than a gold star. Once you have been you can't go home and sleep just fine. It does affect us. We are related to it. It is our issue. What I find infuriating is that it takes actually holding a dying child in our arms to realize that's what we are here for. Why is it that we must experience it ourself before we actually sign on to begin restoring our world the way God intended?
I dare to believe that it doesn't have to be that way. I dare to believe that through the stories The Raining Season, Firefleyes and countless other organizations tell that our words would permeate and resound inside the hearts of people to inspire them to be the change they wish to see in the world. I dare to believe that one day babies like Allie will not starve, but thrive. I dare to believe that one day organizations like The Raining Season will be so common that all 163 million orphans will have a home. I dare to believe that the fire in children's hearts will ignite with such ablaze that their dreams will forever change the world.
I dare to believe this is NOT idealism. I dare to believe that this is the way it was intended to be. Because you see...somewhere I read..."For you know all about it...the contempt, the abuse. I dare to believe the luckless will get lucky someday in you. YOU WONT let them down. Orphans WONT be Orphans forever." Psalm 10:14.
Will you dare to Believe with me?
Dancing through Life,
Regina
Regina, you asked whether you were being too hard on the world around you...judging Western Christians too harshly for being indifferent to the hurt of those who are oppressed, discriminated, forgotten and dying?
ReplyDeleteThe answer is unequivably - No, you are not being undue in your assessment of our overindulgant and self-centred culture.
I'm a product of this mentality, one driven by gold stars, big smiles and self-righteousness. History is littered with people like us...God-worshippers and less-than-perfect disciples. No indictment is too harsh, for it is through us and by the Holy Spirit that God has chosen to minister.
Thank you for continuing to be willing to hurt and be hurt, to have compassion for those
Christ came into this world to heal and love.
May we all have our eyes opened to see the error of our ways, daring to lose sleep because there are those who may not wake to see the morning. Daring to hope in a different outcome!
Love you