■ Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.
■ Everyday HIV/AIDS kills 6,000 people and another 8,200 people are infected with this deadly virus.
■ Every 30 seconds an African child dies of malaria—more than one million child deaths a year.
■ More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day...300 million are children.
■ Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority are children under the age of 5.
These statistics that you just read is something that I have been thinking a lot about in my time here in africa. These facts can be daunting, and hard to take in at times, and sometimes overwhelming. They are facts that we might see on a world vision commercial as we are flipping through the channels or maybe an advertisement on the side of your screen as your browsing the internet. We see them and a lot of time don't pay them a second thought as we go back to what we are doing.
As I have spent more and more time here in Africa I have seen these statistics become more real to me in a way that is hard to bare at times. I walk the streets and see the babies with the bloated bellies and flies on there faces. I see the people in wheelchairs and crutches begging for pennies because they cant work after they got there limbs cut off in the war. And I see people dying of disease everyday because there are no medical facilities set up where they can go for free and retrieve treatment.
I walk through the streets and I look around thinking, How many of these children I see right now are starving to death? How many of them have been abandoned by there parents or are left orphaned after there parents were killed in the war? How many of them are going to die before they hit the age of five?
I walk through the streets and I look around thinking, How many of these children I see right now are starving to death? How many of them have been abandoned by there parents or are left orphaned after there parents were killed in the war? How many of them are going to die before they hit the age of five?
A ministry here in Africa has the slogan "we stop for the one" as something they live and work by. I look at this statement and feel like it very much follows the example of Jesus where he stopped for the one. Wether they were lowly, broken, and poor, or rich wealthy but spiritually lost jesus always stopped and cared about the person as an individual.
Every year on the the ship I live on, thousands of lives are transformed where it would have never been possible if we didn't come and perform the surgeries we do. We are truly changing and even saving so many lives on a regular bases which I am so thankful to be apart of. But when I look at these Statistics it can feel like we are doing so little with the amount that is going wrong here in Africa.
"For hope to be credible in the future it has to be tangible in the present"
As I read this statement it makes me think about how we as a body can be practically doing something now to help our brothers and sisters who are dying everyday. I know I cant change the world or fix the worlds poverty issues but what can I do to change individual lives? I feel like this looks differently for everyone. For me I am giving my time and energy, living and serving the people here in Africa. For some this might mean sending money to a missionary or supporting a child through world vision. Maybe it means you are a prayer warrior who is earnestly praying for a miracle in this nation. Or maybe You support a charity who is helping in different ways in these countries.
I feel like whatever it is we need to do something!! If you make minimum wage in the west you are in the top 5% of the richest people in the world. Yes there is work to be done in our own cities but the needs are far greater here and these people desperately need your help!! "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-1
God is challenging me on this and I encourage you as well to follow the example Christ has left for us and find a tangible way to help those in need as best as we can. Sometimes it can seem out of site out of mind but these statistics are true and how can we just sit by and not do anything while most the world is living in extreme poverty. Many times since I have been here in Africa I have had woman try and give me there new born babies, not because they don't want them but because they know the baby could have a better life with a white man or woman. It saddens me to see such a desperate people and know the life I come from in the west of how spoiled we are.
Thankfully we can make a difference but the choice is ours make!
Amen!!! Thanks for writing this. I admire your heart for God and for people and for expressing so well the facts about conditions over there and in so much of the world. All followers of Jesus should be burdened with following Him as He directs us. That said it is also disturbing how easy it is to follow Him only partially, or to be double minded, or to be fatalistic, or worse caring only with our words. In James it also says that faith without works is dead. It is good for us all to be challenged in our faith and does our lifestyle reflect being a true follower of Jesus. He has not called us all to work on Mercy Ships but He has called us all to be mighty in spirit and to obey Him by listening to Him and doing what he says He wants us to do.
ReplyDeleteAlmost everyone who lives in the west is rich. God warns all of us who are rich in James 5:
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days…………. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. “
It is easy to dismiss the warnings given us in the New Testament because we live under the new covenant. Thankfully God does not condemn those who are in Christ Jesus, but He does hold us accountable for what we do with what He has given us. I think our nature is to succumb to the seductive idols of this world and to trying to carve out our own comfortable, pleasurable, and “secure” life that ultimately puts us first and not the Lord. God consistently challenges me, which is good! May we embrace His conviction in our lives and act as He directs to be salt, light, and ambassadors worthy of the mighty Savior we serve.