Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Hungry?

from jack...
See this little girl? She’s a cutie, isn’t she?! She followed closely beside Raj wherever he went, holding on to his arm and never letting him get any farther away from her than an arm’s length. It was more than the standard “hey, you’re great and I’d like to hang out with you” kind of thing, so I asked Raj about her story. He said, “ah, yes, well… this little girl is very sweet, but she is from a very poor family. Her father died a couple of years ago and she is one of several siblings. Her mother is very sick as well and often cannot rise or generate an income for her family. When I saw this little girl a couple of days back, she was very interested in what we were doing with training our church planters, and I noticed that she had a natural curiosity wherever we went. In the evening, while we were eating, I brought her over and sat her on my knee, and asked if she had had dinner. She sweetly shook her head. I asked her how long it had been since she had lunch. She said softly that she didn’t have lunch. So I asked her whether she had breakfast. Again, she shook her head and said that her mother is often sick, and because there is no other way for them to get money, the children often go days without food of any kind. So, I quietly took her aside and got her a plate of food. [Then he laughed his big laugh that anyone who knows Raj will recognize] I was so surprised… she ate more than a teen-age boy! Then I got her some food for her mother and a little for her siblings. She took it eagerly, and now, whenever she sees me, she just comes and quietly stands with me, not wanting to let me go.” This little girl is 5. My little girl is 5. I stared into this little girl’s big dark eyes and saw my own little girl’s staring back at me. It’s instances like this where I am grateful again to serve a God who expects His people to step into the darkest places of the world and intercept the entropy that exists there with light, hope and love, and with a message that matters just as much for their “here and now” as it does for their “then and there” (i.e. Heaven, eternity, etc).

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