At Giving Children Hope I truly get great get joy from our partners. They are passionate people who are dedicated to helping others and advancing the cause to bring hope!
Yesterday we had back in our office Brian from Won Generation. We are working together to assist the country of Zimbabwe. Their country director in Zimbabwe is attending a funeral a day with the recent cholera outbreak and food shortage. We’re working together to send medicines, dried fruit, and medical supplies. This family is making great sacrifices so they can get aid to people that are in desperate need. So often I am saddened by circumstances, but inspired by those we work with and together hope is delivered to communities and Brian is an inspiring partner.
Today however, I learned of a tragedy of favorite partners in Houston. This couple is amazing and gives so much to their community as pastors of a church. Just last week their son was killed in a car accident. When I heard the news I cried, because our partners become such dear people in our lives here that together we share each others burdens. I’m not always sure why God has me in the role that He does. Often I am just so inadequate. But for some reason here I am, doing the best that I can, and trusting that God has infinite wisdom to deal with all of the pain in the world.
Sad news often brings me to one of my favorite prayer books by Ted Loder entitled Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle. A prayer that seems fitting in such hard to understand circumstances:
How Shall I pray?
Are tears prayers, Lord?
Are screams prayers?
or groans
or sighs
or curses?
Can trembling hands be lifted to you?
or clenched fists
or the cold sweat that trickles down my back
or the cramps that knot my stomach?
Will you accept my prayers Lord,
my real prayers,
rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,
and not just my pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged
bouquet of words?
Will you accept me Lord,
as I really am,
messed up mixture of glory and grime?
Lord help me!
Help me to trust that you do accept me as I am,
that I may be done with self-condemnation
and self-pit,
and accept myself.
Help me to accept you as you are Lord:
mysterious,
hidden,
strange,
unknowable;
and yet to trust
that your madness is wiser
than my timid, self-seeking sanities,
and that nothing you've ever done
has really been possible,
so that I may dare to be a little mad too.
So today, we lift up our friends in Houston, we lift up our friends in Zimbabwe, and we shed tears in solidarity and listen for direction on how to respond. The only thing we often know is that we are indeed called to respond.
Showing posts with label food shortage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food shortage. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Journey through Death
It isn’t often one wants to write, or even think about death. But it’s been a little hard for me to escape from these last weeks.
My almost 91 year old grandfather is currently on his death bed. He’s in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s and any day now he will pass from this life to one with Jesus. On one hand, it’s an exciting time. But the process of death is difficult to watch, especially if it is a loved one. Watching his body turn frailer and become less of the man I knew pains me.
I am also plagued to think about death with the conversations I’ve been having regarding Zimbabwe. If you don’t know what has been going on in recent years in Zimbabwe just google it. You can read about the land redistribution, the AIDS epidemic, the hyper-inflation, the ruling of Mugabe and the all-out humanitarian crisis happening with a food shortage and lack of any basic medical supplies and medicines.
God has recently been bringing together partners into our facility to talk about Zimbabwe. The requests we have are heart-breaking. When you know that millions of people are suffering and dying because there isn’t any food available to eat, all you can do is cry You try to get your mind around 200 million percent inflation, but you can’t. And well, you can end up feeling a little paralyzed. What can I do?
So I struggle as a person. I’m obviously consumed with my family feeling the pain of losing the only grand-father I ever knew. Watching him forget how to swallow and now gasp for air is a traumatic experience. But I remind myself that my grandfather lived a long and full life and will now enter eternity with Jesus. And as I mourn this death process, I find myself in solidarity with the millions of people around the world who deal with death on a daily basis, only they didn’t have the opportunity to live such long lives. Mothers who are losing their children because of the lack of medicines to treat their children from simple diseases or the inability to gather food pains me greatly. Those in Zimbabwe who have the lowest life expectancy in the world, it is only in the 30’s. When I remind myself of these realities, I feel so grateful to have had so many wonderful years with my Popi.
Knowing of the pain around the world doesn’t lessen the pain of watching my grandfather’s body fail and fade. But it does remind me that I am not alone in my pain. And it does inspire me to continue my work on behalf of the poor. And it inspires me to trust in God’s mysterious wisdom because sometimes you just don’t understand why things are as they are. And in this season of life, I just don’t understand, but I do trust.
My almost 91 year old grandfather is currently on his death bed. He’s in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s and any day now he will pass from this life to one with Jesus. On one hand, it’s an exciting time. But the process of death is difficult to watch, especially if it is a loved one. Watching his body turn frailer and become less of the man I knew pains me.
I am also plagued to think about death with the conversations I’ve been having regarding Zimbabwe. If you don’t know what has been going on in recent years in Zimbabwe just google it. You can read about the land redistribution, the AIDS epidemic, the hyper-inflation, the ruling of Mugabe and the all-out humanitarian crisis happening with a food shortage and lack of any basic medical supplies and medicines.
God has recently been bringing together partners into our facility to talk about Zimbabwe. The requests we have are heart-breaking. When you know that millions of people are suffering and dying because there isn’t any food available to eat, all you can do is cry You try to get your mind around 200 million percent inflation, but you can’t. And well, you can end up feeling a little paralyzed. What can I do?
So I struggle as a person. I’m obviously consumed with my family feeling the pain of losing the only grand-father I ever knew. Watching him forget how to swallow and now gasp for air is a traumatic experience. But I remind myself that my grandfather lived a long and full life and will now enter eternity with Jesus. And as I mourn this death process, I find myself in solidarity with the millions of people around the world who deal with death on a daily basis, only they didn’t have the opportunity to live such long lives. Mothers who are losing their children because of the lack of medicines to treat their children from simple diseases or the inability to gather food pains me greatly. Those in Zimbabwe who have the lowest life expectancy in the world, it is only in the 30’s. When I remind myself of these realities, I feel so grateful to have had so many wonderful years with my Popi.
Knowing of the pain around the world doesn’t lessen the pain of watching my grandfather’s body fail and fade. But it does remind me that I am not alone in my pain. And it does inspire me to continue my work on behalf of the poor. And it inspires me to trust in God’s mysterious wisdom because sometimes you just don’t understand why things are as they are. And in this season of life, I just don’t understand, but I do trust.
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