Hands and Feet

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'"  Matthew 25:34-36

I have always known a privileged life - and for that I am thankful.  I have not known what it is like to be in need and rarely have I been left in want.  I have experienced pangs of hunger, but never known what it is like to be left hungry.  If I missed a meal, it was by choice, not a lack of food.  I am grateful and blessed and should thank God more for these blessing DAILY.

While I have never experienced poverty or hunger, it does not make me unsympathetic to the plight of those in these circumstances.  Before I moved to China, I thought that poverty looked like the men and women I had served in Soup Kitchens and saw panhandling on the side of the road in America.  When I moved to China, I thought that I knew what poverty looked like when I visited JL's home for the first time.  My in-laws have worked a hard life as rice farmers in rural South-Western China to raise, support, and educate 6 children.  Yet they remain joyful, gracious, and generous.  Then we visited one of JL's sisters in the migrant community.  It utterly broke my heart to see the sacrifices they were making in order to be able to give their children a better future.  They gave to us generously and offered us the best of what they had, which is something that amazes me.  (Check out my previous post on the Migrant Village)  However, it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that I have finally seen what REAL want and need are.

It is a rare day here in Colombo that I would not be approached by a person asking me for money.  In order to not see a poor person, I would have to not leave my house.  I do not doubt that most of these people are legitimately poor and hungry.  The cost of living in Sri Lanka is increasing daily while the value of the Sri Lankan Rupee is at an all-time low.  However, there are always some who will try to take advantage of others.  In general, JL and I give our spare change to the people we come across - especially those we can see are in great need, like those who are crippled or small children.

On this particular day, I was taking the bus.  It is the route that I travel 3 times a week to go to and from volunteering.  I like to sit by the windows so I can watch the people bustling around and the action at the various markets we pass by along the way.  It's just a simple pleasure that I enjoy, especially in during the morning commute.  However, my personal amusement and entertainment was not what God had in mind for me that morning.  As the bus paused at one of the bus stops, a man caught my eye.  I'm not sure what made me take notice of this particular man as opposed to all the others, maybe it was his haggard appearance or his thick, full gray beard.  Whatever it was, I was shaken from my personal reverie to pay attention to what this man was doing.  He had hurried over the side of the bus station and was bending down toward the ground.  There, in the dirt, was a discarded rice packet, presumably the unwanted leftovers from someone's breakfast.  This man was bending down to eat it.  Before I even had time to reach into my purse for my wallet to get some money to give this man, the bus pulled away.  That memory, however, has been burned in my memory ever since.

Now, every morning when I take the bus, I look for that man.  I have seen him maybe once or twice more walking along that same stretch of road.  My heart longs to find that man, to feed his hunger and tell him that there is a God who loves him and who has not forgotten him.  I don't know if this will ever happen, but I pray that someone will tell him.

As I look around this country, I see the immense needs of the people.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by how great the need really is.  I look at what I am doing and I think, "How am I making a difference here?  I am just teaching English."  I know that the children at the preschool are needy - they come from the fishing communities (AKA slums) along the coast.  Most of these "homes" are just corrugated steel lean-tos.  I've also noticed that when we have birthday parties at the nursery for the children that some of the children pack away their cake or candy bars to take home because they may not get another meal that day.  

Lately, my question to myself has been, "How can I communicate the love of Christ without being His mouth?"  Most of the children I work with are 3 and 4 years old and their English level is LOW, so telling them that God loves them isn't very effective.  But I am a part of the BODY of Christ, not just the mouth.  So, I do what I can by my actions to show these children that I care for them and love them because that's what Christ has commanded me to do.  It has taken my words being taken from me (because I can't speak Sinhala) to focus my attention on being the hands and feet and other parts of the body for Christ.

"For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?  If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body."  1 Corinthians 12:14-20