more than numbers.

I wanted to take a quick minute and give an update on the Child Sponsorship Program.  I just completed my first quarterly board report, and it was so encouraging to see the progress in terms of actual numbers.  I tend to be a black and white thinker, so numbers are my thing.  God has shown me the power in stories, but sometimes seeing statistics speaks in big ways.

> Total number of children in our program: 476 (which is about to grow tremendously as we begin working with new orphanages in Nigeria, Haiti, and Mazatlan)
> Total number of children sponsored: 286
> 66 new child sponsors (since I started)
> 22 pending sponsors

The best part about these particular numbers is-- they aren't just numbers.  These are children whose lives are being changed.  286 children who are receiving proper nutrition, the chance to get an education, and understanding they are loved.  These are people who are deciding to invest in something bigger than themselves.  Each one has a story and a way that God is moving in their lives.  As much as I love numbers, nothing gets me excited quite like that.

Check out what Andrew and Anna Conrad (Back2Back missionaries in Cancun) recently had so say about Back2Back's Child Sponsorship Program, and the unique relationship built between sponsor and child:
http://blog.agconrad.com/2012/06/real-impact-of-child-sponsorship.html

not so fast.

When I say what my favorite thing about God is, sometimes I feel like an adolescent girl who rattles off 6 names when asked who her best friend is.  It’s hard to choose just one, isn’t it?

This morning my favorite thing about God is when He uses something satan intended for evil for good.  I have experienced God’s restoration over and over in my life, and experienced healing from things I never thought could be healed.  When I pick up the pieces of my heart and put them back together myself, my heart gets hardened.  It becomes calloused from life’s hardships, and I become cynical and closed off.  But when God heals my heart, He works a miracle by piecing it back together so that it breathes.  My heart feels more after God heals, not less.  The best part about God’s healing touch, whether it be a relationship restored or a hardship redeemed, is that the ‘after’ is always better than the ‘before’.   God has the ability to take something that is broken beyond repair, put it back together, and make it more beautiful than anything you or I could have come up with on our own.   And we usually end up thankful for the very situation that hurt us.  He’s pretty amazing like that. 

I heard a story from our India site that reminded me of God’s ability to bring beauty from ashes.  In India, 55% of people are Hindu, 42% are Muslim, and just 2% are Christian.  The orphanages Back2Back partners with are Christian based, but they accept children from any background.  More than likely, most do not come from Christian families.  Parents who either will not or cannot care for their children leave them in an orphanage (satan’s plan), where they learn about a God who loves them and wants to have a relationship with them (God’s plan).  They leave a family that would have raised them to believe in a religion based on always working to try to earn god’s love (satan’s plan), and join a family that tells them God loves them exactly as they are (God’s plan).  Just last week, 30 children in the orphanages we partner with professed faith in Christ.  God used the very thing that should have broken and destroyed them, to save them.  In His severe mercy, He allowed pain and suffering to occur so that His children would know His love.   We don’t always understand God’s ways, but we can trust Him to work all things for good. 

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20    

do something.

I went to a seminar this week at my church about serving the poor within our community. The speaker said that those considered to be living in poverty in America are still among the top 30% of wealthiest people in the world.  Poverty in America is not like poverty in the rest of the world.  As I left, my mind was reeling with questions.  Why do we help the poor?  When have I given enough and when do I need to give more?  Shouldn’t we be focusing our efforts on people in poverty in third world countries rather than those in poverty here?  Is there a hierarchy of those we should help first?  What is the goal for helping those in need?

I’ve been praying about these questions, and asking people around me their thoughts.  I don’t have all the answers, but I have come to a few conclusions. 

We help the poor because that’s what Jesus did.  God tells us to love those around us and help our brothers in need.  We aren’t loving people if we see their need and don’t help.  This is an uneasy thought for most of us who live comfortable lives and see great need in the world.  I don’t even like typing the words.  I say that I want to obey God and that I love those around me, but what in my life speaks to this?  The proof is in the pudding, and I don’t feel like my pudding looks like my words.   I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I read the Bible, I sometimes wonder how we got from there to here.   It feels like we’ve been tricked.  If you’re waiting for me to offer some great solution about why we should rest easy, and feel good about why we live the way we do, I don’t have one.  I think we’re wrong.  I think we need to change.

We need to help people around the world in need, but I also think we need to love the poor in our city.  Not only that, but we need to love our next door neighbor.  And the person sitting in the cube next to us.  Jesus didn’t pick and choose.  Jesus didn’t rank people according to need.  He loved and gave to all.  Whatever need he saw, he gave all he had to help.

Finally, the ultimate goal of helping those in need is to point them to Jesus.  Our goal is not for everyone to become part of the top 30%.  Jesus never tried to make lots of money and accumulate more things, and I don’t think that should be our desire for everyone else.  I think this is the biggest misconception we have bought into when helping the poor.  We tend to think if the people in poverty had material possessions, then our job would be done.  We should be trying to tell them about Jesus, not make them like us.  I don’t think God wants more of us.  He wants more of Him.

There’s always going to be poverty and need.  We’re not going to solve that global problem.  We live in a broken world.  But that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands and give up.  There are children in this world who die of starvation.  Children who don’t have clean water.  Children who are being sold into slavery.  Children without parents to care for them.  We can’t hear that and not do anything about it.  What if that were your child?  What if that was someone you knew?  You wouldn’t sit around and continue life as usual.  You would do something.

So I think we need to do something.  Plain and simple.  We can’t call ourselves Christians and not help.  We need to open our eyes to the need all around us and start practicing what we preach.