The first trip my Dad and I ever took to India was quite the step of faith – neither of us had much experience with developing countries and I have to say that we were a bit unprepared for the shocking differences in culture.
Not that we expected things to be exactly like home – but the severity of the differences were heartbreaking and tragic. Seeing children with not enough food, hospitals that were dirty and where patients were left unattended, small children digging through garbage dumps for plastic for their parents to sell were overwhelming. But these are the harsh realities of the lives of many in poor countries.
There have been many times when the sadness seems too much to bear – hearing the stories of abuse, seeing the effects of hardened hearts toward their fellow man – even stories of supposed Followers of Jesus Christ whose plan was to murder a competitor in the bid for the title of Bishop in a local church.
We have seen people with such physical deformities that they push themselves on their bottoms down the road, who have no one to care for them and have not eaten in several days.
The truth of the matter is that there is so much need and not enough helpers. It is not physically possible to help every person who needs help – and sometimes desperately. So our constant prayer is that God will bring across our paths those that WE are supposed to serve. To give us the ability to “be Jesus” to as many as possible. To provide the funds, the patience, the tenacity, the strength, the grace and the mercy that it will take to make a difference in the lives of people whom He loves – and then we pray that God will move on other hearts and that they will respond so even more people who are in need can hear the Truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ and find the hope that they so desperately seek. He is All-Sufficient and we pray that He will reveal Himself through the small actions of love that He calls us to perform.