Can I just share an experience that bothers me so much. So, I am at the grocery store and I needed to get food for 8 people and 2 extra meals with guests so it was a bit bigger than my normal grocery day (I am having Faith's friend stay with us for 4 days while her parents are at a work conference and we have a few guests coming for dinner this week). I take my cart up to the counter to pay for the food and the bill comes up to about R1700 ($120 roughly). As I wait to pay and my groceries are being bagged, I have to endure the looks from the lady bagging my food and the lady who scanned it. They look at my items and talk amongst themselves about different items I bought (I am quite used to this and have just rolled with it for 5 years). This time as I stand there I begin to think about my shopping. I just spent R1700 for only one weeks worth of groceries and many people, probably even the ones who just checked me out, don't even make that much in one whole month of working.
There is so much injustice and it is not easy to face. I am so privileged to be born in America. I am so blessed that I never have to put my 5 children to bed knowing that they are hungry or lacking the basic necessities of life. My acquaintance from church is not so lucky. Her husband has been out of work for a year and they will soon be kicked out of their home with no parents to depend on and no place to go. They have 2 young children who they cannot send to school, no electricity for warmth or even warm water, and they knowingly send their kids to bed hungry because there is no other option. This is only one family that I know, but there are thousands of families in Lesotho who are facing the same things. And yet, here I am standing at the store spending an unbelievable amount of money so we can eat "a balanced diet." Being an over privileged and "rich" person living in a land of extreme poverty can sometime eat at your conscience even though you know all of the arguments about "what you sacrificed to be a missionary." Please pray for me to use what I have wisely, to give generously, and please please pray for my acquaintance and her family so they can have a job, food, shelter and education.
Anita, I empathize with your struggle, holding my privilege and my friends' suffering together in my heart. We've been blessed to have refugee and immigrant friends who, even here in Grand Rapids, struggle to provide food and shelter. What a joy to receive from these friendships the challenge to live more rightly in the Kingdom. I'm praying for you as you struggle this out, too.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, Anita. It is a hard awareness being confronted with the inequities. How DO we live in the midst of another whole very different social/economic situation? I could never quite feel comfortable in the dichotomy, but then when did Christ ever call us to comfort?! What our heart learns from these experiences can at least be valuable.
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