Serving the one.

Giselle Timbie, the missionary who spoke at the women's retreat I went to in PA in March had a saying, "It's not wrong, it's just different." She was a missionary in Africa for 8 years with her family and lived by this motto.

After living here, in Burkina Faso, for merely ten days, I have thought much about that saying. So much of everything here is different. And many of these difference are not wrong...they are simply just different. 

But some of the things I've observed....are wrong, in the worst kinds of ways.

It is wrong for men, women and children to find their home in a pile of dirt on the side of the road.
It is wrong for people who are crippled with polo to be outcast from society and have to beg to survive.
It is wrong for hospitals to leave people bleeding out and dying in the hallways because they can't afford to pay medical costs upfront.

There is nothing right about that.

This country, in the limited time I've had to view it...is exceedingly poor. Most people live in extreme poverty here. The majority of the population are subsistence farmers. But the climate is so challenging here it makes farming extremely difficult. Which can often times lead to starvation. Because of this, people will often leave the villages and come to the city in hopes of making a living. But there is not enough work. Not nearly enough work for the people who live here. So, now they find themselves homeless and starving to death in the city.


I see them.

They are everywhere...so it's kind of hard to miss them.
They are on every street...even my own.
You'd have to be blind not to witness the extreme need here.
You can not escape it.

I see them.

I see them staring, to weak to move.
I see them begging, not too proud to ask.
I see them watching, waiting to see if I will see.

I see.

It can be quite overwhelming....the need. If I stop and look at the big picture...I wonder....how? How can I ever make a difference here?

And then the Lord whispers....."start with one."

"Start with one. Be obedient to serve the one. Not the whole. Just the one that I put in your path that day."

"One."

So that is what I'm going to try to do.

That is what we're going to do.

On the way home from a family walk on Sunday a little girl all alone intercepted us on the side of the road. We stopped and asked her name and how she was doing and she quickly motioned to her mouth wanting food. All we had was gum. Isaak gave her a piece of bubblegum that she happily accepted and she ran back off. It wasn't much. It won't nourish her in any way, but thank goodness we had something to offer her. Better a piece of gum then sending her off with nothing.

The next day, on Monday, we all walked down our street to the Rec Center to have lunch. Across the narrow road was a man crippled with polio sitting in his rusty wheel chair. I thought about him while we ate wondering if he would still be there when we got done. After lunch I asked the waiter to bag our leftovers and when we walked outside, he was still there. So I walked with Marvelly across the street and gave him my food and water.

I can serve the one. 

I may not be able to serve them all...but I can serve the one. Whether it be Isaak, my girls, our housekeeper, our gardener, a friend, the permanent missionaries working here....or a stranger on the street.....I pray I will not overlook or walk over the one....to get to the whole.

Right now, He is asking me to be obedient to serve the one, so I am going to do my best to try.

I can serve the one.

And may Jesus' great name be glorified when I do.