Have you ever had one of those days that your heart was broken and that you were on the verge of tears? Yea, I just had one of those. Today, when I went to have a weekly Bible study, a little girl named Mi Mae came running when she saw me because I promised her and her friends a coloring page last week. She was so excited to get a coloring page and crayons to color. The people here live in what we would call a squatter camp. Through visits to this village, I have gained a new perspective of what poor really is. As we sat down and started to share a message with the adults, we passed out the coloring pages to the children. Mi Mae was first to get her page and she was so excited to get started coloring. As I gave her a page to color, I noticed that her feet were very badly burned–I mean seeping wounds on her feet. She got her a page and started coloring not concerned about her feet at all. I left to go get medication to treat her feet. I came back and she was unfazed by her feet still coloring with her friends. She brought her picture out for me to see and then I got a chance to clean her feet and treat them with medicine. They were in terrible condition. It was all I could do to keep the tears back as I treated her feet. I told her she needed to keep her feet clean and wear shoes/flip flops. Her sister said that she didn’t have any shoes and her sister was wearing her friend’s shoes. I told them I would go and get her shoes and to stay there I would be right back. They asked if I could get them some food as they would not have any food until their parents came home in the evening. So I got a good understanding of what poverty really is.
As we start the process of expanding our ministry here I was dreading asking for funds. After today I am not ashamed to ask, in fact, I should be ashamed not to ask. I am not asking for myself, I am asking for all of the Mi Maes that are in need. I hope through my stumblings of telling the story you can still see the need. I ask you today what are you planning to purchase today that could be more of a need than that?
God Bless you for the work you do. Always in my prayers.