from Burkina Faso...

We have good friends who have now been serving in Burkina Faso for almost 6 months, and we just received their newsletter. They wrote a little bit about the poverty, and it strikes us close to home. Wanted to share...

"Poverty can be intense. Poverty affects almost every part of every day of our lives at our new home. It’s not just the begging that tugs at your heart strings. It’s more than that. It’s being gawked at and visibly envied over things we consider mundane in the USA. It’s the worry we see on peoples’ faces when they’re praying to God for rain so that their crops will survive. It’s the lying, cheating, and stealing that occur daily because people think they have to in order to get by. It’s the resources that are destroyed from over-use because there isn’t enough to go around. Kids can’t go to school because they can’t afford it. The kids who can manage to find $30 to attend school struggle to keep up with homework because their old gas lanterns don’t work very well. People die from snake bites because they can’t afford the anti-venom. Old men ask us for manual labor because they don’t have enough to eat. It’s enough to make your head spin, and it’s constant.

In sharp contrast to the poverty here is the generosity of our neighbors. We can hardly go anywhere without someone wanting to buy something (candy, cookies, etc) for Caleb (our son.) Our friends bring us gifts or help us paint our house without even being asked. My language helper’s mom has made dinner for us a couple of times, despite the fact that we have plenty of food and many of our neighbors do not. There is an under-lying richness to many of these people that can’t be balanced in a bank account.

Our experiences with poverty here have helped me reflect more on Luke 18 (the subject of my first sermon here). Contrary to what people in Jesus’ time thought, money and wealth do not make us better or more righteous. Instead, Jesus taught, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” All of our stuff (which we’re grateful to have, now that the container has arrived) can be a serious hindrance to our spiritual lives. Despite the fact that we got rid of over half of our earthly belongings last year, it’s obvious that we still have much more “earthly baggage” than most of the rest of the world.
Please pray for us as we continue to make daily decisions on how to deal with the poverty around us. Pray that we will have wisdom, strength, and compassion. But also please remember to pray that your earthly possessions don’t weigh your spirit down…that they would have a loose hold on you, as Jesus demanded of the rich young ruler."