Trusting. A lot.

Each day, I am more humbled by the Ugandan children here at Village of Hope. For starters, they are more diligent than any kids I’ve ever met. They are literally busy (whether it’s chores or school) from 7:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night, with the exception of an hour here for lunch and an hour and a half there for play and then showers. Each day, I wake up at 6:30 to them all singing praises to God… thanking him for food, for education, for life, for hope. And they truly sing like they mean it. It’s a beautiful sound to wake up to. They love learning—Math, English, Science, Social Studies. They work hard because they understand, even at age 11, that knowledge is so vital if they want to succeed. They all love each other so much. I haven’t seen any evidence of cliques or anyone being left out, and they all share clothes with each other. Granted, they have much fewer clothing than we’re used to in the US, but still… we’re taught so early that our things are OURS and that sharing is good, but you get to decide what you want to share, in a sense. These kids don’t have that mentality at all. They share everything. Everything is everybody’s.

Today at church, the kids were praying. Hearing them all pray is another thing that just humbles me even more… it’s so real and so raw. Today they prayed for you. For Americans. They thanked the Lord for the blessings they have received because of American donors, and recognized that they would still be in the refugee camps if people in the US hadn’t donated their resources to Village of Hope. If that isn’t amazing enough, they then prayed that those people who have donated to VOH would be blessed for it. That they would have even more because they chose to give. How humbling is that?

I’m learning so much. What is wealth? Is it material, or is it relational? After watching these kids interact with one another, I would argue that true wealth in this world must be relational. That material possession literally is nothing. That’s something I’m really learning right now… to let go of my material possessions. That nothing I own is truly mine, and nothing I own is going to last anyways. I think that many American Christians (including myself) have for so long been so blind to how materialistic we are. We’re taught that our stuff is a blessing. But what if our material possessions are actually hindering us from realizing the message that Jesus taught? Everything he ever preached tells us to love the orphans, the widows, the needy, the sick, the oppressed, the unwanted, and the hurting. Are we blinded to what is going on in the world because we’re so focused on our possessions? My stuff… and that’s all it is—stuff—will never be a blessing until I realize that God has blessed me with excess not so that I can HAVE more, but so that I can GIVE more.

Having a faith in Christ does not mean greater material blessings or prosperity in this world. I know I’ve said this so much… but I’ll say it until it changes… how can we read Jesus’ command in Mark 10 to sell everything and give it to the poor and then just sit back and watch, as 26,000 children die daily of starvation or preventable diseases? Or maybe it’s because we don’t watch. We turn the other way. We don’t know their names, so they are easy to ignore.

But they are here. They’re here in Uganda, they’re scattered across Africa. They’re in India, in El Salvador, and in the Philippines. They’re even in the USA. And they have names, and they smile and they laugh and they cry and they get hungry and they get full, and they run and jump and skip and play hide and seek, and they think and dream and they hope for a future.

“Our perspective on our possessions radically changes when we open our eyes to the needs of the world around us. When we have the courage to look in the faces of brothers and sisters whose bodies are malnourished and whose brains are deformed because they have no food, Christ will change our desires and we will long to sacrifice our resources for the glory of his name among them.” –David Platt

And that’s just it… we have what we have in order to bless those who don’t have anything. And the purpose of that isn’t simply to satisfy a need or fill a belly. Because honestly, those truly are short-term needs. The purpose of providing for the needs of the poor is to glorify the name of God. Sounds selfish… but whom else would we praise? If you believe there is a God, why wouldn’t you praise him? I truly would like to know.

“There is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, “I wish you would have kept more for yourself.” I’m confident that God will take care of me. When God tells us to give extravagantly, we can trust him to do the same in our lives… Do we trust him?” –again, David Platt.

I’m scared, thinking about all of this. It’s scary to imagine giving up what I’ve always been comfortable with for a life where I truly rely daily on God’s provision. And I think it might be a slow process. Learning what the balance is and applying it. Trusting.

But I have to. I can’t look at Fida and Gloria and Cosmas and Prossy and Clinton and then go home and live in affluence. Because now some of those 26,000 children dying of preventable causes have faces, and they have names. And they are relying on me. And they are praising the Lord that he is using people like me to provide their needs. That’s insane.