Blessing

This Sunday we had a BBQ for a team that is here on a short term missions trip. They came from Holland and California and were mostly college students. We had a lot of fun, the kids played volleyball and had a great time (probably because they won). We had a time of worship and sharing. One of the neatest things about having teams over is hearing what Kenya has taught them. The thing I'm always amazed by is most people come here to minister to this country, and leave with this country ministering to them. There is a lot of need here, but in seeing that need it seems that blinders are lifted and people never can go back to their old way of thinking. I think it is a realization that in the west we are so blessed, and yet we take it for granted. The one thing that you have to be careful of when your blinders are lifted is not to become cynical of the west. There isn't a perfect country in all the world; they all have faults. But, to not recognize that we were born into a life of privilege is a tragedy. I was given a free education, and had police service to keep my streets safe. I remember when I was in high school, there was a measles epidemic and, guess what, I was given a shot free of charge just to prevent me from getting sick. I was born into a country that when you get into a car accident you can call an ambulance just by dialing 911. I was born into a country that I can count on my fingers the number of times the power has gone out, and I can honestly say, I don't think I ever remember the water being shut off city wide. I could have applied for grants and loans to continue my education and if that wasn't enough, I could have worked for minimum wage and gotten any number of job offers. I was born into a pretty incredible country, I can worship freely and if I am falsely accused I get a free trail. When people talk about the west in a negative light I always think, we should be praising God that we were born into a country that allowed us to come to Africa and to do what we are doing. Not many places in the world have even enough money for food and shelter, yet I was able to work to buy a plane ticket. We can't take advantage of the free education, that allows us to learn to read and write, that allows us to get a job that puts food on our tables. We can't go to church to worship freely and then leave and talk about how much we hate the west. In a country like Africa we would work a whole week to earn as much as minimum wage does in a few hours. We would have sewage running through the street and the threat of Cholera and Typhoid would always be there. The police would put you in jail just because and never give you a reason why. No, I'm thankful of where I'm from; I never want to turn a blind eye to the fact that being born into the US was, and is a privilege. I'm not saying that we don't have problems, we do need to wake up to the fact that while we feast there are people dying of starvation, that while we go into clean doctor offices, there are people sick on the streets. That while we try to keep up with our neighbors there are people giving up their children because of poverty. We in the west do need to give up our pursuit for more, our need for perfection because ultimately they won't make us happy. We need to find our satisfaction in Christ because He is the only one that can truly satisfy. There will always be things that our country needs to work on, but let's not take our life of privilege for granted.