What do we know about giving? Very little, is seems.
I was humbled to recently receive this handful of food from a neighbour (photo). She is one of the poorest of the poor people in our neighbourhood! I was visiting and on the way passed her house. We started talking… Suddenly, she stopped, ran into her house and filled a small bowl with the prawns that have been cooking over her fire. Eagerly she pressed it into my hands, so happy that she has something to give me… I thanked her, knowing that words cannot express the huge sacrifice she just made. The ocean may be only 10 km away, but prawns still is a novelty here!
A few houses further a little girl (who recently got a too-small shirt from Heidi passed on to her) pressed a mango (one of the very first this season) into my hand with a shy smile. I found it hard to swallow pass the knot in my throat as I realized how much she is giving up.
How easy it is to give from our abundance… how hard it must be to give when you have nothing!
I must confess that this “Hunger Time” of each year is always stressful for me. People are flocking to our house to sell whatever they can to survive, because as they say “it’s not good to steal”. Inevitably, no matter how much we want to help, our money runs out (no ATMs in the bush!) and we have to say “no”. I find it heart wrenching to send someone home who tried to sell something so that she and her children can have something to eat other than cassava root porridge that night… The responsibility as the only source of income for most around us sometimes seem just too heavy…
Pray that we can get the Josef Project up and running! It will not solve all the poverty problems of the community, but will definitely make a difference!