Hello again everyone! Last time I wrote you, I talked briefly about some of the unpleasant realities many people have to live with down here. I wrote that often times life feels hopeless and that is still true. But I hope that simply because we see the problem of poverty, AIDs, and sex trafficking as too big for us to handle, it doesn’t mean that with Gods help we can’t make progress. My dad tells me my grandfather always used to say: “we can’t make the entire world a better place but we can make our corner a little bit brighter.” And if everyone starts making their corner a little brighter then there is hope for the world. Today I’ll share with you a couple opportunities God has blessed me with to make this corner of the world just a little bit brighter.
Two fridays ago I was given the opportunity to do something called Samaritans Feet. Samaritans Feet is an organization that provides disadvantaged kids with shoes along with the presentation of the Gospel. When the day began, I was placed in the “story” section. The kids would have to go through a couple stations before they received their shoes and the story section came right after the registration table. I had the chance to share this story with several groups of kids as they came through.
--This is much abbreviated--
The story was about a man named Manny. Manny was a poor kid who lived in Kenya (I think) when one day some Christians came to his village. They started basketball clinics in his area where he learned what basketball was and eventually, how to play it. But Manny had no shoes. This often made it difficult for him to play. At the end of their clinics the Christians gave him and all the other kids shoes, along with the message of Jesus. It was here that Manny began his relationship with Jesus and found hope in those shoes, since they were his first pair. He then grew to love basketball and used his new shoes everyday to practice and eventually got very good. So good, in fact, he received a scholarship to play college ball back in the States. He used this opportunity to get a business degree and became very wealthy. God then used Manny to use his wealth to do the same for other children.
And to conclude the story we would say something like: “And Manny has provided the shoes which you are going to receive today because of the hope these shoes represented in his life found in our Savior Jesus Christ. Manny was a poor kid who thought he had no future but Christ used him to accomplish great things and these shoes represent that same hope you can have in Christ for your dreams.”
(and this was not the “prosperity gospel” either, for those of you who know how much I hate that)
After telling the story several times, I then received an even greater opportunity to wash the kids feet and to talk with them one on one. Washing the kids feet was more for the symbolism than for cleanliness. Although, it is true that many of these kids hadn’t taken a shower/bath for good while. I’m not a big fan of feet honestly. Especially dirty ones. So it was a little out of my comfort zone for me to go and touch these kids dirty, smelly, feet! But I don’t think I’ll forget the experience.
While washing their feet we were to ask them questions. Questions like: “What story did you just hear? What did you think about Manny? What kinds of dreams do you have (which often resulted in them telling me about their dreams when they sleep and not for the future!)?” And then asking them about Jesus. Many of the kids were too young or shy to talk to me, but there were several who were able to.
I remember asking this one girl what her dreams were and she said that she wanted to be a waitress. I responded by saying that I used to work at a restaurant last summer and then proceeded to ask her which/what type of restaurant she would like to work in. She responded by saying: “I have never been to a restaurant but they sound like they would be a great place.” It caught me a little off guard, and I’m not really sure why it did, but it still did. I was surprised to know that this 13-15 year old girl had never been to a restaurant in her entire life. I had probably been to five in the past week! The things I take for granted...
I did get to share the gospel with these kids one on one for the first time since I’ve been here and that was a real gift. I enjoyed asking them who Jesus was and having almost every single one of them point up to the sky. “Yes, He is the Son of God,” I would say, “but he’s not just up there, he is right here next to us.” I even got a little choked up when I told this one boy about how the God who created him and knew him before he was born loved him so much that he would come down out of paradise to be executed on the cross for his sake. I thought about how beautiful the idea is, how beautiful that reality is, and now I think about the hope that this means for the kids here who suffer like my friend Jason (who I wrote about in the last post). --his picture in a "protection vest" is to the left-- We can’t fix the world but we can make our corner a little brighter. And the looks I saw on so many of those kids faces confirms that light in my heart and in theirs. Thank God for that.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John that He is the “light of the world.” I am so blessed to see that light in those kids smiles. Jesus says that no one lights a lamp only to put it under a cover. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have this light inside of us, found in the Holy Spirit’s presence, which should never be covered. We are to be like this lit lamp, a fire burning in the darkness for the Lord. But if our fire is placed under a cover, it while inevitably be choked of oxygen and fade. But when uncovered and placed near others it catches the others on fire and spreads uncontrollably. I pray that we chose to spread our fire rather than choke it. Lets live as lights and make our little corner, wether it be in Cape Town or Birmingham, shine a little brighter.
God Bless,
Jshep
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