Learning To See The Poor

Learning to See the Poor

Bible Blast: Read Matthew 19:16-23

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

In 2009 Kevin and Audrey packed up their three children and moved to Haiti to serve God as missionaries. Audrey told this story from their first three months of living in Haiti.

“There was an old woman in the market selling small brown biscuits. She looked up at me and with a toothless grin pitched her wares. A friend explained to me that they were dirt cookies. The shock and disbelief left me speechless, and my heart sank. I am praying I will soon have a grasp on the Creole language so that I can build relationships with the people I meet, who desperately need to know and experience the blessings of a life in God.”

During very desperate times in Haiti, the people are actually mixing clay with salt and some sort of butter or vegetable shortening to make dirt cookies. They bake them in the hot sun and sell them in the market to support their families. Haitians have been using dirt cookies as a health remedy for many years, but some families are actually eating them for every meal because they can’t afford anything else.

Living in America, we can easily just think the rest of the world lives pretty much the way we do. But that isn’t true.

At least 80 percent of people on the earth live on less than $10 a day.^a That’s about $310 a month, which is less than many Americans’ monthly car payments.

So how do we deal with such poverty if we don’t live overseas like Audrey and Kevin do? First you can pray for people in other countries, even if you don’t know much about them. You can pray that they have enough to eat and stay healthy. When you hear of an earthquake, immediately pray for those people.

You may not be able to move to another country to care for the poor, but you can do a lot for them by praying.

Girl Gab: Mom and daughter, dream together. Answer the question, If you could visit anywhere else in the world, where would you go? Pray for that place today. If you have time, do an online search for that country, and see what it looks like.

^a See www.globalissues.org.