Then I turned on the computer and saw this building. This is a school my church is building in Africa. “Imagine these kids as they come into a school building without dirt for a floor and sit at a desk and open a book. wow - the things we take for granted.” was one of the comments below it.
How foolish I am.
I am worrying about tightening my belt for a few weeks, maybe I won’t be able to go out to eat, or go see a movie. Maybe date night will be in home watching a movie (off of Netflix, with my brand new laptop plugged into my even newer flat screen TV.) And I feel poor.
The children that will attend this school don’t have laptops and flat screens, most don’t have electricity to use them if they did. They don’t go out to eat, in fact the only two meals they will probably eat will be given to them at this school. Most wont go further than the 8th grade.
I am worrying about how we will buy groceries. Maybe we’ll have to buy regular milk or whole wheat bread instead of the organic brands. Maybe we won’t be able to buy water bottles, we’ll actually have to drink from the tap! Maybe we’ll have whole wheat pasta and organic pasta sauce twice this week (GASP the humanity!)
While I’m worried about variety, quality, and name brands, these children would kill to have what I have in my fridge RIGHT NOW, before heading to the store to fill my shelves with things I probably don‘t need. What I have in my one bedroom apartment would feed the family of six who live in a one room, dirt floor, mud hut and all of their neighbors for a month.
We had a pastor visit from Africa a couple of weeks ago. Do you know what he said was one of the biggest culture shocks to him coming to America? He said portion size and “you throw food away!” This is unheard of in Africa. If you don’t finish your plate in Africa you find someone who will (but more likely than that, you finish your plate!) You know that old phrase we’ve all heard from our mother “eat your veggies, there are starving kids in Africa.” Ok, no, you can’t donate your half eaten plate of broccoli, and whether or not you finish it will not affect them, but think about it the next time you think “oh all we have is spinach, I hate spinach.” There are children in Africa who would eat that plate of spinach like it was a bowl of ice cream, with a big, spinach eating grin on their faces.
I’m going to try and remember that the next time I’m tempted to complain. To a child in Africa, walking into my apartment, I am rich. My “tiny” kitchen would look like a gourmet restaurant filled with the best foods he has ever seen. My “cramped” bathroom, with it’s running water, scented body washes and bubble bath would seem like a spa (although he wouldn’t know what a spa was.) My old torn up couch would be the most comfortable thing he had ever sat on. Oh, he would think my poorly insulated apartment was cold, but after living on the equator with no air conditioning I am sure he wouldn’t mind. Wouldn’t it be fun to see through his eyes while he played his first video game, or learned to type on one of my two laptops? Sure one of them is broken, but I am sure if I said to him he could use the broken one he wouldn’t mind having to hold the charger in with one hand. And if we made a snack I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if the bread wasn’t organic or the brownies were dry because I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I bet tap water would be delicious and refreshing to him.
We could all learn a thing or two from an African child. It is true, “from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16 Let’s try not to forget it.
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