You say you really want to be different... to make a difference...

Do you ever stumble across a blog post (or series) that really makes you stop, sit back and just think? And then recognize that you've been going about some things all wrong?

Rebekah at the orphanage she tries to visit every week.

This one did that for me - and I'm not even sure how I happened upon it... 

1. Listening well as a person of privilege: Recognize that the rules are different for you
2. Listening well as a person of privilege: Solidarity first, collaborative problem-solving later

Even the titles provoke thought, don't they... like: Why or why not do you identify yourself as a person of privilege?

This blog post as well (written by my very sweet friend), also challenges ideas along these same lines: 

• Just because I am a person of privilege, does that mean my perspective is better or more right or more valid? 
• Can I be trying to help and still be motivated by my own selfish desires and agenda?

I'd love it if you took the time to read - 

and share some of your thoughts afterwards.

Five Minute Friday ~ A Prayer for After

Three gals, traipsing over the sand dunes and probably heading home before dark. I captured them with my telephoto lens in not the best of lite, a few years ago. But their picture intrigues me. Or perhaps more accurately, it haunts me.

I wonder about their stories.

They could be sisters. That isn't hard for me to imagine... I can easily picture my three oldest girls walking along through the sand~ wrapped in wild African print, scuffing $1 cheap flip-flops along through the sound and munching on a piece of fruit as they chatter and meander along, enjoying the reprieve from the unrelenting sun now ducking behind the horizon and mostly oblivious to any and everything else going on around them. Or two could be keeping the third company as she was sent to the nearby market to buy millet which she'll then pound before preparing her family's meal. 

That second scenario isn't so much like my girls' story... 

...and not because my girls never run to a nearby shack, 

buy then bring something home, and 

prepare it for the rest of the family. 

They do

...sometimes.

But sometimes they lay on their bed and watch YouTube videos on the oldest's Ipod... or read books they've checked out from the library... or walk to the nearby playground, plop on the trampoline and chat with friends... and dream of a vacation in Scotland, new dresses from Gammie and Gampy, meeting a new-to-them grandma, celebrating Andi and Uncle Joe's wedding, renewing friendships with dear ones they haven't seen for more than three years, wondering if we'll be able to figure out horseback riding and music lessons... 

My girls love their life in Niger and are so thankful for the opportunity they've had to spend so much of their growing up time here, even knowing all of the things they've "missed" in the States. When we are on home assignment, they miss this place and their friends here something awful. But there is something after Niger for them... something farther off and more away.

It is not the same for those three girls growing up in a village in Niger, which, according to the 2012 United Nations Human Development report, is ranked as the worst county in the world in which to live.

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They probably do not know how to read, even if they were permitted to attend school for 2-3 years. They may have never seen a television, much less surfed the internet. They may already be married and have children waiting for them back by their huts. Their husbands or fathers may have a cell phone... however it is unlikely that they would carry one. For them, their "after" is Niger...

I hope my girls never forget just how blessed they've been, how much lavish grace they've been gifted. 

I pray that after Niger, they never forget... that they fight hard against the entitlement... that each time they start to believe and presume a desire, even a worthy one, to be a need or a right... they remember images like the one above... and remember...

Their "afters" are gifts to be shared, sacrificed, spent and well-stewarded the rest of their lives...

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Joining up with Lisa Jo for another Five Minute Friday.

Take five minutes yourself, and join the fun! It's easy...

A Common Mark of Imperfection

My young friend Zeinabou died this past week. 

She would have turned 8 this December... 

That's Jonathan's age,  almost exactly. Sometime during her second year of life, she became deathly ill with a combination of cerebral malaria and meningitis. She survived, with long-reaching, serious consequences.

Damage to her brain resulted in hydrocephalus. I'll never forget the night her mama came to the door to ask for help, little Zeinabou sick with malaria again and in so much pain due to fluid trapped in her skull and compressing her brain. When we took her to the doctor, they told us there was nothing they could do... the family was too poor to pay for the surgery necessary... she would experience increasing pain until she finally slipped into a coma and died.

We started praying, and God provided. 

He brought the funds in for her surgery and the one neurosurgeon in all of Niger is a brother in Christ. Surgery went well, and despite her significant handicaps, her family seemed to enjoy her continual joyfulness. I hardly ever saw that girl, except that she was smiling or laughing.

Each little step forward or progress she'd make, her mama would tell me... after she learned to say "Nya," (mama), then once she began taking her hand to her mouth to communicate hunger, even calling me into her concession to hear Zeina say "har har," (her attempt to say water), and finally, right before our 2009/10 furlough, she began waving hello and goodbye. Her eyes were always alert, always watching events occurring around her.

We came back to Niger, this time living in a different neighborhood and I no longer had the opportunity to see her almost every day. But I'd try to swing by once a month or so and see how she was getting along, and greet her mama.

Her daddy stopped Tim on the road the other day to say she had gone.

I know it is so much better for Zeinabou now. Like a friend wrote to remind me: "Aren’t you glad that we know that heaven is a real place?  Zeinabou is happy and perfect today…no longer suffering in her body." I do know that.

But I'll miss her smile when I go to visit.

I'm sure her mama will, too.

Some might say that Zeinabou's life didn't amount to much - one of many children in her family, a desperately poor, severely handicapped child who could at best barely communicate in one of the most difficult, least developed places in the world barely surviving until she finally succumbed to a vicious health menace. I can't agree... if I did, I'd be saying the same thing about myself because until Jesus chose me... and I chose Him back, I was in the exact same boat.

These words help me to remember Zeina, to celebrate the precious life she was given and to thank God for the gift He gave me when she became my friend:

"Our family praises God for the disability in our midst. God is perfectly sovereign over disability. God is perfectly good in disability. God in Christ is perfectly gracious and merciful in His working in and through the imperfect vessels that we all are. One day He will mercifully and joyfully give us perfect resurrection bodies. I long for that for myself. I long for that for the disabled. The hope of this full restoration only comes through Spirit-wrought faith in Christ as we respond to the Gospel (I Cor. 15:1-4). 

We bare the common mark of imperfection whether disabled, diseased, or 'normal.' That common mark is a sin-stain that needs Jesus’ saving and sanctifying blood-washing. Not a person alive or who has ever lived is outside of this birthmark, save Jesus alone. That is the most astounding statistic, 100% of people are marked by sin and the Gospel conquers 100% of its final effect. Jesus conquered death that we might live, being made perfect in eternity with Him (Rev. 21)." (Click here to read the rest of this article by Justin Reimer)

These photos aren't Zeinabou. It is another little gal.

I must have taken all my photos of her home when we last furloughed. Her sweet, contagious smile does, however, remind me of Zeina.

Learning from One of His Valiant Ones

It’s been almost 12 years serving alongside my husband, raising our family, living in a place dry and dusty, difficult and destitute… It is hard to imagine anyone choosing to be here, at least not without the call of God pushing them. But I do. In fact, there’s no place in the world I’d rather be. It is here that God fleshed out for me what it means to be His woman of valor.

I could write about several women who’ve impacted my life: Mamata, struggling to learn to read at nearly 70 years of age, desperately desiring God’s Word and so she continues to plug away, despite ridicule and ostracism from her Muslim family. I could share about Aissa and Alarba, co-wives to a man who came to know Jesus not too many years ago. They, in an impossible-for-me-to-understand-situation, live and love and work together as friends, encouraging each other in their walk with the Lord, working side by side hour after long hour frying fish and donuts to sell in the market, and caring for their uniquely blended family. I could have… but didn’t choose any of those women....

To continue reading, please join me today over at Missionary Mom's Companion. Certainly hope to see you there!

A Link I Think You'll Find Worth the Time it Takes to Read...

A Grief Interruption

Go ahead. Head on over to read it.
You really won't even need to come back here after you do.

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I've only spoken with Deb, the author of this blog, a few times.

I appreciate her blog; she's a gifted writer and

she experiences a slice of Niger life that I really don't.

This particular story broke my heart - maybe because I have seen glimpses

of this sort of tragic slice...

Woman not able, not allowed, discouraged to express any emotion when they lose.
And they do lose.
Often.
Lots.

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...listening to Mamata talk about burying five of her eleven babies, before they turned 2 ~

...watching my friend Tina going through the pain of an abusive, broken marriage to lose legally what little say she did have in the lives of her beautiful children ~

...sitting with Issoufou's widow and little boy - she couldn't have been more than 18 ~

...seeing our guard Amadou lose his first baby boy just weeks ago; then today the body of his little brother was returned to the family. He was killed when the UN forces with whom he served were ambushed down along the Liberian/Ivory Coast border ~

...little Zeinabou, our neighbor girl, severly handicapped after her encounter with cerebral malaria and meningitis, yet her family choosing life for her ~

...Elsie Mae's friend from church, Salamatou - who has recently lost fingers due to infections from simple cuts and scrapes while living out in the village and no access to medical care. She's not lost her sweet smile and delight in hugs and holding hands ~

And that list could go on and on and on...

Life in Niger is hard, so desperately hard, for her people.

I'm spoiled.

We Americans are selfish and spoiled...

I've seen.

I've no excuse.

Yet as I look at the priorities in my heart,

I'm still pleading,

"Lord, open my eyes...

...and change the priorities of my heart."

Multitude Monday - 1000 Gifts ~ "Learn till the soil gets in your ears"

We watched a movie the other night...

... about a really cool old guy from Kenya, named Kimani Maruge.

An 84 year old farmer living in a mud shack in poor village, former Mau Mau fighter, ex prisoner of war, lame widower... What he wanted most of all, though, was to be a student; he wanted to learn how to read. So he persuades a teacher at the local primary school to allow him join her class as a student.

One of the things that the movies only barely, whisperingly touches is that his longing to read is a craving to dive into God's Word for himself, no longer dependent on sermons or others to read for him.

Kimani Maruge died in 2009; 89 years old and in 6th grade. He certainly lived what he preached (at least according to the movie): "Learn till the soil gets in your ears."

I pray every day for a heart that is thankful that I still have opportunity to learn, that longs to study and grow, and one that remains gentle and teachable, even when the lessons I need to learn are long, hard and painful ones.

this week's gratitude list

(#s 2141 - 2167)

long, hard, painful lessons

the joy and challenge of teaching Algebra

watching kiddos figure out that fractions are friendlier than that first thought

electric and internet at the same time

pile of papers completely graded and recorded

chili dogs and movie night at the school

seeing a dear friend smile

first day of swim lessons

another accident, seeing God's hand of protection

giggles with big girls

Tuesday off

nems and rice delivered for dinner

Henri's sermons - he delivers some one-line zingers

the report that family is helping my recently widowed aunt

three hippos down by the bridge

pouring rain on one side of the river, nothing but a few scattered drops on the other... how does God cause that to happen

Saturday morning breakfast and shopping

m&m floating away and blowing bubbles in her tube

realizing that Bren taught the Jon-man to swim, Rebekah coached Elsie Mae and now Nadia's making fabulous progress working with the littlest tike

littlest tike's sparkly blue eyes and matching sparkly personality

continued progress at literacy class... the goal is in sight

my girls discovering The Little Princess

anticipating a birthday party this weekend

looking forward to Bible study coming up this weekend... and an actual day off to prepare!

halfway through our hottest time of the year... counting down the weeks until the rains should (hopefully) arrive

sleeping in

negative-for-infection lab results 

Multitude Monday - 1000 Gifts ~ Our Spring 2012 Prayer Letter

“Why have you brought this trouble on your servant?

What have I done to displease you

that you put the burden of all these people on me?

Did I conceive all these people?

Did I give them birth?

Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms,

as a nurse carries an infant,

to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?

Where can I get meat for all these people?

They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

I cannot carry all these people by myself;

the burden is too heavy for me.

If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now

—if I have found favor in your eyes—

and do not let me face my own ruin.”

~Numbers 11:11-15~

Have you ever noticed this prayer of Moses before?

 

Harmattan winds
Photo by: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN

It is sounding more familiar than we’d like. Crazy and nearby political events, brothers and sisters fleeing in search of safety, thousands of refugees just miles up the road, markets in town where only ashes remain, daily requests for food from friends and neighbors who have nothing, dust blowing everywhere, our little one testing positive for malaria, trying to mix medications by candlelight… and grade papers, relentless heat, still waiting for official news from EBM, sweating and praying for either sleep to come or the fan once again to move so maybe you can sleep and not feel the weight of the burden for a few blessed hours…

Needless to say, Moses’ long ago plight seems remarkably personal as these days we echo similar mental cries of “This is just too much.” And it is, without a doubt, too much - at least for us. Our heads know we need to turn to God. Please pray with and for us that our hearts don’t turn away instead. Also pray that we accept the challenge of these two truths- 

1. Faith either grows or it atrophies; &
2. God will not let our faith atrophy without a challenge

-while gently accepting His kindness and goodness shown by His sovereign choices for our lives. He’s challenging our faith to grow – drawing us into an ever deepening relationship with Him. How could we be anything but thankful, even in the midst of all this?

A frequent sight... people and vehicles trying to carry "just way too much!"

 

3… 2… 1… and… another recording starts

The first quarter of 2012 saw the completion of the Gourmantché version of the Godman film, and the continuation of 7 weekly radio programs including “The Hour of Gospel.” Most recently, we produced a series of programs with teaching and a question/answer round table on the theme of Easter. Thru the Bible radio program will soon have completed a 200th program aired here in Niger. Many special thanks to all of you who have helped financially to make that program possible. Please pray for regular, uninterrupted Internet service here in Niamey. This has been a consistent challenge since the beginning of the new year, as all of the Thru the Bible episodes must be downloaded as .mp3 files and then placed on disc. Pray for wisdom for our 2nd and 3rd quarter production schedule. We are looking at a couple of more films dubs one into the Tamajeq language and another, very different style of film, into French. One exciting possibility with which Tim is currently experimenting is new technology enabling us to put Bible stories and pictures in a format that can be shared by Bluetooth between people’s cell phones. This same distribution method is used by other religions to share their materials; we hope and pray it will replace cassette tape distribution in some areas of Niger.

Our part of the world

West Africa has been in the news quite a bit lately – coup d’état and rebellion in the country of Mali, our colleagues and Christian brothers and sisters fleeing from their homes as Sharia law is instituted in several regions, famine concerns all across the Sahel region of Africa, Boko Haram setting off bombs in Nigeria, even several key buildings and markets going up in flames here in Niamey…

Needless to say, it is a bit unsettling. We’d like to share excerpts from one of the emails we received regarding the present situation in Mali, written by a professor from the Bible school:

Preparing to evacuate

The situation in Gao is getting worse. No water or electricity, the market is still closed but few butchers in the streets. On Monday, the rebels looted the Assemblies of God Church. We did our best, when we were leaving the city to evacuate their pastor and family with 2 believers. The pastor of the Bible church, a brother from Nigeria is still trapped in Gao. I called him one time and the line was cut off. I think his phone battery went flat. I did not know where he was hiding so to go get him. I was told today that he is doing well and still trying to get out of Gao.

…We didn’t hear from two families from our church. They are not in their homes according to my friend who looked for them today. The Ansar Dine faction, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) started imposing Islamic sharia law in areas under their control. We are also told that that some 100 members of Nigeria’s Boko Haram sect are among Islamists controlling Gao. It is all over in the news that they slaughter one thief, shot the second and have cut [off] many hands. The population left in Gao is estimated at 40 % and 20% in Timbuktu.

We have a deep concern at the growing terrorist threat….. ECOWAS has raised the prospect of sending a force of up to 3,000 men to try to reclaim northern Mali. We don't know when this will happen. All [we] can do is to pray and hope. The situation in the three northern regions (Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu) is dramatic. There are no more hospitals and hunger is growing...

In Timbuktu area, one pastor (a missionary in Goundam), his wife and baby, are missing. Pastor Nouh was not able to contact him. The pastor in Niafunke was heard from on Sunday when they were looting the church, his house and the missionary station. We still have a few believers who are trapped in these different cities and they need your prayers. This (Easter) morning at 11 AM, we were 166 “refugees” from our different churches. This number will keep growing for we expect more people in the coming days.

Colleagues of ours from Mali have also evacuated; one family is presently here in Niamey. For those of you who feel the Lord leading you to help the N. Malian church, now centered in Bamako (the capital of Mali), help care for these refugees - men, women and children who have no idea when… or even if… they will ever go home - please write us for specific information regarding how you can help.

Dissolution

Many of you have written to ask how the EBM dissolution is moving along… and whether or not we will be required to sell the field properties (including the house in which we are living and the studio where Tim does most of his work) to help meet financial obligations. The long and the short of it is that we haven’t heard much… that has been part of our delay in writing this letter – we wanted to have something to share with you.

The most recent news we have received is that a purchase agreement on  the home office property in Indianapolis was signed early in March… and that we should be hearing something more definitive in the next 30-45 days.

And so… we wait… still… trusting that God is up to something grand and good!

Attention!

We want to draw your attention to a recently approved relief project that is hitting very close-to-home. In the wake of a terrible harvest last fall and an inundation of refugees from surrounding countries with bad political situations, our Nigerien brothers and sisters are at risk of severe famine this year. Conditions have been developing steadily since January. Therefore, in response to a specific request for help from the Gourmantché Baptist churches where we minister in SW Niger, we are setting up a famine relief project through our home office of Faith Baptist Mission. This project has a time limit as the funds needed to make critical food purchases must be available by July or earlier. We are asking people to give until we reach approximately $9,000. This amount would give each family a fifty pound bag of rice or grain, helping approximately 2000 people in villages where these churches exist and minister. This is current and critical need!

Tim and colleague from a sister mission assisting
in a baptismal service held by the Beneira churches last fall.

Would you, your church, or small group consider giving to the “Niger Famine Fund 2012.” If you are interested, contact us immediately; please be prompt. At the end of June we will bring out all available funds, and then the account will be closed.

Quick Recap: Petitions & Praises

ü  Pray for peace and safety for Christian brothers and sisters in both Mali and Nigeria.

ü  Praise that so many have been successfully evacuated and that they are thanking the Lord for His care and provision, keeping their eyes on Him.

ü  Pray that needed funds to help with famine relief for families from our Baptist churches in the southwest corner of the country will be quickly given.

ü  Praise our Father that He allows us the privilege of sacrificial giving, especially at this time of year when we remember the tremendous and amazing sacrifice He made for us.

ü  Pray for our family – we are tired and battling discouragement.

ü  Pray – we know W. Africa is not the only place, nor our family the only ones, struggling. Daily reading emails and the news rapidly cures that illusion. We’ve also many dear friends back in the States and elsewhere walking hard roads right now, too.

ü  Praise that no sadness, difficult moment, injury or brokenness will remain unredeemed. He is our Redeemer!

Thankful to be serving our Lord together with you,

Tim, Richelle,

Brendan, Rebekah Joy, Nadia, Anna, Victoria, Jonathan, Elsie Mae & Mary Michelle

this week's gratitude list

(#s 2093 - 2115)

so many have been safely evacuated

those evacuees are thanking the Lord for His care and provision, keeping their eyes on Him even though they may have lost everything

the privilege of sacrificial giving

no sadness, difficult moment, injury or brokenness will remain unredeemed

lab technician who was able to do an accurate blood test by microscope and flashlight

the little m&m has recovered from malaria and the doctor was able to diagnose a urinary tract infection quickly so hopefully this one won't last as long as some have in the past

new bookshelves and organized books

removing clutter

more consistent electricity again

the delight of air conditioning when it is so hot

gift of honey from the bush churches to our family

seeing God answer prayers through the ministry of Sahel Academy

big bill finally paid off

my new favorite song!

friends safely back from the States

new book and new movies to watch

seeing one of my favorite smiles for the first time in a long time

Mamata's reading... slowly but surely... and improving each week

looking forward to Bible study this Saturday

seeing my Gourmantché grandma friend and her granddaughter for the first time in nearly three years

delight when Salamatou came right to me and let me hold her... even though it had been three years

the testimony of that woman's perseverance even when things seemed impossible

finally able to check this prayer letter off the to-do list!

30 Days, 30 $s

Why do I have this picture of some family I don't know on our family blog?

Nathan Adair's evening meal consists of two scoops of rice, tomatoes, half a potato and some green peas ”at a cost of about 21 cents”while his 3-year-old daughter, Emerson (left); wife, Lindsay, and even 7-month-old Payton enjoy more typical fare. Adair is spending 30 days living on $1 a day -- ”the lifestyle of one-third of the population in India. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Nathan Adair)



I've posted this picture because I'm intrigued.

Nathan Adair, in order to better identify with people who don't take their daily bread for granted... Statistics tell us that globally, there are more than a billion people who live on the amount of food that they can purchase for less than one dollar a day. I don't think I've every only existed on $1/day. It is a very different sort of fast... and if you are interested in reading more about it, read this article or check out his blog.

Would you ever consider doing something like this? Why or why not?

Mullings & Musings...

• "Unfinished Projects" (I'm so glad I'm still an "unfinished project... and studying my way through Randy Alcorn's Heaven helps me imagine and even dream of who God just might be renewing, reclaiming me to be... some day, and I can't wait!)

"...Do ya' feel my pain? Seriously? Am I the only one who has something like 27 different projects up in the air at any given time?

There are days, when I just wanna give up and never get outta bed. Then there are days when I launch myself into fifty different things, like Superwoman-Elastagirl on steroids, and work myself into a frustrated frenzy. Neither extreme is workin' for me, y'know.

So my artist friend Adina says to me -

'Well, Teri, isn't that what our life in Christ is all about?
Aren't we all just unfinished projects?' "

• "Police Nab Runaway Elephants at Bus Stop" (Seriously! Can you just imagine? My kids would've gone cuckoo!)

"Two runaway circus elephants in Germany surprised passersby and police by showing up at a bus stop during a brief bid for freedom..."

• "Afghanistan: The Worst Place to be a Mother" (I just read a book, The Breadwinner, about some of the struggles that Afghanistani women face... my heart breaks... Another difficult, but worthwhile read that deals with some of these same issues is A Thousand Splendid Suns.)

"...50 women die in childbirth each day in Afghanistan. One in three is physically or sexually abused and the average life expectancy of women is 44.

It said that more than 85 percent of Afghan women are illiterate, while 70 percent of school-age girls do not attend school for various reasons - conservative parents, lack of security, or fear for their lives.

Taking all indicators into consideration, 'Afghanistan is the worst country' to be a mother, concluded the report, which assessed 164 countries."

• "How to Plan Home Activities for Your Summer Guests" (Good reminder, from a surprising source - at least I thought so - about another aspect of practicing hospitality.)

"Tailor house activities to your guests: Consider what type of guests you are entertaining while choosing activities. For parents with children, consider what activities will be fun for parents and kids... Your home can be a more exciting destination spot than you ever realized. Take the time before your guests arrive to determine their interests, as well as the amenities of your home. Summer guests want to enjoy their home, but also spend quality time with you and your family. Make this a summer to remember and to form vacation memories to last for a lifetime..."

• "Losing Hope: Women in Afghanistan" (A sobering video...)

"...for every 100 000 babies born alive here, 6500 of their mothers will die in the process. It is the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world... [As one interviewee says] 'A child without a mother is a big problem.' His loss reveals the impact that the death of a mother has, not just on the family, but on a small community governed by the strong belief in family unity. [He says,] 'When my wife died, everyone was sad. But now that's gone and no one cares. No one cares about other people in this world.' "

"...Whatever good things we build end up building us."

"If you go to work on your goals,

your goals will go to work on you.

If you go to work on your plan,

your plan will go to work on you....

 Whatever good things we build

end up building us."

~Jim Rohn

 

For some time, now, the association of Gourmantché language churches in several villages out near the Burkina Faso-Niger border have been meeting in buildings like the one above.

We were delighted, when, on their own initiative, two of the village churches decided to build more solid, stable buildings for worship. They constructed the foundation and the walls and then came to the mission, asking if we'd be able to help them finance the roofs for two buildings.

Here is the first church construction - financed and completed by the people themselves;

this is the second church building, in a neighboring village.

Tim, on behalf of the mission, was encouraged and delighted to be able to present to the elders of these two local fellowships the money that will enable them to roof their places of worship.

It is our prayer that as messages are shared,

as God's Word is taught, learned and written on the hearts

of the followers, learners and seekers 

who will gather and shelter in these two buildings...

the "good things," mud-brick buildings

constructed by the hands of these brothers and sisters in the Lord...

 will become tools in the hands of the Master Builder,

building and transforming lives for eternity.

What does it mean to be racist?

You can't live and work in sub-Sahara Africa without running across this topic. Last year, while reading  Half the Sky, a medical worker in a rural hospital interviewed matter-of-factly reported that they don't test/screen blood for HIV before giving trransfusions... they only give transfusions if it is necessary to save the patient's life... and so even if the blood is tainted, at least the patient's life will be prolonged some years instead of immediate death... and I didn't know how to respond or what to think. But it has been one of those things that has stayed with me as I continue to think about that reality, especially for those living all across this continent and trapped in poverty.

Just this morning, I picked up another book discussing AIDS in Africa... its purpose is awareness, a goal of helping the rest of the world to see the very human face of this epidemic disease, to help mobilize a greater response from Europe and the West...

The author's own words:

"...When I talk to people at home about the pandemic, I get the sense that they feel a dying African is somehow different from a dying Canadian, American or German -- that Africans have lower expectations or place less value on their [own] lives. That to be an orphaned fifteen-year-old thrust into caring for four bewildered siblings, or a teacher thrown out of her house after she tells her husband she is infected -- that somehow this would be less terrifying or strange for aperson in Zambia or Mozambique than it would be for someone in the United States or Britian." Stephanie Nolen, p. 28 of 28 stories of AIDS in Africa

Could that be me? Could my words and actions... could my lack of words or lack of action... show my own racism and prejudice?  Do I demonstrate the belief that someone who is different than me can't understand the depth of my feeling because he or she different? Or that distance and the problems of a people an ocean away are less pressing because they don't touch me?

And can that line of thought begin to line up with Bible teachings such as:

• we are all sinners in need of a Savior,
• Christ died for each soul who has lived, lives, will ever live on this earth,
• God is impartial
• His Son understands the deepest cries of each human heart because He wore the cloak of humanity and has experienced the extremes of all that could touch us,
• whatsoever I do unto the "least of these-" it is as if I have done that to/for my Lord Himself.