One Person

Just read an update from a friend who is traveling in Rwanda preaching in prisons. He is with a team taking supplies and toys to those jailed. Children as young as two, many born while their mothers were incarcerated, live in dirt-floored cells.

Another update, this one from Haiti, advises me that their much needed generator is 'on the boat' and should arrive in a few days. In the Haitian heat my friends have had to use what little electricity they could rig up to keep food from spoiling. Through all this, they faithfully opened school everyday to teach over 300 students who do not take education for granted but have a hunger to learn.

Friends in Ethiopia finally were able to get a plumber to agree to come to their home this week. For a month or more they have been sharing an outside source of water with people in an adjoining building. They are working with a group to provide business development to increase exports from Ethiopia.

So, as I sit here, warm, dry - with running water, electricity - with the freedom to pick up and go anytime I wish, I realize anew that these are blessings that millions around the world do not ever hope to achieve. Sadly, I take them for granted, not always, like now, I'm pretty much aware of how I live in wealth, but mostly, day by day, I forget how it is for most of the world.

The question for most of us when we come to some deep realization like this is, 'so what am I going to do about it?' Or more likely, 'what can one person do, the need is so great?' And yet above are three examples of people just like me who have gone where the need is great to do what they could, one person at a time effecting one life at a time.

And that's what I'm thinking about.