Our first year of refugee work, starting in June 1991, was awful. We were living in the Ivory Coast, working among the refugees of Liberia's ongoing civil war. The pressures were enormous. People saw our white skin, knew we weren't from around there, and assumed we must be with some relief agency. It was absolutely nothing to have dozens of requests a day for everything from food to seeds to rain boots to trips to the U.S.
I would love to say that when I saw the needs of people I reacted with pity, but that would not be the truth. Unless you count self-pity. I was so overwhelmed by the expectations and our complete inability to satisfy those expections that I became bitter against the very people among whom we were to minister.
One day in the middle of my struggle I was reading in Matthew 14 and came to verse 14. I all but snorted with laughter as I said to Mark, "This is the biggest miracle in the whole Bible!"
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| Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) inside Liberia during the war |
One day in the middle of my struggle I was reading in Matthew 14 and came to verse 14. I all but snorted with laughter as I said to Mark, "This is the biggest miracle in the whole Bible!"
And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.
Seriously, at that point I could not imagine a bigger miracle. When I looked upon a great multitude—or even a small one—I felt nothing but raw fear.
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| Image public domain |
After that first awful year of refugee work God began an amazing work in my heart whereby I was totally transformed. And part of the transformation was because I found a little verse that spoke to my fear that if I gave and gave—spiritually, physically and financially—everything would be spent. Even me.
He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He will pay back what he has given. Proverbs 19:17
He does what? And to whom? When he, the giver, gives to the poor out of a sense of true pity, he lends to the Lord.
When I respond with the compassion of Christ and it requires the sacrifice of resources, it is not simply a gift to the needy. I am actually lending my resources to the most reliable "borrower" ever. And His payments are out of this world!
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| Image - Melodie Sheppard Kejr |
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