Through Orange Colored Glasses

Robert Massey told a story of Rudyard Kipling, who was one of the most celebrated authors of his day. He became a wealthy man, and a slogan began to go around that his words were worth $100 each. A cynical reporter one day pulled out a $100 bill saying, “Mr. Kipling, if it’s true that your words are worth $100, what word will you give me for this $100.”

Kipling thought about it for a bit, took the money from the reporter, placed it in his pocket and said, “THANKS!”

Maybe there is no better word than “thanks.” In ancient times, that’s what they called the Lord’s Supper. And if there is any word I could give you, the readers of this blog, it would be thanks. Thanks for joining me on a journey to find hope. Thanks for making the world a better place. Thanks for not selling out to despair. As one of my best buddies in the famine in the Horn of Africa said to me, “Thank you a trillion times!”

Barbie showed me a picture yesterday of a little child in Malindi. The boy was in utter poverty. He took Barbie to his house, and Barbie said that she had never seen worse. But tears came to her eyes when she saw the little sign on his wall. She even took a picture and showed it to me. What did it say? “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Even in the worst of situations, he was thankful. He still had his hope. Maybe you are going through some rough situations, but there is still a place where you can say—“Thanks!” Have an Orange Thanksgiving. Find some hope. Give some thanks.

Do you ever have trouble sleeping? Do you wake up in the middle of the night pondering ideas? Certainly, not all of our thoughts are that profound. But every once in awhile, don’t you leave your dreams and wrestle with the heavy stuff? Someone sent me some ideas that Joseph Robertson is getting people to ponder. I guess they are worth waking up for. Maybe you can think them through with me.

• The idea of children growing up in poverty outrages us.
• The idea of people being unable to feed themselves, or provide shelter for themselves outrages us.
• We ask ourselves, “In a World filled with Injustice and Pain, where does my own comfort fit in?”
• We ask ourselves, “What exactly is ‘enough?’”
• We believe that the gap between the rich and the poor has only served to hide the Truth of Reality.
• We believe that Poverty is not the problem. I am the problem.
• We challenge the perceived notion of what is Real in today’s society.
• We live our lives under the concept of treating others as we would be treated.
• We treat all human beings as equals.
• We look for those who believe what we believe to come together with us in strength to address these major problems of civilization.
• We seek to bring together those with resources, opportunity, and passion for making poverty HISTORY – and exalt the truth of reality.

The first day of my new job was one of the most sobering of my life. My first task as president of CRF was to get some children supported who had been waiting for a sponsor. On the top of the list was a little girl named Maurine. She was from a obscure place called Barwessa.  When I investigated her needs, I found out that she had died waiting for a sponsor. She had starved to death because of the lack of food and water where she had lived.

Maurine’s memory haunts and inspires me. I learned quickly the reality of poverty and famine. The consequences of waiting and not reacting immediately were demonstrated to be dire to me. And even though Maurine wasn’t around anymore—Barwessa was.

Stories of Barwessa were too often tragic. I heard one time that all they had left to eat were rats. Another time the story was about two tribes fighting for the little food left. The animals were leaving because of the lack of food. The crops were dying.  And it hadn’t rained in years. And ultimately that was the big deal—no water. People were walking around 15 miles to fill a can of water. And it was bad water. They were only bringing back diseases.  So they died if they didn’t drink it, and they died if they did drink it.

Continue reading →

If it is not one bad thing, it can be another. I have been writing so much about the drought in the Horn of Africa. However, I have discovered that the problem is much more than a lack of food. It is the trip itself to the food that is dangerous. Some women have been forcibly raped at gunpoint as they travel to the camps. And there are no doors to hide behind at the camps themselves. And it is not only dangerous for the people trying to get food—it is also dangerous for those trying to deliver it. Most deliveries are made with the protection of armed guards. Our relief workers go in with a prayer. Please pray for rain. Please pray for protection.

Isaiah Esipisu tells the following story:

“When Aisha Diis and her five children fled their home in Somalia seeking aid from the famine devastating the region, she could not have known the dangers of the journey, or even fathom that she would be raped along the way.

“Diis left her village of Kismayu, southwest of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, for the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya’s North Eastern Province in April.

“I was in a group of many women and children, but four of us had come from the same village, hence, we related (to each other) as one family. Along the way, we stopped to make some strong tea since the children were feeling very tired and hungry. One woman remained behind with the children and the three of us went to search for firewood,” Diis told.

“We were ambushed by a group of five men who stripped us naked and raped us repeatedly,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “It is something I have not been able to forget. But I wouldn’t like my children to know about it.”

“Gender-based violence is a hidden side of the famine crisis,” said Sinead Murray, the gender-based violence (GBV) program manager for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) at Dadaab.

“As per the rapid assessment done on GBV in Dadaab released by the IRC in July, rape and sexual violence were mentioned as the most pressing concern for women and girls while fleeing Somalia and as an ongoing, though lesser concern, in the camps,” Murray told.

“Some women interviewed during (the IRC) survey said they witnessed women and girls being raped in front of their husbands and parents, at the insistence of perpetrators described as ‘men with guns.’ Others were forced to strip down naked, and in the event they were raped by multiple perpetrators,” said Murray.

As hope can be brought by food overcoming hunger, let’s also hope that the love we bring can overcome the violence too.

I was reading this statement in Poverty News and realized that it is what I really wanted to say. I hope you are convicted as much as I was. I have really been impressed by some donors and friends who have stepped up. You are the best! Thanks.

“There is a saying that I’ve often heard here in Kenya: “Drought comes from God, but famine comes from man.”   The current crisis in the Horn of Africa has many underlying factors: dramatic spikes in food prices, extreme changes in weather patterns, severe drought, entrenched extreme poverty, lack of income opportunities, and poor water and health infrastructure. Regardless, in 2011, a regional food crisis affecting over 12 million people should not be happening. Preventing massive suffering from hunger and malnutrition is within our power—and it is our collective responsibility.”

I’ve always wanted to write a book on economics (one that is easy to understand). When I was in college, I thought economics was so important—but the textbooks were so hard to comprehend. I remember when my children were growing up, I tried to teach them supply and demand by trading baseball cards, and it worked pretty well. Why didn’t they pull out the baseball cards when I was at Texas Tech? But writing this book is one of those things that got left behind in life. But something happened recently that made me rethink writing the book. It probably won’t happen, but if it does, I will start the book with the following story.

Recently, I was preaching in Kenya where they are having the immense drought and food crisis. After our church gathering, we decided that we would feed everyone. Since we announced it, there obviously was a huge crowd. The service lasted a little over four hours that meant everyone was getting more than ready for the food.

Since I was the preacher (and I had paid for the food), everyone insisted that I was first in line. I tried to position myself differently, but they would have it no other way. There was so much food. People were ecstatic because so many had not eaten in a long time. When I led the way, I decided that I would serve myself because I really didn’t need that much and not everything was my personal favorite. So I started putting some small portions on my plate. Then one of the women who was serving took my plate away from me. She was upset that I was getting enough food. So she and another lady started piling the food on my plate. I could barely carry the plate with the food heaping over the sides.

I sat down and started eating. There was no way in the world I could eat it all. It was full of ugali that is so filling, and I finally couldn’t stuff anymore into my mouth. But I had to eat it all. Why? Didn’t your mother always tell you to finish your plate because people were starving in Africa? But I just couldn’t do it. And I didn’t want to leave food on my plate. So when I saw a lady walking by, in a sneaky way I asked her if she could take my plate. She seemed more than happy to do so.

Then, I started wondering what was going to happen to my food. I hated to see it thrown away in a drought. So I followed her. She went outside. And there beside the school was a huge line of little orphan kids jumping up and down. They were all trying to work their way up to my plate and reach in grabbing some of my leftovers. It would be the only food they would get for maybe a long time. Then I thought back about my huge plate of food.

Here’s what I learned. If you consume less, there is more for others.

Maybe that is God’s economics. If I ever write the book, I think I will begin here even before I get to baseball cards.

Martin Luther King, Jr. summarized the parable of the Good Samaritan in his very last sermon, I’ve Been to the Mountain Top, by the difference in two questions.

He described the priest and the Levite as men who asked the wrong question. Basically, as they passed by the man on the side of the road, they asked, “What will happen to me if I help this man?” That’s the wrong question.

He then stated that the Good Samaritan is good because he asked the right question. His radical question was “What will happen to him if I don’t help?” This is the question that makes us different. This is the question that brings the kingdom into the picture.  This is the question Chris Seidman asked recently.

As Chris gathered information on the incredible famine currently happening in the Horn of Africa, he was overwhelmed. His heart was broken. He called me to find out more about the situation. And he simply couldn’t let the hurt of it all leave his heart. He pretty much asked me the second question of the Samaritan. Chris wanted to know—“What will happen if I don’t help?” I had to pretty much tell him that they would die. As hard as it seems to imagine, eleven million people there don’t have adequate food and water.

Then Chris asked what we should do. I told him that if we only sent food from here, it would not get there soon enough. They needed money sent to buy food for relief as soon as possible and have it delivered instantly. Chris then told me that his congregation, The Branch, near Dallas would send money. He called me back and said that he would see if the church would give its entire Sunday morning offering for food for these desperate people. He said that this would be a huge contribution because his congregation gives around $55,000 in its weekly offering. And the church decided to do it. All of their gifts on that week would feed the hungry in the Horn.

The big day came. They passed the plates. But it wasn’t $55,000 that was given. No, they gave $269,000. Can you believe it? What a church! And what a leader! It all happened because Chris asked the right question—the second one. He asked the Good Samaritan question. But he didn’t stop until help happened.

Churches today get bashed a bunch because they have internalized. And much of the criticism is true. But doesn’t this event restore your faith in what the church can do? It is a call to reevaluate our priorities. It is an example to really do what Jesus would do.

Barnaba Serum who received help in the Horn responded simply and profoundly. Barnaba wrote: “May God bless that Church, I was hungry and you gave me food and water to drink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Emmanuel Namunyu sent this message from the heart of the drought—“Thank you a trillion times.”

You have probably seen pictures and heard about the tragic situation in Dadaab because of the drought in the Horn of Africa. Nearly a half million refugees from Somalia have risked their lives to get there. But there is not enough food there still. Francis Bii has been there this week. I’ve enclosed his report for my blog.

Hello

Calvary greetings today,

I am in Dadaab right now, and we have been hosted by National council of Churches of Kenya. The road to the camp is surely hectic. We could not miss car breakage and so forth. We thank God we are there with food aid. We have moved around the camp and were taken around by the government officials from the department of refugees affairs. The camp is a government of its own. We had to have the official permission in wtitten and being directed by the lead agency concerned in distribution of food. They made our day of distribition to be tomorow. They took us around the camp and what we saw is sympathetic situation. We have a very bad scenario of poor, sick, and hungry people. Refugees come many of them by foot to the camp. Women, children and men track that long journey without food from somalia. So many die on the road and women just carry children walking even four days without food. Some of them carry children on their backs and leaving others on the road since they cannot put on their back and carry two. You  find some children have died at the back of the mother a long time before without the mother noticing because of hunger.

We are going to distribute the food tomorow morning since that is the time the camp authorities have given us. The Kenya governement have really sent great appreciation to CRF for the great relief efforts to the hungry people in the camp. The refugees are flocking at the camp every minute. We will start with those who will be arriving nearly dying on the road tomorow morning as we go to the others.

The situation is really bad.

Blessings,

Francis

I just finished talking to my friend, Brad Gautney. I told him that this drought in Africa is making me go crazy. He agreed. Then we both agreed that what makes us crazier is that other people aren’t going crazy too.

I have to be honest—I can’t sleep at night. I keep wondering how we can help one more child. Nearly 30,000 children have died in the last three weeks. Over 11 million are seriously in trouble now from the lack of water and food in the Horn of Africa. I just got back from there. This trip was different. I have seen poverty before, but I witnessed a new level of poverty this time.

Did you read the story in the news about the mother making the trip from Somalia? She only had enough for one child to live and had to choose. http://news.yahoo.com/child-dies-famine-forces-impossible-choices-145356561.html

How do you live with stuff like this? Sophie’s Choice.

It just shouldn’t be this way.

A militant group in Somalia was keeping out the relief agencies and hindering them from helping. It was mainly because the groups were seen as Christian representatives. So aid couldn’t get in. And then the same militant Muslim group decided to persecute and even kill refugees who were trying to escape in order to get food in Kenya. So they couldn’t get out to get aid. It just shouldn’t be this way.

CRF workers in Kenya are transporting food now to Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world. Please pray for them. Please help them. We don’t have enough food to give away. What is tragic is that all these refugees are traveling so far and risking their lives only to arrive at one more place where there is not enough food. And what is even worse is that there are other places in Kenya just as bad, but no one knows that the same life and death situation is happening because it is not on television. I really want to find some of those places too and help. Don’t you?

Please go crazy with me!