When our boys were growing up, like most kids, they wanted to understand where we fit in to the tiers of wealth in our suburban enclave. They knew that with their dad and mom both working, living in a nice home, with an extra home at the lake and driving nice cars, that we had to be doing okay, but they wanted a label. They would occasionally ask if we were rich, to which we would regularly reply that we were “comfortable”.
Well, I am writing a confessional from a mission trip to Honduras to report that I lied. We are grossly, decadently rich by world standards. We are 1% ers and we can do more to give back and share in the world. I now better understand that drive to walk across the Rio Grande to get to what they see on TV; clean running water, toilets that accept toilet paper and so much more.
What makes us rich isn’t our retirement account it’s our access to clean running water. One quarter of the world does not have that “luxury” and it is a “luxury” that I won’t take for granted when I put my cup to the fridge and select which kind of ice, cubed or crushed I want on Sunday! My new fridge has a Keurig built in to the door, did I really need that? Nope.
What makes us rich isn’t our cars, Hondurans have cars and motor bikes galore and they drive them without much regard to traffic laws. We are rich because of our infrastructure that allows us to flush our toilet paper down a sewage system where it is treated and we never have to think of it again. In parts of Honduras, they put in the bin next to the toilet where we get to sit next to it again later in the day, as well as it attracts flies and emits odors.
What makes us rich isn’t our lake house, our PlayStations or any of our material things. It is the ease at which we live our lives without even thinking about if the power stay on because the power almost always stays on in Roswell, Georgia, USA, barring a storm. However, it has gone out daily here in Honduras and the locals do not bat an eye, they just move on. We would freak out because the air conditioning would go out. But they don’t miss air conditioning, because they don’t have air conditioning, just lots and lots of fans (which, of course, go out when the power goes out).
I am going to fight hard to remember these inconveniences that I incurred and the grace at which the children and staff of the Lamb Institute incur them. This is their normal and they live a life so full of joy.
Here’s just one example:
On Sunday, a little boy came up to me and asked me if he could have one of the balls that we brought. He was asking in Spanish so I did not understand that he was asking if he could HAVE the ball. His name was Joel (pronounce Hoel). A teacher told me that he was new to Lamb and had very few things of his own and has seen that some of the older boys have balls with their names on them. He also asked for “purple pen” to put his name on the ball. I gently told him that he could play with the ball but it was not mine to give him. It broke my heart.
Yesterday I bought a ball for him at the local Walmart and on Friday, before we leave, we have permission to give it to him. It will enrich his life. He is struggling, at age 4 to adapt to his new circumstances, to become bi-lingual, to learn how to find Joy at Lamb and how to live a more communal life, not that he likely had much previously.
But giving him the ball will make me RICH, not him and I can’t wait to do. If you are a praying person, please pray for me and my fellow missionaries while we are here. I am not normally a painter, but this week I am and the staff at the CDA must be chuckling. The same reason that my husband won’t let me volunteer at the Humane Society is why he didn’t want me to do mission work at an orphanage. If I knew that I would be active into my 90’s, I swear…… that little baby in the baby house, Renita would be in process next Monday or maybe Mellie with the pink glasses, or maybe Joel.
North Point Church, north of Atlanta, is a church that is very, very generous to many non-profits all over the world, including my own Children’s Development Academy, a high quality early education center that serves children from low income families much like Lamb but so much better off, relatively.
Their head pastor, Andy Stanley says, “It’s not how much you have, it’s what you do with what you have that makes you rich.” This week, I am a billionaire, in time, talent and treasure and so very blessed to serve.