A few times per year we receive letters from our Rwandan daughter Yankurije Laetitia. Through Compassion we “adopted” her several years ago when she was a small child and now she is nineteen – a young, beautiful woman with sad eyes. Even though her messages are brief, Yankurije often mentions the fact that her family grows beans. My Dad had a tomato and zucchini garden of which he was very proud but I get the sense that the Laetitia’s garden is tied to their survival. It is very humbling to read the words of a child (and then teenager) as she gives thanks to God for her beans.
I’m only in the third day of “Rice & Beans Week” sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich where I am the music guy. The plan is to live on a subsistence diet for a week and then contribute the grocery savings to build a greenhouse in Nigeria. So I won’t shame myself by claiming that I now appreciate Yankurije’s situation and the plight of the poor. My concept of suffering includes denying myself premium movie channels and waiting to replace my aging Macintosh computer. Yes. Life is hard.
But before I give myself over to the sin of despair, I hope that small gestures like this week’s exercise will help to get my heart right with God regarding the poor. Empathy is a start. But it takes food to fill tummies and clean drinking water to save lives. So, with God’s help, I need to rethink what I am able to do and, for Christ’s sake, do something while I am thinking about it.
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