There are days when I pat myself on the back and feel a little pride
that Becky and I are spending our retirement years and retirement money to
share the good news of Jesus Christ with the poorest of the poor in East Africa
helping to provide for BOTH spiritual AND physical needs. I see people in
America that give to help those in need and, like me, rightly feel good about
their giving.
As for my possessions, my western way of thinking dominates. I worked
for it. It’s mine. God has blessed me and so I willingly share a portion. But
when is giving enough? Many of us wrestle with this question.
Jesus said “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these,
you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment.”
(Matthew 25:45-46 NASB)
Now I know that we are saved by the grace of God through our belief in
the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross and not by works. But this
scripture tells us something about the heart of God and how He wants us to live
our lives. Didn’t Jesus tell us that the greatest commandment is to love God
and the second is like it which is to love our neighbor?
The people of the early church had no lack because those who had shared
with those who did not (Acts 4:34). As Christians in America today, we really
don’t live like that. But elsewhere in the world, they still do.
This is a message that I received on December 19, 2013 from a Kenyan
man that I work with. Check out our previous
blog “Someone We Won’t Forget” dated December 22, 2013 for more information
about 13 year old Musembe (in photo) who has AIDS. Burning Plow Ministries and
a Kenyan church work together to periodically supplement the family’s meager
food supply.
[Please excuse the spelling and grammar. English is this man’s third
language.]
“Hi Dad praise the lord? We are fine and doing good, Dad i had a need
and when i was planing how to tolk to you Carol called me and told me Musembi
is unwell, we had some money for Xmass and we have used the money to bring him
to the hospital now is here.”
“we had some money for Xmass and we have used the
money to bring him to the hospital”
This man spent his
family’s Christmas money to help someone else who was in need. He has very little himself. He has no car, no motorcycle, no bicycle and
walks or takes public transportation wherever he goes. His Christian beliefs are part of his very
fiber in everything he does.
This makes me feel a
little ashamed and inadequate.
“Lord, I know that I
have not done enough. Let me see your
people through your eyes. Help me learn
to be quick to help those in need.“
And don’t forget to
continue to pray for Musembe.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Don and Becky Cameron
.jpg){kind=link}