Luxuries.

I remember when Gaylyn was talking with me on how much money I would need to raise for my time in Africa. We were sitting outside Café Paris sipping coffee, chatting, and watching all the cars go buy in a Publix parking lot – wow that world seems so far away to me now! Anyway, she had said after airfare I would only need to raise $10 a day for the necessities – food, water, shelter. Then she said, “And if you want the luxuries like soap and toilet paper and things, maybe $12 a day is a good goal.” I think I choked alittle sipping my coffee. I had never before thought of soap & toilet paper as luxuries. To me luxuries were things like nice cars, an iPOD, a new dress for a dance or Easter, going to an IMAX movie, a week at the beach – not soap or toilet paper. You need those things to stay clean!

Fortunately I was able to raise enough money that I not only continue to use toilet paper and soap – but also toothpaste, sunscreen, bugspray, shampoo, a cell phone, a flashlight, a towel, a razor, laundry soap, daily vitamins, hand sanitizer, internet, and contact solution. Even once or twice a week I buy a coke or a piece of fruit to add a little variety in my diet when I can walk to the duka (tiny store – like a booth made with sticks and mud on the side of the road where they sell small things). I still laugh thinking how this list looks like such a normal grocery list from my life in the States. But now I have a better understanding – to most people in the world, these items are luxuries. The children’s home here is at least able to provide every child & staff member with a toothbrush, a towel, soap for the bucket shower, and soap for laundry. But I see them struggling when it comes to toilet paper, flashlights (remember some nights we don’t have electricity so it is DARK after about 7:30), daily vitamins, and toothpaste. And then there are the poor people beyond our walls who have not been saved from poverty yet, these items are more than luxuries to our most of our neighbors – they are impossibilities. Something only the “rich” can afford. Can you imagine?

I remember talking to so many youth back home who think they are poor because their parents can’t buy a North Face jacket every year, or nice car for them or spend as much money on their birthday party as you would see on Sweet Sixteen. The fact is – if we have food to eat everyday, clean water, access to health care, clothes, and shelter – in the world’s eyes we are rich. That means even us here at Tumaini – we are rich. The home still has struggles by our standards, don’t get me wrong. Struggles in providing school fees for their high schoolers & 2 university students. Struggles in providing nourishing foods for the children. Some days we have water and electricity – some days we don’t. But one of the biggest shifts for me in my thinking is changing from seeing this as a home of the poor (by East Cobb standards) to a home of the rich (by the world’s standards).

So here are God’s standards on which I hope to live not only the rest of my time in Africa by, but the rest of my life. That is the big challenge I think – how will I live when I go back home? I still use soap and toilet paper and look forward a family vacation and cheeseburgers again. While I hope the Lord doesn’t call me to lay those things down, I pray even more that if He does I will do so cheerfully knowing He has a greater purpose. We know money is not evil – I have seen peoples donations do so much good here. But the love of money – that is the one that creeps into our minds and hearts and deceives us. I pray the Lord will always help me keep my heart PURE and I would realize everything I have is a gift from HIM and He calls me to be a good steward of His blessings. This not only includes sharing things – honestly, more important is to share our knowledge, love, and relationship of Jesus with others. My prayer right now is no matter where I live in the world, I will always live by these two scriptures:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:6-10

“Two things I ask you O Lord…give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I might have too much and disown you and say, “Who is Lord?” Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” – Proverbs 30:7-9

I also pray for me (and everyone reading this) not to be blinded by physical need so much that we forget about spiritual need. I see people here living off of spiritual food everyday – where there are people at home eating at Chilis or Moes who are spiritually dead. We can never forget, brothers and sisters, this world is not our home. Please, always have compassion on the poor & starving – but also always have compassion on those spiritually starving or dead. God’s love is real – and it saves us from a fate worse than anything we can experience on this earth.