From Owlhaven

This is an excerpt from the blog titled Owlhaven.  The post is called "Orphans, poverty, my place?"  Please read the entire entry on her blog.

I asked Shaun [Groves] how he wrestled with this issue.   Here’s what he wrote:

      “I battle the Schindler syndrome, yes  - struggling with not doing all that could be done, looking at even the smallest comfort in my house and wondering how many more could be saved if I did without it. How austere, how simple, how generous am I to be?

      “We sold our dream house and moved into one much smaller but many third world homes could fit inside its walls. We support a local food pantry and homeless mission with time and money but we still throw out leftovers and expired groceries. We sponsor three children and one college student through Compassion International but when I’m losing my battle with addiction we could sponsor a couple more with what I spend on morning soft drinks. We’ve adopted recently but we have space and love for many more.

    “I wish God gave us a program, some rules to follow when it comes to simplicity and generosity. To keep us from the extremes of gluttony and asceticism. But instead of a program God gave us a Person: Jesus. And all I know to do, Mary, is to spend time with Him, in real intimate relationship with Him and other Christians who know the details of my life –  regularly, constantly. And in that relationship to do much more listening and pleading for direction than I do talking. To prepare more than I plan. To create margins, leftover time and money and energy, so that I’m free and ready to give or go as He leads me.

      “A wise mutual friend of ours, Brian Seay, taught me that God’s will for my life will often be found at the intersection of someone’s need and my ability. I stood in an Ethiopian orphanage looking into orphan eyes and found God’s leading there. I have an ability that matches their need. I had a neighbor who had a medical need but couldn’t afford to get treatment and I had extra in the bank that month – God was telling us something wasn’t He? And on and on we go, with hands and eyes open, looking and listening for the intersection of our ability and the needs of others.”

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This morning, it was raining very hard here in Virginia Beach, so hard that one section of 1-264 had eight feet of standing water!!  As I drove by one business on my way to work, saw a sprinkler system watering the lawn.  In the pouring rain.

My first thought was the children in developing countries who need that clean water for drinking, and it was being wasted on a saturated lawn.

That's how I think now that I'm a Compassion sponsor.  Would you consider becoming a sponsor?  Just click the graphic at the top.  Save a child's life.