Thursday, March 14, 2013

Easy Street

One of the cultural hurdles we must overcome is the ease of access we enjoy in the United States. By any standard in the developing world everything is easy for us. I'll never forget a conversation I had with some of the kitchen staff at Carlile College on my first visit to Kenya in 1999. We were standing next to the simple garden at the back of the property as they harvested some vegetables for that evening's meal. At the time some of the food was cooked in a big pot over an open wood fire in and outdoor courtyard. Imagine any college in the U.S. where daily meals are prepared over a camp fire in the yard! The staff asked me if what they provided was comparable to what we enjoyed in the U.S. I didn't know how to answer their question. I couldn't remember the last time I met anyone in my home country that literally had to harvest food from their garden daily in order to feed their family, much less a school full of students.

Fast forward to my most recent visit to Kenya when I delivered a used laptop to my friend Daniel for him and his family. We connected to wireless internet service and I showed him Google Earth. He was speechless as we found his home village in the hills of Kenya and his home in Nairobi. I then showed him the satellite view of my home and other areas in America. He noticed something right away that would have never occurred to me. He asked, 'Are all your roads paved?' I had to think a moment, but the answer was that except for a few rural areas of the country I couldn't remember ever driving on a road that wasn't paved. Daniel was awestruck by that simple fact alone.

When Ricardo from Pucallpa, Peru visited our home in Colorado he was fascinated by our manicured lawn and sprinkler system. More amazing to him was the fact that every home in the neighborhood had the same. Later when I led a team to Pucallpa, Ricardo's sister commented on how he was working to develop a lawn at his home like ours in Colorado because he was so impressed by it. Trust me when I say that my lawn was extremely average.

The challenges of doing ministry can sometimes escape those of us who have grown up here. The hard work it takes can be overwhelming for people who have enjoyed the luxuries we enjoy. The philosopher Juvenal is quoted saying, 'Comfort is more ruthless than war.' How very true that is. Comfort takes away our perspective. It softens our resolve and it saps our energy. To do what we are called to do by God takes perseverance, discipline and hard work. Where we are called to go not every road is paved...and in some cases there are no roads at all!

God has a sense of humor, however. As I launch The Shepherd Fund a friend of mine is providing a little office space so I can get out of the house and have some dedicated space to work. It is located at 190 Easy Street! How's that for irony? What we do in ministry and in charity isn't easy. But it is eternally worth it.

Please consider making a gift to the Shepherd Fund launch campaign. This week we filed our incorporation papers and next we file for tax exempt status with the IRS. Any size gift will help us along the way. Click here to make a gift (donations to the launch fund are not tax deductible).

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