Two people whom I love were recently in Haiti. One did important work in a hospital and felt good about it. The other felt like things could have gone better. There is much frustration in Haiti. There's very little coordination and folks don't always send what's really needed.
Years ago, when I was active in urban ministry, we had the same problem but on a lesser scale. Many times the gifts didn't match up with the needs. But we were always grateful and always said thank you.
I'm in the midst of reading "Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese. I love this book. In one section an old nun, in charge of a hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s is talking with an American benefactor who has come to see how things are going.
She says, "God will judge us, Mr, Harris, by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings....We need medicine and food. But we get Bibles..."I always wondered if the good people who send us Bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate."
(But) People here love these Bibles. They're the most valuable thing a family can possess. Do you know what Emperor Menelik did when he fell ill? He ate pages of the Bible. I don't think it helped...
So now the Bibles pile up, Mr. Harris. They breed in the tool shed like rabbits. They spill over into our storerooms and into my office. We use them to support bookshelves. Or to paper the walls of the huts.
OK, here's my take on this. WE'RE the ones who need to read the Bible. And then do what the scriptures tell us to do. Which, to me, is, clearly, to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings.
I'm with the nun on this one.
***
Years ago, when I was active in urban ministry, we had the same problem but on a lesser scale. Many times the gifts didn't match up with the needs. But we were always grateful and always said thank you.
I'm in the midst of reading "Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese. I love this book. In one section an old nun, in charge of a hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s is talking with an American benefactor who has come to see how things are going.
She says, "God will judge us, Mr, Harris, by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings....We need medicine and food. But we get Bibles..."I always wondered if the good people who send us Bibles really think that hookworm and hunger are healed by scripture? Our patients are illiterate."
(But) People here love these Bibles. They're the most valuable thing a family can possess. Do you know what Emperor Menelik did when he fell ill? He ate pages of the Bible. I don't think it helped...
So now the Bibles pile up, Mr. Harris. They breed in the tool shed like rabbits. They spill over into our storerooms and into my office. We use them to support bookshelves. Or to paper the walls of the huts.
OK, here's my take on this. WE'RE the ones who need to read the Bible. And then do what the scriptures tell us to do. Which, to me, is, clearly, to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings.
I'm with the nun on this one.
***
