Shine a light
Let me give you a little back ground info on the IDP Camp: These people at the IDP camp live everyday just trying to make it by. Most of these people lost absolutely everything in the 2007 elections, everything down to the clothes on their backs. The government brought them about 3 hours away from their home town and gave them $100.00 dollars to live on. Each family in order to actually build a home on the land they had to then buy the land, but for most of these families they simply lived in tents for they couldn't afford it. Most of these people don't have jobs and do what they can to try and just make it by. They live with little to no food and the valley that they live on is extremely hard to grow crops. The kids go to school, but the parents can't afford to pay for their schooling that the kids don't ever get to graduate. So the cycle never really ends, they don't believe in them selves that they can become anything and they just sit and wait for things to fall in their laps. Their stories are heart breaking and these people are hungry for anything. They just want more in life but don't know how to overcome the bondage so tightly holding them back…
You and I live in bondage everyday when we have everything. Just like these people at the IDP camp they think they have nothing, they think that they are stuck in this box of a land with no money, no food and no where to turn. Just like you and I look at what we have and think we have nothing… Don't mistake my blog here though, these people are hurting and there is such a need here for help, for love, for hope.
A handful of them are trying with everything they have to move up and out. They are trying to bring their people back home and back to the Glory of God. And, ultimately that's why God has called us here to the IDP camp… To bring life and hope to these people. We are there not just to bring food, and not just to bring a few words from the lord, but to show these people LOVE… To restore them and let them know that they are not alone, that they are not so far in that God can not pull them out. That even though they have little to next to nothing, that God is a good God. That he has a perfect purpose for everything, and for their lives. That he loves them for who they are, NOT what they have.
The IDP camp was an eye opener for me. God is a just God, a good God who never leaves his children. I had to battle within my self that these people may not have anything in my eyes, but yet in his eyes they have everything. For the things of this world is not what God is after, but our heart… For when we have his boundless love we do have everything! His love should be enough for us to live on, his love is everything. For our precious God took everything so that we, just everyday sinners could be loved forever.
That's all God is asking me to do at the IDP camp, to trust that he is a good God and that he is going to provide everything for these people. Well, that he IS providing for these people. He is asking me to walk in faith and know that loving on them and bringing hope to them is the best thing that I can do. God has got his people, he has a special purpose for every single one of them. He knows their coming and going and his plan is so much greater than my. Me coming in and saving the day and “providing” money or what I think would help these precious people is NOT loving them. It is simply putting a band aid over the wound and leaving them there. Nope, God is simply asking me to love his children and shine a light…
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