We Have It Good

[Mitch f]

My brother Kevin, who is also my business partner, took his family on a mission trip to Honduras, which was sponsored by our church. We were busy at work and really didn't want him to take the time off because there are only 3 of us in the company. After we talked about it, we decided that we could rearrange our schedules and make it happen. The trip was for 10 days, the mission was two fold....One, to help build homes for the homeless, and two, to feed the starving people in the town. He told me on the side that the trip would also be good for his two children. He has a son who is a junior in High School and a daughter who is a freshman. He thought it might open their eyes and perhaps make them see how lucky they are.

Upon arriving, they starting building the homes and buildings the next day. They had an alliance with several churches in a coordinated effort for this project. This was his favorite part of the trip. They were basically out in the countryside and the only problem seemed to be that the local children would come up to investigate and talk with them..... but they showed no fear of the construction process. In other words, They would walk right up to a guy with a chain saw and stand right behind them. The teenagers from the church helped remedy this issue, playing with the children and keeping them out of the way.

Unfortunately the second half of the trip was when reality set in. They were to go to the city and help feed the homeless. He said the poverty was overwhelming, even beyond what he had imagined. But the worst part were the teenagers in town. They all walked around with small glass baby food jars. My brother inquired why they all were carrying small glass jars. Turns out the jars were filled with glue the kids were sniffing. It seems the glue is industrial strength shoe glue to be exact. It helps them sleep by shocking the nervous system, making the hunger, cold, and pain go away. The glue also causes irreversible brain, lung and kidney damage. He said the entire population of teenage kids he saw were addicted to the glue. I've been thinking about this since he told me the story and can't believe how sad this is. Like the title states, we don't know how lucky we have it.

[ness]

Thanks for sharing that. It's true, we really do have it good.

I ran into a friend of mine who's a pastor a few months ago. He led a group to Haiti and had similar stories of the unimaginable poverty. One of the things he said that really stuck with me was that they were told not to accept a baby if a parent asked them to hold it because the parents would just not come back.

[Old plug]

I am not much for church for organized religion Mitch but without it there would be no good done in the world. We have a lady here that for years would get on a jumbo jet full of medicine and medical supplies and fly into Africa to distribute it for the Methodist Church.

i live in a small town and we have a small church but those people rise up every time something happens. They and her were down after the hurricane in New Orleans operating heavy equipment cleaning up. They also left the day after Joplin was hit to help down there.they and took a semi worth of food with them.

6

[Al Agnew]

Too bad that every American can't visit some of those places once in their life, just to see how lucky we do have it here. The African countries I've been to were like that, poverty of a kind you just can't believe, living in America.

As much good as various churches do in such places, they have to feel sometimes as if their work is a drop in the bucket. The incredible population pressures of such places mean there is a continual chain of vast numbers of people living in poverty and children born into poverty, with no hope of ever escaping it. As much as I enjoyed visiting the parks and game reserves of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, it was sucha bittersweet experience because as soon as you crossed the boundaries of the reserves, it was wall to wall people, and you realized that all those people were the biggest threat to the game reserves themselves. How do you tell a person who has to walk five miles and sneak into the game reserve just to get some firewood to cook and heat with that they can't do it? Yet if they were allowed to do it, the game reserves would disappear.

[Mitch f]

some of the pics.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Quite the story Mitch. It's easy for us to forget what we have and whine over what we don't have while other parts of the world would be glad to get what we throw out.

I haven't been to Mexico in a long long time, but while they, the rural people in the NE part, didn't seem to have hunger issues the material level was far far below ours. I really don't know if that was a problem for them though.

[jdmidwest]

Our Poor Folk's have it made. Food Stamps, Welfare, Housing, Transportation, Medical Care, Cell Phones, and they are rewarded every time they bring another child into the world by Earned Income Tax Credits.

They should really see how others like this have to struggle.

[Old plug]

Some poor folks do. A lot do not. There have been millions of people caught up in the economic mess we have made of this country. I would not worry to much about it. It will all be over in a few yrs. if we going as we are.