Starfish Story

Everywhere we look, there are needs. There are people suffering and struggling. It makes me feel overwhelmed, sad, and helpless. The church we go to is in a poor area and many people within our church family need help. I wish I had Bill Gates' bank account so I could help them all out.

One major burden felt by anyone with children is that of school fees. School isn't free here and parents have to come up with tuition fees. Now, these parents make barely enough to survive. They are just able to pay rent and buy food. Many people cannot afford to pay for their kids to go to school and as a result many end up uneducated. Jobs are so scarce that unless you are educated, the only job you'll be able to get is manual labor like house help, cooking in a restaurant, digging, etc which pay close to nothing. Parents will do anything they can to come up with school fees. It breaks my heart to see how hard they work.

We set aside a portion of our support to helping those in need. However, the needs greatly outweigh what we have to give. So, we have to be creative with our budget. Whenever possible, we try to support the goods and services of the people in our church who are struggling. We recently found out, one of the ladies who attends our classes walks door to door selling vegetables. Mama Saida, is a single mom (as many women are. There are so many widows here.), who is trying to come up with school fees. George normally goes to the market to buy vegetables, but we would rather buy them from her to help out. George arranged for her to come to our house once a week to deliver a weeks worth of vegetables. She came for the first time last Friday and brought us a huge amount of stuff (tomatoes, green pepper, carrots, spinach, onions and more), for a fraction of the cost George would have paid in the market. We were able to give her a little extra and also give our neighbors a basket of vegetables since there was no way we could use them all in one week.

Mama Saida is a faithful follower of the Lord. Again, I am humbled by her servant's heart. After she dropped off the vegetables, she stayed to sweep our yard, even though we did not ask her too. We wanted to bless her, yet she wanted to bless us. The people here, just amaze me.

(She is the one holding the cup.)

When I first met Alan and Shannon (the leaders of Africa Harvest of Hope), they told the story of the sand dollar. Do you know it? I loved it and it helped me focus not on what I can't do, but what I can. Here it is for those who haven't heard it. Read it and be inspired to do what you can for those in need.

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”