Recently returned from Honduras. One image is branded into my brain. It was early...6:00 am. The sun had just come up and I was on my to the airport. The town was relatively quiet. Most were still enjoying their final moments of sleep...but not him. Along the side of the road was a little boy...could not have been older than 8. Slung across his shoulder was a raggedy old feed sack. The kind that was made to hold fifty pounds of something like rice or beans. The bag was already full. The little boy looked determined. He was up before the town. He was filling his sack with...plastic bottles. The kind we discard every day after a sip of water. They go for pennies in Honduras. The young boy was working at 6:00 am. I concluded that he was trying to get to the bottles before someone else beat him to them.
I am often asked if it is necessary for Lifers to travel overseas for mission work. Isn't there enough poor right here in our own back yard? My answer is simple: Yes and Yes.
We base our mission philosophy on Acts 1:8. We aim to go to our own town, to our state, and to the outer most parts of the earth. The verse does not indicate that these areas should be reached one at a time...no the verse implies that they should be reached SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Do we have poor seven year old boys in Brandon? Absolutely! But, have you ever seen one collecting bottles at 6 in the morning so that he could eat?
I simply couldn't take my eyes off of that little boy and as a Lifer, nor should you.
