a little of everything today

I know that poverty exists in every corner of the world. I know that it does not discriminate between gender, race, language, location or religion. I know that people are starving every day, that kids are dying because they cannot get simple medications, that the resources are plentiful but the distribution is unequal… I know all these things. But for the first time in my life I saw firsthand the pain that comes with extreme poverty, and even though I knew before that it existed, I think I actually felt it for a moment today.

We, la Pastora, Sonia (the social worker), another pastor and I, visited two homes in the neighborhood of la Fundacion— two families that are struggling to get by, living in homes the same size as my room. One family had 11 people living in the house, some with medical problems like blindness and hernias. The other family lives in, well, squalor is not too strong a word. What I write won’t really do justice to how difficult it is to see this all with your own eyes, and I know many of you have in various places around the world, so I know I’m not the only one who feels limited by language when describing this feeling. And still, as soon as we walk in their house they offer whatever they can, even if that is simply a plastic chair to sit on and a welcoming smile. I was not able to understand much of the conversations happening during the visits, but I know that Centro Cristiano and la Fundacion are doing what they can to help these families.

To totally switch gears, I taught the first English class at church today. This is going to be fun! Pronunciation is very difficult for English learners, so we spend a lot of time repeating words and asking questions. But, we successfully covered introductions and numbers today, and the class is memorizing Micah 6:8 in English, while I will memorize it in Spanish. They teach me a lot, too, so I know we’ll both be at least a little more proficient in foreign languages at the end of this experience!

So, at the end of the day I’m finding a lot of insufficiency—not enough money, not enough resources, not enough time, not enough energy, not enough… So I’m forced the go back to the only One who is more than enough, who can take over when everything we have to give is still insufficient. That is me in Colombia—all I can give, teach, pray and love will not be enough, but Jesus will be— He’ll be more than enough for me and more than enough for the people of the barrios of Bogota, and that is a great thing to rest on.