Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
Yesterday, I was sitting in the lobby of a business. I had seen the receptionist and she left her desk to find the person I needed to see. In the meantime, another lady came in and she approached the receptionist’s desk. I was immediately struck by the angry, sour look she had on her face. She had been waiting 2-3 minutes when her breaths turned to impatient huffs and puffs, which I could hear across the room. Her body language screamed frustration as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She rang the bell three times.
My first thought about this lady was not “wow, she must be having a bad day.” It was not “this poor women must be overworked.” My first thought: “I bet she’s here from a Christian organization.” Sure enough, when the receptionist came the customer identified herself as being from a church. As she was handed the items she came for, without even looking, the customer hatefully said, “That’s the wrong thing.” Very kindly the receptionist said, “Are you sure? It has your name on it.” As the angry woman was in the process of saying, “Yes, of course I’m sure…” the receptionist opened the folder, and the items inside were in fact for the lady.
She didn’t apologize for her huffy attitude and she didn’t thank the receptionist. She curtly said, “I’ll have to take this with me,” and walked out the door, sporting the same miserable look she arrived with.
Now, in the Bible we are told that people will know we are Christians by the love we have for one another. (John 13:35) I wish that it always worked out that way. I suspected that the woman who came into that business was a Christian by her sour, condescending manner. Why? Because that characterizes so many Christians I’ve come in contact with.
I’m a Christian and I’m not going to abandon the faith because of this woman. However, she didn’t know that. As far as she knew, I could have been a lost person on the verge of becoming a Christian. As believers, we need to remember that people are watching! They are waiting to see how we react to things and how we treat others. We do not need to give people excuses to turn from Christianity. Let’s be characterized by love and kindness so that people have no doubt that the love of Christ is in our hearts! If we were on trial for being a Christian, what kind of evidence would be used against us?
While in India during the end of July this year, we were made painfully aware of the condition being faced on a daily basis by the poor. Much of India is dependent on the agricultural sector of the country. With very little or no rain and soaring temperatures, the economic plight of India seems to be getting worse by the day. During the two short weeks I was there, 24 local farmers committed suicide because they could see no way to repay money they had borrowed to buy seed and fertilizer to plant their crops or to provide for their families.
This drought has also caused prices on just about everything to escalate. During a break from classes in the Timothy Leadership Institute, I asked Jessie if he would give me a brief comparison of some of the basic commodities that the average Indian family uses. Here are just a few items so you might have an idea of how hard these price rises have been.
These prices will give you some idea of what most Indians are facing. On the surface this may not seem like much of a jump especially thinking of what has been happening here with our own economy. But when you remember that a day laborer only makes about $200 per year, that's only about $17 per month. This gives us a very different vantage point.
Hope and Help has tried to supplement the food budget for the pastors that we are helping. We used to be able to provide 5 kilos of rice for $3, but now we pay $9 for the same five kilos.
Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
As a parent, it's a bittersweet thing to watch your kids grow up. Bitter in the sense that they grow to need you a little less every day. Of course, that's the way God designed it. They need to be ready for life on their own by the time they leave home. Still for parents, it's the hardest thing to let them go.
But watching kids grow up and mature can also be a sweet experience and God let me have a taste of that sweetness on my last trip to India. My 13-year-old daughter, Stephanie, went with me on that trip. Throughout the week that we were there, doing a vacation Bible school program with 800 kids from the slum villages, I could see her heart becoming softer and softer to the needs and the conditions she saw around her. I saw her shed tears as she thought about the lives the kids went back to when they left the VBS. I saw her get too attached to one little kid that we initially thought was a boy, but turned out to be a girl. Kavya is the youngest of four kids in the family and the only girl, so everyday she wore the same tattered shorts and teal and white plaid button-up shirt, no doubt hand-me-downs from her older brothers. She was cute as a boy and cute as a girl, so we didn't care! If Stephanie could have brought her home with us, she would have. And little Kavya would have come too! On our last day in India, we arranged a visit to Kavya's house, and when we were getting into the car to leave, Kavya tried to get in the car with us! It tore our hearts out to tell her no! We all wanted her to come, but we knew she couldn't.
On that trip, I watched Stephanie care for her fellow team members. I saw her give her heart to a dirty little boy-turned-girl with a smile that's unforgettable. I saw her turn from worrying about clothes and food and accommodations, to trying to figure out how she, being too young to have a job, could earn enough money to sponsor Kavya. She grew up that week right before my eyes.
Entry by: Lori Overcash, Assistant Director of Hope & Help
I'm a big football fan! Have been as long as I can remember. My favorite team has always been the Redskins, and believe me, they've put my loyalty to the test. A LOT... But my #7 Joe Theismann jersey still hangs in my closet as a reminder of what was and hopefully can be again.
There are a few players I can't help but like, no matter who they play for. Brett Favre for one. (I can't even think his name without hearing it in John Madden's voice, can you?) He's just a hardworking, good ol' boy with extraordinary talent and he genuinely seems like a nice guy. He's kept us guessing with his "retired...not retired...retired again...not retired again" roller coaster ride, but besides that he seems like a fairly stable person. He's famous, but I feel that his world and mine would have a lot of common ground.
Yesterday, just after I heard of Farve's new contract deal, I received a "Christmas wish list" from our partner, Dolly, at the Veda School in India. She's asking for very basic and needed things, like new tables and chairs to replace the rusted out old ones in the school dining hall. It will cost just over $7,100 to provide the 100 tables and 500 chairs that she's asking for.
I started thinking what a big amount that is, but how it's nothing to somebody like our friend, Brett. I busted out my math skills on his $10.5 million annual salary and finally boiled it down to the fact that he makes enough in one minute of playing time ($10,937.50) to buy the tables and chairs. OK, if he's in the 50% tax bracket, he would have to play a minute and a half, but you get the point.
That led to an avalanche of thoughts and feelings. It did not lead to resentment of Favre; he's just taking what somebody is willing to pay. Who wouldn't?
It did lead me to wonder how we got to the point of paying ridiculous amounts to grown men to PLAY A GAME. It also led me to realize that God owns it all, even the check with Brett Favre's name on it. He also owns those tables and chairs that are setting in a warehouse somewhere and in His time, they'll be in the Veda dining hall, the place they were intended to be.
My math project also made me realize that whether we make $10,000 a minute or $10,000 a year, we need to know that it belongs to God. We are stewards, not owners and we should hold whatever we have with an open hand.
BRETT: If you're reading this, make your check payable to Hope and Help International, with "tables & chairs" in the memo. Thanks and "Go Vikings!"
Hello everyone and welcome to the new blog feature on the Hope and Help website. Our goal is to write about things that are going on in India, in the area of world missions, with Hope and Help specifically, and things that we experience on our visits to India that touch our hearts.
This blog is designed to be a forum where productive and informative discussions can take place. We encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences with us. Please remember to keep your comments appropriate and God-honoring!
