Matthew 15:29-31
After Jesus returned, he walked
along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready
to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the
paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in
need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he
would do with them. He healed them. When the people saw the mutes
speaking, the maimed healthy, the paraplegics walking around, the blind
looking around, they were astonished and let everyone know that God was
blazingly alive among them.
Scripture
quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs,
CO. All rights reserved.
This week, we received a new
picture of our “son”...Timothy Kodjo Owusu Frim. “Kodjo” will be 14
next week, and we “adopted” him via Compassion International* when he
was only five. We send money each month to support Kodjo, who lives
most of the time with his grandmother near the African city of Accra in
the country of Ghana. Kodjo attends the Mt. Zion Methodist Child
Development Center. His family engages in “petty trading” – information
we are provided indicates that they make about $58 per month. Our
“sponsorship” costs $38 a month.
We pay an additional $8 for
HIV/AIDS response and another $8 in Compassion International partnership
to help sponsor other children – both of these donations are optional.
Just as importantly, we send frequent letters and photos to Kodjo. You
can write to your child as often as you like...and there is even an
online form to do this and send up to three photos, which makes this
more convenient. We offer him encouragement, ask questions about him and
the culture and life of Ghana, and we share the love of Christ with him
via Bible verses. Kodjo writes us in return with the assistance of a
worker at the Child Development Center.
We also send monetary
“gifts” for Kodjo’s birthday and at Christmas. And there is an option
to provide a “family gift” each year to help siblings (if there are any)
and other family members. Compassion decides what the child/family
should do with the money, and Kodjo has used his gifts for clothing,
food, and a soccer ball. If you follow soccer, you know that this game
(referred to as “football” in other countries) is incredibly important
in other cultures, including that of Ghana. When the USA beat Ghana in
the 2014 World Cup games, Kodjo told us that he was so upset that he was
unable to eat or sleep! So the chance to own his own soccer ball was
very special to him.
Why am I telling you this...and what does it
have to do with this scripture passage in Matthew 15? I believe that
when Jesus performed healings and other miracles, He knew that someday,
people like Greg and I would “heal” others in His name by sponsoring
children via such organizations as Compassion, International. I believe
that Jesus fully understood that His demonstrations were not
necessarily to be taken so literally by people who lived thousands of
years later...but rather, that we were to look for situations in which
“miracles” and “healings” were needed – and we were to accomplish these
in His name.
There are hundreds of children just like Kodjo – all
around the world – who need a sponsor. There are countless charitable
organizations that need a few bucks – or a helping hand. It’s not just
about money. But many of us plunk down more than $38 a WEEK for
mindless purchases...totally oblivious to the impact this amount could
have on someone living in a Third World country or even the hungry child
in your local elementary school's third grade classroom. We fail to
recognize how many lives could be touched if we gave an hour a week to
deliver Meals on Wheels or to volunteer in a classroom at school or
church. We don’t think about the lifelong impact of mentoring a
child...or how precious our visits might be to an elderly person who is
housebound. We totally underestimate the power of a simple note of
encouragement...or a smile.
Notice that this passage says, “They
came...tons of them.” It was no accident that Jesus ministered to these
people...that He assessed their needs and met them – in droves. He did
this in large part as a demonstration for us of how we are to live. He
was showing us what to do to serve and honor Him – and the exponential
impact of such ministries. Now it is our turn. The people may not come
to us...we may have to seek out the opportunities to “heal” and
“perform miracles”. But they exist, nonetheless. Our job is to look
for them – and to get busy! Are you ready to do your part? Will this
be the day that you begin?
©2014 Debbie Robus
* For more information on Compassion, International, visit http://compassion.com
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