Break my heart for what breaks yours

One of my friends, Ian, got
back from the World Race (a different AIM trip) a few months before I left for Mexico. I saw
him at the wedding in October and he remarked to me that if I hadn’t already, I
was about to have my world “wrecked”. I didn’t quite understand what he meant
until a few nights ago when I heard one of my teammates say that the same thing
was going to happen to one of her friends that’s doing missions this summer.
The more we talked, the more I saw my old self in her friend’s shoes.

“It will break her heart
that people spend all of their money on cell phones instead of food.” More so
it breaks my heart that this is said by many aid workers to be one of the top
three reasons, the three C’s, that girls will prostitute themselves. The other
two are transport (cars) and school fees (class).

“It will break her heart
that people drive cars while their neighbors starve.” We often do the same
thing in the states. Think about it. I know I have. It breaks our hearts to see
it here though because we want to believe that everyone we are helping is in
such extreme poverty that they need it more than the people back home.

“It will break her heart
that the little kids that come up and hold your hand aren’t as sweet and
innocent as they appear.” Kids here just like in the states are mischievous.
They need to be loved and that includes the tough love of discipline when they
do something they know they shouldn’t.

“It will break her heart
that organizations aren’t always helping who they say they’re helping.” UNICEF
started many of the care points here but after a few years there wasn’t any
more food being brought in. So other aid organizations stepped up. AIM and
Children’s Hope Chest were two of those organizations.

“It will break her heart
that being Jesus doesn’t come naturally or easy.” And a lot of times we don’t
really know what that means.

“It will break her heart
that things, the systems that are already in place, aren’t easy to fix or
change.” You can’t come in expecting to just throw money or even prayer at
problems and everything be okay.

“It will break her heart
that after awhile, things don’t break her heart.” We get use to life here. We
don’t like it but it happens. We become numb to children digging through our
trash to find something they can make into a toy. We become numb to our
neighbors earning in a month what I use to earn in an hour. We become numb.

“It will break her heart
that living in the midst of poverty that she will long for modern
conveniences.” We have it better than many of the people around us; we have
beds, electricity, flushing toilets, a fridge, and a freezer. Despite this we
sometimes long for the modern conveniences that we don’t have here.
Unfortunately the grass is always greener even when we don’t want to admit it.

 “It will break her heart to see the religion
in the church.” And that often times you question the faith of believers that
you see because so much of what they do is caught up in the religion and the
tradition, not what Christ commanded. Read
a blog by a friend of mine Jessica Becker entitled Bibles and Benches about this topic.

“It will break her heart to
realize that there is injustice and depravity that we have ignored in America.” I
know that I have, I’m sure we all have at some point or another.

“It will break her heart to
see Africans selling their culture to make it more like the west.” In reality
it cheapens it in a way. Selling something that means so much cheapens it.

And it breaks my heart
every time I see a starving dog. I mean it makes sense, why spend money to feed
animals when people are starving? But never the less being raised in a home
where animals were loved and well taken care of, sometimes too much ;), it
breaks my heart to see them starving.

That night we all had a few
realizations and paradigm shifts.

–        
In some ways we are
here to experience and see brokenness so that we can see it at home.

–        
God comes into
hopeless situations and brings hope.

–        
We can bring God’s
spirit with us here to empower people to change but people have to want to be transformed. We’re only here
for a few months, we can’t be the complete change we want to see in Africa but we can,
only with God, empower Africans to be that change.

Lord, break my heart for what breaks
yours.