Giving Out of Their Poverty

After being gone from Honduras for almost 5 weeks, we were thankful to return to our home and find everything in order.  As we walked around town on our second day back, we were greeted by various people and asked "When did you return?"  That's funny.  We hadn't told those people that we were leaving.  But when you live in a small town where most people are related to their neighbor, everybody knows everything.  That worked to our benefit in that they all watched our house for us.

Some of the neighbor kids playing on our road.

Matt and I like to walk in the late afternoons just before the sunsets (6pm) and see if we can catch a color-filled sky.  The other night while we were walking, we were greeted by a variety of people.  Some of the people we knew by name and others we know by sight.  Either way, we stopped and chatted for a minute.  By the time, we finished our walk, our arms were full of "gifts" that people had shared with us.  We had a bag of 15 guayabas (a sweet little fruit that is good for making juice), two ears of hot corn, eight bananas and fresh bread.  Wow!  Such generosity!

Making juice from guayabas

What had we given them?  Nothing.  Well, maybe a smile and some Spanish conversation with our strange accent.  For a lot of these people, we are the first North Americans they have ever met.  One of our dear friends is a lady in her 60's who lives in a simple three-room house with no indoor plumbing or electricity.  The lack of those modern conveniences is no deterrent to her joy in living.  We met her on the road, both walking from opposite directions.  She pleaded with us to come to her house which was just up the dirt road.  She was thrilled that we had accepted her invitation, but I was a little worried at what type of invitation I had accepted.  Did I agree to dinner?  (The last time we had seen her before returning to the US, she had said, "Next time I will kill a chicken for us to eat together!")

It turned out that she just wanted us to come and visit with her in her home.  Her husband was still working in the corn field.  She served us some juicy watermelon which we ate standing out back.  The chickens were eager for our seeds and rind.  We talked about her property, her family and her love for Jesus.  We had a wonderful conversation about how Jesus is the only true God.  There is no other.  He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  We talked about how the Lord watches over us and cares for us.  That's where her joy comes from!

As we parted ways, she handed us a bag of five fresh eggs.  She said, "You can have these for your dinner tonight."  We bashfully took them, although, again, it felt like we had nothing to give her in return.  It reminded me of the story in the Bible in Mark 12:41-44 where Jesus talks about the widow's offering.  It says, "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.'”

What a challenge to my Christian faith to see the poor giving out of their poverty - something that I can't fully understand or relate.  We have come to Honduras to help the poor.  But God never wastes an opportunity to teach, so each day we are learning what it is to give of ourselves.  May God be honored as we seek to reflect His love to the people around us.

me :)