Serving Others

Last week I finished reading Tracy Kidder’s new book called The Strength in What Remains (Kidder also wrote Mountains Beyond Mountains about the life of Paul Farmer-also a great read).  In his new book, Kidder follows the life of Deo, a refugee from Burundi.  Burundi is situated just below Rwanda and, although I knew that Burundi is one of the poorest nations in the world, I did not know that the ethnic violence that erupted into genocide in Rwanda also occurred in Burundi.  Deo managed to eventually escape to the US (with $200) and, through many trials, nightmares, and perseverance, he managed to attend college and then medical school.

Here is one of my favorite sections of the book after Deo has returned many times to Burundi and is working on building a medical clinic in a remote village.  The following quote is directly from Deo.

“This past summer, we needed some help to make a road that goes to our site passable.  A friend of mine told me, ‘Well, Deo, there’s a great Belgian construction company that builds roads in Burundi and Rwanda and the Congo,’ and I was so excited.  So I went to talk to the representative of the company.  He sent someone to look at the road and estimated a cost of at least fifty thousand U.S. dollars.  Not to pave the road, but to just widen it and make it passable.  I went back frustrated, wondering how to tell the Kayanza community this bad news.  As I was explaining this to them, one woman with a baby crying on her back said to me, ‘You will not pay a penny for this road.  We become so much sick because we are poor, but we are not poor because we are lazy.  We will work on this road with our own hands.’  The next day a hundred sixty-six people showed up with pickaxes, hoes, machetes, and other tools.  One of the volunteers was a woman who came to work with a sick child.  When a friend of mine and I looked at the baby, we saw that the baby was sweating.  I then asked the mother why she came to work with a child that sick.  And she said to me, ‘Well, I’ve already lost three children, and I know this one is next, whether I stay at home or come to work here.  So it’s better for me to join others and make my contribution, which hopefully will help to save someone else’s child, who will be sick but alive when you have a clinic in Kayanza.’”

Reading this passage again reminds me of James 1:27.  How about you?

God Bless,
RJ
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A BIG thank you goes to everyone who helped with our ServeLocal Weekend!

I also want to thank all of our ServeLocal ministries that we partner with.  I hope everyone spent a few moments visiting with these folks on Saturday or Sunday to see what God is doing through their work and how you might be able to “plug in.”

A special thank you goes to our ServeLocal committee that coordinated and planned this special event.  If you have time, please thank them for their dedicated work.

Belva Greenage, Chair
Pete Lash, Co-Chair
Anne Flint
Tamea Bock
Robin Weaver
Tricia Martin
Gerry Anderson
Gary Ivey
Michael Paschall
Marian Duggan

God Bless,
RJ

This weekend we will have our ServeLocal Weekend at our services.  You will be able to meet representatives from all of our partnering ministries and we hope and pray that you can find a place to “plug-in”.  We will also have a love offering at each service that will support our ServeLocal efforts.

To see the list of our supported ministries click here.

Below you’ll find a great video overview of some of our ServeLocal organizations and a welcome from our committee chair Belva Greenage.

God Bless,
RJ
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ServeLocal Testimonies from Church at Charlotte on Vimeo.

This morning I opened my inbox and found an email with a link to this video from Rus.  It’s a worship song based on Isaiah 58 which just happens to be one of my favorite scriptures.  I also thinks it fits with why we serve others.  What do you think?

God Bless,
RJ
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