Guest blog post from Marta LoFranco

 

It seems like a lifetime ago, when one night in Medellín, Colombia my missionary parents stopped our Jeep in the darkest part of the city, and went over to a cardboard box where two little children were huddled under a dirty piece of cloth. The next thing I knew, two young boys were in the back seat with my younger brother and me.

Several thoughts began to fly through my 9-year-old mind. Where were their parents? Why were they sleeping in a cardboard box and when was the last time they had eaten or had a bath? What were my parents doing? I scooted over as close to my brother as possible. I had been in this country for two months and I was getting used to the indescribable poverty – just not quite this close.

It is hard for those of us living in the affluent western world to believe that most of the world lives on one to two dollars a day. According to the United Nations, 870 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. This number has decreased by 130 million since 1990, but this improvement has slowed since 2008.

The call to care for the world’s most vulnerable is as clear, consistent and compelling today as it was for my family 40 years go when we drove through Colombian towns offering “Gamines” (street children) hope by providing a meal, a hot bath, and a night in a warm bed before taking them to an orphanage where they would receive care.

We are not all called to go to foreign countries to bring orphaned children home, but we are all called to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Today I am thankful for organizations like Speroway that continue to be God’s hands and feet in countries that you and I may never visit – delivering hope and meeting needs for children and families that you and I would otherwise never be able to reach.