Please Don’t Look Away

Posted on 06.05.07 in Faith and there are 16 comments.

A couple days ago I received a forwarded email and for some reason I felt compelled to scroll past the eternal recipient list and actually read it.

It crushed me.

The email contained about a dozen images of the famine in Sudan. Everything in me wanted to look away, but I made myself look. I forced myself to acknowledge that these children are just like mine. If they had enough to eat, they’d say they don’t like spinach. If they had enough to drink they’d say they want juice instead of water.  If they had the energy, they’d play tag, laugh and sing.

This picture was particularly gripping. It won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. It depicts a small girl (about the age of my girls) crawling to a UN food station about a half mile away. A vulture waits behind her.

I wrote this in response to all the thoughts and feelings and emotions that the image stirred in my heart.

A child cries
I build my wall higher
brick by costly brick
until I am safe
safe from need
safe from fear
safe from everything
she daily bears

A child cries
and so do we
shed our tears of excess
as she sheds hers of need

A child cries
we must cry too
for the food
we’ve withheld
from the hungry
to ensure our comfort
that was never
ours to own

A child cries
Oh God of Heaven
let me cry too
let me weep
let me mourn
for the poor
for the hungry
for the widow
for the orphan
yes, God for the orphan
please God for the orphan

for they are us
a different color
but they are us
a different place
but they are us

fathers, mothers
sons and daughters
they are us, they are us

A child cries
and I am discontent
with comfort
I have seen
death in the eyes of a child
I cannot live life for myself
alone
again

A child cries
and I must cry too
So, now
what is it that I will do?

I have some ideas brewing about how we can move from inspiration to action, but for now here are a few links to organizations that make a difference in the lives of children like this little girl.

Compassion International
Blood Water Mission
World Vision

How do we (can we, should we) reconcile our excess with her need? 

The Comments:

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Kat, I can’t answer the questions about American excess and Christianity and world need.  But - have you ever heard of the Mocha Club?  I think you might be interested.  https://www.africanleadership.org/mochaclub/about

This is something I have wanted to talk to my church about a while. Everyone there seems to be so concerned with not having enough money, and we do not understand how fortunate we are. I’m tired of not being grateful for what I have and not helping those who need it most, and I’m going to do something to change that. I don’t know what yet, but I have to do something. When I talk to my church, I’d like to use what you have written above. It is very beautiful and simple, and I think it will help my church understand what I’m talking about.

Stephanie,
Thanks for the link. I’ve heard of the Mocha Club but I’ve never looked into the organization. I’ll go check it out. Do you have any first hand experience with them...meaning do you know if they’re a really reputable organization?

Kellipax,
You’re more than welcome to use it however you’d like. I’d love to hear what you decide to do and what kind of feedback you get.

That picture gave me the chills.

It is hard to reconcile our excess with other’s need.  It is hard when we are just living normal lives, trying to pay the bills on time and we don’t feel like we actually have that much excess.  Partly because our culture is always telling us about how much we don’t have.  There is always this huge chasm of need in front of us, and even when we are giving, it never seems to be enough.

I look forward to hearing your further thoughts, Kat.

Asher’s godmother is a missions and outreach coordinator for a Presbyterian church.  She really respects the African Leadership organization (not sure of its actual title) and started a local Mocha Club in her area.  That’s what I know about it - I don’t have a lot of first hand experience, but I definitely trust her opinion.

Wow Kat,

That is quite a powerful posting, between the pic itself and the poem, how can we just not do something?!  I bet I’ll figure out a way to put it off even longer, despite my not wanting to.  It’s one of the things I’m the most ashamed of- how I can sit and worry about my financial future when my worries are so inconsequential to the reality of the world.

Amy,
“...our culture is always telling us about how much we don’t have.”

So true. We are constantly bombarded with marketing messages listing all the things we need. We’ve forgotten what need really means.

Stephanie,
That’s exactly what I was looking for - I wasn’t sure if you knew someone involved with it or if you’d just heard of it. I checked out the site and it looks like a really neat setup. They even have a blog that they use to update members on the various projects. I’m definitely going to look into it. Thanks for the tip.

Dave,
“I bet I’ll figure out a way to put it off even longer, despite my not wanting to.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Why do we do this? We WANT to do something, but what makes it so hard to actually DO something?

How do we reconcile our excess with her need?

Great question, Kat.

I don’t have an answer, but to be honest, I must admit to asking myself this almost daily. I’m not sure I understand all the forces at work in my current questioning of this stuff. (Guilt? Conviction? Genuine heart change? I don’t know.)

I definitely spent plenty of years with my head in the sand, but just haven’t been able to do that any more.

The whole thing is maddening, on so many levels (and I mean that in both senses of the word—anger and insanity). I struggle restlessly to “stay afloat” by American standards, but find myself viewing more and more things through the “how much more could I be doing with with this money if I sent it to someone in true need instead of buying [insert item here]?” lens. And the “questionable purchase” list grows daily.

I followed Brant’s Travel Journal: Kenya with great interest last year, and that’s when the dam finally broke for me and I got off my <bleep> and sponsored some Compassion kids (i.e., finally moved that from “something I should do someday” to “something I did today”.) That was a good first step, but hopefully just the beginning.

I also remember the internal struggles and battles that Brant chronicled (see here and here for examples) after his time in Africa. I feel like I vicariously understand this—so without spending thousands of dollars to fly over there and experience that myself, I can use that travel money to actually do some good instead.

I have to be careful about going to see Shaun Groves play. Last time I did that here in Nashville, I sponsored another child. (I say that with good-natured sarcasm—truth is that I like to be challenged to stretch beyond what I think I can do, and it’s better to rationalize about which things I can do without in order to sponsor one more, than to try and justify what I “can’t do without").

Keep up the good work, Kat. (And Shaun, and Brant, and so many others...)

I read that the photographer of that photo later committed suicide and left this note.

“I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners...I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”

Funny that even after seeing the poverty that he experienced half of his suicide note is complaining about money.

That’s one of the reasons why we are supporting Blood:Water Mission.  You mention the Mocha Club - haven’t heard of it, but another that seems like it is Growers First.  What Growers First does, as I understand it, is try to eliminate the middle men and get you buying direct from the growers in impoverished areas while also teaching and equiping them to produce a better and/or more profitable crop.

This picture is haunting me.  It is so awful.  I wish we could just fix the world for those poor children.  More people need to help, and I need to do more....Im glad you posted this. 

I also really liked the poem/or song that you wrote reagarding this picture, it fits perfectly.

That picture gave me the chills. It is hard to reconcile our excess with other’s need. Forex Signals

Under the leadership of President Mugabe, land issues, which the liberation movement promised to solve, reemerged as the vital issue in the 1990s.

These horrible things happen and we just tend to turn our looks away. Meanwhile all our leaders care about is how to get no fee balance transfers on their check books.

breathtaking picture, amazing poem, it cries out what has been on my heart!

That picture makes me cry.  I can’t reconcile my excess to this baby’s need.  Even though as I write this I am unemployed and our family is going through a “rough time” financially I have to stop and think...are we really?  Even though I’m looking for a new job and we are cutting back we still have excess that I can’t reconcile.  My husband and I have been discussing “adopting” a child through Compassion but we were waiting until I returned to work.  Truly God has arrested me today.  I followed the link from MercyMe’s website to your page and God spoke to me here...thank you and may He richly bless your efforts and convict many more of our wretched excess...I’ll be talking to hubby when he gets home tonight and prayerfully we will step forward to sponsor a Compassion child...I believe sooner than later..before then I pause to pray for each child around our world that finds themselves in a situation as depicted in this picture.

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