Enough

Neighbor boys who's family struggles to send them to school.

You either have it or you don't.  You might think we don't have it, but we most certainly do...  Money.  The Fall is a hard time on families in the Sahel.  The harvest is not in yet, but school fees are due and new clothes for school should be bought.  On top of that, it's the malaria and hungry season.  Lately we have seen a lot of typhoid too.

The Gao tree is a great symbol of flourishing despite what
being in a time of lacking.  It always seems to find enough 
to sprout anew out of nothing during the dry season.

We had a guest in our home over night.  In the morning he was teasing Smile-On for not talking at the breakfast table and said, "You are very hungry.  That is why you are not talking."  Seems like a different approach to me.  I often think Smile-On's father and I don't want to talk in the morning because of our personality.  Although we have often been hungry for a meal, we have never been truly hungry - what a different approach to life that gives us.  Our three boys in our family who have been hungry at times are the most talkative people at the table!

This starkly points out the inequality of opportunity in the world.  This Fall God has really put it on our hearts the desire to help more children and young adults with schooling.  There is such inequity in the world and why should these children not be able to attend school because of the family they were born into?  Why should these parents have to tell their children they can't go to school because they can't make enough money?

I can guarantee that for these parents we know who don't have enough money to send their children to school, it's not because they are not working hard enough or are lazy.  These are intelligent and hard working parents who really love their children.  Speaking of hard workers, we have been trying to help Sunny come up with a sustainable business in the Sahel that brings in money.  It is really, really difficult to find work that pays a decent wage here.

So sometimes we wonder, where does the generosity stop?  There is the saying, 'I can't send all the neighbors children to school'.  I'm not sure that Jesus' wants us to stop at all.  Saving up our money for what?  We try to help everyone in some way who comes to our home and asks, but we may not give them all they ask.  Is it enough?  

What about saving for our future plans?  What about our children?  We don't live extravagantly by any means, but I am sure that if Jesus were in human form again living in the Sahel - he would not be living as we are living.  Sometimes we think our  7 suitcases that we moved here is pretty good.  But that doesn't compare to the traveling light of Jesus' first disciples or of many other non-western pilgrims who journey on this earth for a while.

We value living simply and using just what you have. That's one reason we thought we had the right gifts to live here.  But still we find that many of the problems people are going through are even bigger than living simply can fix.  It's a constant reminder that our gifts are never 'enough.'  We always have to rely on our one source that provides renewed life and trust that that will be enough to lead us forward from one grace to the next!

-- La Maestra