Seen

Every once in awhile there is something that shakes me to the core.  Something that leaves me reeling, a moment where my eyes are opened and I gain new understand.  I had one of those moments this week.  I finished reading Passport Through Darkness, a gripping story of Kimberly's journey into the war-torn country of Sudan.  She eloquently tell the story of not only her mission field, but also how the five years spent in Sudan affected her marriage and her life when she returned home.

Her experiences are heart-strings pulling and unfathomable to me as I sit in my first world, protected, comfortable home.  The stories Kimberly shares are about women banding together sharing what precious little they have, one pair of shoes or a one room hut, in order to survive the slavery and rape that is always lurking in their paths.   Children disappear over night because they fall asleep in trees to avoid the hungry animals, but fall out of the trees while asleep and the animals get them anyway.   Young girls, pregnant with babies too big for their bodies to deliver, sick with meningitis and young boys standing by the road, bellies swollen with malnutrition become part of her day to day life.  My mind cannot even comprehend the situations she writes about in this book.  

Part of her time at home was to raise money for the orphanage she wanted to build in Sudan.   A place to protect and educate the children who had no hope for a future on their own.  She writes about one experience where she was scheduled to speak at a church for a few weeks in a row to educate the congregation on her mission and also to raise funds.   After the first visit with the congregation, a member of the church approached her and asked her not to return to finish her scheduled presentations because the content was too upsetting and to offensive to some people in the church.

When I read this I was greatly saddened.   My heart, as you know, aches for the children who live in poverty.   I could not imagine how I would feel or what I would say or do in her position.  

And yet.....

This week while I was scanning my Facebook feed, one of the organizations that Mark and I follow was posting the pictures of the cause they are supporting this week.   I saw the first picture and I quickly scrolled on because I didn't want to "see" the picture.

That is right, I didn't want to "see" the picture.  

The picture showed a young child with white worms crawling out of his nose.   My response to the picture was exactly the same as the church members that so greatly saddened me.

I went back to the pictures, the pictures that I didn't want to see and I looked at them.  I made sure that I noticed them, that they were seen. 

I am thankful for the people around the world who are making a difference in people's lives.  I do not believe that anyone deserves to be treated differently just because of where they live and what is going on in their country.  I just hope that as I can respond properly and not cringe at the picture as too horrific just because it it not something that happens near my home. 

I am posting the pictures below.   There is no pressure for you to look at them, this is part of my journey, not necessarily yours.  

Sevenly is the charity that provided the pictures below.   Their mission is to take one cause a week from ending the seven diseases to finding a cure for autism.  This weeks cause, END 7 diseases by 2020 can be found here.