Why Go to Africa to Help When there are So Many Here Who Need Help? Why I Go?

Originally posted 5/29/2015
Reposted and updated 5/29/2016

Why Go to Africa to Help When there are So Many Here Who Need Help?

Why I Go

Mark 16:15-16

 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

Matthew 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

1 John 3:17

17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

Zambia

Population: 13.3 million

Life Expectancy: 44.5 years

GDP: US$1248 per capita

Unemployed: 16.0%

81.5% earn less than US$2 per day

Why do I Go?

2 CORINTHIANS 8:9

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

I have had people to say, “Why go to Africa when we have so many people here that need so much help? Why would you want to go to Africa when you can help those here?”

I spent many years working with the poorest of poor children in Texas. I have witnessed the poverty in the Texas.

I have been highly blessed to travel to Zambia five times.

I have been in the Eastern Province every time. I have also traveled from the Eastern Province to the Southern Province and to the Northwestern Province.  Zambia is a country about the size of Texas. So, I have witnessed the extreme poverty that exists in Zambia firsthand.  In Zambia, I have traveled to numerous villages and once spent eight days and nights in a remote village without electricity and running water. I have never witnessed poverty in the United States that comes close to the extreme, widespread poverty in Zambia. There are many, many people walking and riding bicycles up and down the roadways, out in the country, in the villages, and in the cities. It is mostly the men who ride bicycles. They are hauling goats, pigs, eggs, elephant grass, wood, tin, charcoal, sweet potatoes, their families, mazes, cotton, mattresses, you name it and they haul it on their bikes.

I have been in peoples living abodes that have no window glass, no electricity, and no running water, very worn out furniture.  But yet they are willing and eager to share the little bit of food they have with us. They prepare the food for us and they do not eat. The average income is $2.00 a day or less. Many do not even have this. They live completely off the land. This is a land of many people who do not have a Bible and do not have access to a Bible. If a Bible cost $7.00 and one has an income of $2.00 a day or less, where are they going to spend their money? How shall they hear? Romans 10:14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

As an American it is so hard to comprehend this extreme poverty. We actually have no knowledge base to comprehend this extreme poverty unless we have gone and witnessed it firsthand. I can tell you but you won’t comprehend until you have built that new knowledge base.

When one has this knowledge base it will either change your life for the good or the bad.  It is a haunting reality for me.  1 John 3:17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Proverbs 21:13 He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered. 

I can tell you about the face of a four year old boy who brings his mother a hand full of field mice. I can tell you about her quickly snatching them out of his hand and hurrying off to later discover that she has put them in a pot of water to boil for lunch for her family.

I can tell you about an old grandmother asking for help with her grandson with a broken leg whom she is carrying. I can tell you about the people who walk 20Ks or longer to get to the Medical Mission we do. I can tell you about the lady who told me she needs my glasses so she can see.

I can tell you about the hundreds of people who stand in the hot sun all day long waiting with hope to see the Doctor or Dentist and get some relief.  I can tell you they do not eat anything all day long. I can tell you about the children with the extended tummies and no shoes.  

I can tell you about the abode without window glass or no windows at all. I can tell you about the schools where we do the medical missions that have windows but no glass in them. I can tell you about the desk that are so wore out that we are afraid they will fall down if someone sits on them.
I can tell you about the hole in the floor at the door of the room that is three inches deep by ten inches wide, I can tell you about the toilet that stinks so badly you almost gag as you walk in to use the little hole in the ground. I can tell you about 45-70 students in a classroom that is 10 feet by 12 feet. 

I can tell you about the smell of the people who are as clean as they can be without water, I can tell you about the clothes they wear that we would throw away and not even use as rags.
I can tell you but until you see, smell, feel, touch and let these things sink into your heart, you will not truly understand what I mean.

We go to Africa to take the gospel of Christ to so many souls that have very little physical goods and a heart that is starving to death for the Good News.  We can’t, not go.  That is why we go.

ACTS 20:35

35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” When we go, we always come home with the feeling that we are the ones who received the most blessings. They on the other hand are the ones who feel they received the most blessings.

Now we have added one more cause to that list. We are going to try to alleviate the suffering and death of babies.

This June 4, 2016 three of us are moving to Zambia to start taking care of babies who do not have a chance to live without divine intervention. We are not divine or anything special, nor do we have special powers. It is God who is mighty and awesome and He will provide the divine intervention. He has allowed us to go so many times and He has given us the love for the people in Zambia.
If you want to be apart of this work you may send a check for a tax free donation to:
Attn: Ana Home
Baker Heights Church of Christ
5382 Texas Avenue
Abilene, Texas 79605
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