A bit overwhelming

This week I have the privilege of being in North Carolina at a conference sponsored by World Relief. My church has been donating money to their efforts in Darfur and they invited our pastor and I down to learn more about World Relief and the opportunities available for us to partner with them as a local church.

The conference started last night and continued this morning. Thankfully we are on a break where I can rest and have my mind catch up on what I am learning. I will be honest, I am quite overwhelmed with the needs of the world at this point. World Relief is involved in 18 countries most of which are in conflict or just emerging from conflict. We have heard stories of poverty, displacement, slavery, violence, health epidemics and the like. When I think about my own life and resources and weigh it against the enormous needs in the world, my first instinct is to ignore the problem and hurriedly get back to my safe, middle class life where I am not confronted with the injustice of the world.

However, there is a biblical principle: To whom much is given, much is expected. I usually apply that to money in that I am wealthier than 95 percent of the world so I am expected to give back more. But today I am thinking that this applies to my knowledge of what is happening around the world. I have been given this knowledge and now I am expected to use this knowledge and not waste it.

The preacher this morning was from Kenya and he shared the story of how his church responded to the thousands of people who were chased from their homes during the political unrest at the beginning of this year. He said that they had no strategy but love and were completely overwhelmed by the need. It was more than they could handle. This may sound strange but this is encouraging to me in that I am not the only one overwhelmed.

My temptation is always to wait and help when I am ready or when I have all the answers or resources or money or time. Yet his church was involved and didn't have any of those things. They were dependent on God to provide the resources and made do with what they had.

There is much, much more that I could write but I am still in the midst of processing everything I am learning. I hope to write again tonight and over the remainder of the weekend.