Neighbors

Walmer Location/Township
















Yesterday I went with a few friends to help out with their soup club they have just started in the Walmer location. Walmer is a suburb in Port Elizabeth (city I live in). There are two common names for these settlements: location, and township. There are over 6 of these locations in my city. In the pictures above you can see their houses. All made from scrap tin, wood, plastic, anything really. Dirt floors, no heating/air conditioning even electricity. Many without running water. When the rain comes, most of these houses flood making everything and everybody wet and muddy. Of course, some houses are a little nicer than others and have running water or electricity that they tap into. The kids and people have hardly any clothing most in the only what they have torn and dirty. Many go with broken shoes and many with none at all. Aside from lack of clothing many kids go without food for days, sometimes they get one meal a day. Usually, that meal is bread, pap, porridge, or potatoes (carbs or starch). I see kids with bloated bellies from malnutrition. This place is about a 10 min walk from my house. My neighbors are starving. 

I have heard stories from young girls who's parents have died or left them and they are now forced to take care of their brothers and sisters. These girls are ages 13-16. Because they can't work they sell their bodies every day for food and money. My neighbors are hurting. 

Sometimes, I can go a few days with out feeling compassion for people in these circumstances as I get busy and forget what they suffer. I live in a nice house, in a nice area. If I am always on the go, even though I may interact and pray with people who live there I still can be non-understanding when I forget how they live. Poverty is an interesting thing here. A mindset that few seem to be able to break. Circumstances that no one did anything to inherit; they were just born.

Everything is so segregated. One just has to travel a few min in any directions and you will see nice houses, paved roads, -wealth. Wealth is really all in perspective. Yesterday I heard two little kids go nuts over the fact that one of them had R9 (R10=$1). To the kids, you were rich if you had R9. To me, that is poverty. A kid gets a new pair of shoes- something his feet have never felt. He feels wealth. Many of us have the decision of choosing which shoes to wear in the morning. 

My heart breaks. And many times like today, I feel helpless. I can do so little. I am so little. The great hope in this is that my God, is a big God. He can do big things. I didn't write this entry to make anyone pity anyone. I just wanted to give people some perspective. The best thing for the western culture to try and uproot it from apathetic complacency is to get some perspective on life. As you finish reading this I encourage all of you to ask God for some perspective. It could change your life on so many different levels. Apathy hardens our hearts to stop feeling for our neighbors. Matthew 22:39. We suck at one of the two most important things Jesus commands of us. 

Here is a few facts for some perspective:

• There are 164.8 million needy children in the world.
• 11 million starve to death or die from preventable diseases
• 8.5 million work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under horrible conditions
• 2.3 million live with HIV

• 2.1 BILLION people on this planet claim to be Christians

• If just 8 percent of us "Christians" cared for one more child, there would be NO STATISTICS LEFT. 

So… are we loving our neighbors?



(facts above taken from Kisses From Katie)