Reflections on Fasting

Today, I am fasting (yes, we are a day early, but Tigist has worked overtime to prepare a Christmas feast for us.  We couldn't tell her that we weren't going to eat!  So we fasted today).  I have not eaten since last night.  I am insanely hungry.  My eyes are droopy, my head has a dull pain, the pit in my stomach is huge, and I am grumpy.  It is now 3:10pm.  I have felt this way since 10:30am. 

Why am I fasting?  To pray for the people of Ethiopia facing famine.  People who would count themselves lucky to eat 1-2 meals a day - and a meal may consist of a handful of corn or a piece of bread.  People who never know when their next meal may come, unlike me who is assured a wonderful meal at 7:00pm tonight.  People who surround me daily and beg for my money, satisfied with a coin (centeim) that equals anywhere from 4 cents US to less than a penny.  People like Hanna's father and family.  And I am ripped to shreds.

Today, Tigist asked me how much a plane ticket to the US would cost for one man.  For simple math, I said $1,000 (which is quite low) or 12,000birr.  Micah said, "wow, that's 12,000 loaves of bread here."  And he's right.  What we throw around somewhat casually in the US is astronomical here.  I am stunned and dumbfounded.

As I walk the streets, I am constantly confronted with beggars - mothers with babies attached to their breasts, old men, people left crippled due to lack of medical aid, the blind, little children.  It's constant when you walk anywhere here.  I am often callous - not looking, not seeing, not wanting to see.  I get indignant, "Can't I just walk somewhere without being accosted for my money just because I am white?!?".  And they are persistent.  Pesky.  Down right annoying at times.  I give them a firm, borderline-harsh "no" and I avoid eye contact.  I wish they would just go away.

And yet, where do I want them to go?  What do I suggest they do to survive?

Sometimes when I walk the streets, I see them...REALLY see them.  It's hard to keep it together as I continue down the busy sidewalk.  My heart breaks and everything in me SCREAMS!!!! at the injustice.  I want to vomit.  I look the mother in the eye at 9 o’clock  at night, with 2 little bundles no bigger than Hanna curled up on the sidewalk beside her and a tinier one attached to her breast.  I can throw a few centeim at her - the customary thing to do, and often we do - but it doesn't stop that screaming ache.  I can pass a coin into the outstretched hand of the little child much smaller than Caia, but to what end?  In my soul, I beat my hands upon God's chest and scream, "Do you SEE this?!?  What on earth do you want me to do about it?!?!  What on earth are YOU doing about it??!?!?  What are REAL solutions?  Do solutions really exist?", all the while, trying to keep it together and herd my little brood through the crowded city streets.

And we're in the city.  The affluent capital city.  I see nothing of the subsistence farmers who labor and sweat with crude implements to try to yield a tiny crop...if the weather cooperates and the rains come at the right time.  I see nothing of the utterly malnourished, fighting-for-life little ones with their bloated bellies and lifeless eyes.  I see nothing of the wailing mothers burying their children due to the lack of food or a basic doctor.  I see nothing of the true effects of famine on a country.

And I ask, "Why me?"  Why am I so spoiled?  Why am I so rich?  Why am I so privileged?

Please pray for the people of Ethiopia tomorrow – Christmas Day.  Pray for God’s provision for the poor.  Pray for Christians who are willing to be used by Him to put in place real, long-term solutions for real people who are hopeless, destitute.  Pray for open ears and open and willing hearts in the body of Christ – especially the part that is SO well off when compared to the Third World’s standards – for people to each be willing to play their part for the cause of the poor.  Pray for the little boy with desperate eyes.  Pray for the mother with several little children to feed.  Pray for each one who doesn’t know when he will eat next.  Pray for God to open up the heavens on behalf of these beautiful people, and for His name to be glorified in the process.  And pray for God to show the Shannon family their part in providing hope to the poor.

~C

See the post a few posts down called "Praying for Ethiopia"