When normal life stops

Today is the last day of the annual Hungry Months Challenge. My passion for this work, however, is just now kicking into gear.

This week a gunman came into our children's school shouting, "You are all going to die!" Thanks to the heroes we call teachers, administrators, and police, almost everybody made it out. The entire community grieves for those who did not. In the days following the event, we were loved from near and far. Normal life stopped so healing could be the focus. A week later, there is still no plan for when school will start back up. In the meantime, we flooded our lives with comforts we usually say "no" to: eating at restaurants, Philip returning early from Africa, a two night getaway at a cabin to reconnect as a family with God and each other, buying trinkets in the gift shop. All of this feels reasonable when our hearts are hemorrhaging.

And then there are our friends in West Africa. They have gunmen, too. They have surprise attacks on their daily lives. Women and children see their men be shot. And their aftermath? They run for their lives. They leave home, belongings, and the bodies of their husbands and fathers behind. They are not flooded with creaturely comforts like we were; they lose their livelihoods with everything else.

In this week of understanding the threats, the violence, and the trauma, I want to step up the care for displaced people living without comforts and margin. Can we at least give them their next meal? Of course we can! We have the team on the ground. Will you be the team in the States?

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Thank you!