From Erin B.

I’ve learned something in our time in “B”.
(Wow, if that’s not the understatement of the century, I don’t know what is!)
I’ve learned that we are missionaries, not superheroes.

A big struggle for both Emily and myself is that we live in the middle of poverty and really can’t do anything about it. We technically HAVE things–like medicines and extra granola bars and money–but if we were to give one thing to one person, we’d have the whole village at our front door demanding we give them something too! Everything we own would run out in a matter of hours and when there would be nothing left, the people would still demand MORE…

Something one of our translators said at the beginning of this trip is that the Songhai people live in a very moment-by-moment mentality. They just want something to keep them going to the next moment because “they know they are already dead.” What a state to be constantly living in! It breaks my heart! But that’s really how it is here. They ask for a gift–any gift–because it is just one more thing to have and use up before the moment is over.

Honestly, it makes me kind of depressed. How are we supposed to help people without feeding into this corrupt mindset of theirs??? How do we help them understand that the best gift we can give them is knowledge of Jesus, not just another material object???

Honestly, since it was so hard for me to draw the line on this issue, I kind of shut down and said, ok NO gifts of any kind! I just didn’t know what would be wise and what would be unwise and I really didn’t want to mess things up. But! I was given a glimmer of hope the other day. Something that made me realize that we CAN do a little bit more for these people…

There is a little boy that lives close by (we’ll call him *Billy.) Billy comes to our compound almost every day with the same group of children that just LOVE to play with us! He is such a little sweetheart–probably not more than 2 and 1/2 years old, maybe 3. Anyways, he has this sore on his nose and Emily noticed it the other day while the kids were playing. Since there were no parents around to harass us for medicine and since the other kids really weren’t paying attention, Emily was able to give him a little bit of Neosporin and a tissue to help heal it in a small way. Even though he was only a couple of years old, he knew that she was helping him and his face just SHONE with happiness! Later on, when I was sitting outside, taking a little break from playing with the kids, he came over and sat on my lap and just snuggled so close against me. He just sat there like that for a long time–so content to snuggle instead of playing with the others. There were a couple of times when I would look down at him and he would look back up at me with this big smile, and oh my goodness my heart was just OVERFLOWING!!! In the middle of all of this, I realized I WAS helping him! I was making a difference in this boy’s life just by taking a little extra time to wrap him up in a hug.

We can’t save the world. We can’t save “B”. But we can make these people aware about Jesus and His Saving Grace! And along the way, maybe we can add a tissue or a hug or a smile.

We’re missionaries, not superheroes. And I like it that way. 🙂