Unprecedented Times and a Contrasting Paradigm
Humanitarian Highlight Reel
April 15, 2020SINCE THE ONSET OF COVID-19 AND THE NEW-FOUND ADOPTION OF A QUARANTINED LIFESTYLE, DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ADVERSITY IS BEING FELT ACROSS THE GLOBE.
The past weeks have been both crazy and exhausting, and I'm sure starting this blog by mentioning the dreaded C word didn't help. Without demising the first world realities of lost jobs, decreased income, increased anxiety, and so on, I didn't want to make this part of your day about that; there's enough of that out there. So, if you want to hear about how I can help you during this difficult season, stop reading and enjoy the pictures below. Hope these smiling faces give you what you need today.
I'm honestly humbled that I've had the chance of going on a couple of Mission Trips over the past few years. Although none of them were the same, I always came back with a similar desire to do something more; that I left each trip with something unfinished. You know that feeling you get when you leave an amusement park but didn't have time to go on that one ride or eat that nostalgic funnel cake? "Could we stay just one more day at that orphanage? Is there something else more I could have done?" were thoughts that ran through my head as I hopped on a plane home. However, I also left settled on the idea that good things come to an end and a hope that I had left every place a little better than how I found it (negative points for being cliché).
Every once in a while, especially now more than ever, I wonder how my mates overseas are coping amidst this global pandemic. How are the kids in that small village under the bridge in Cebu doing, who don't know what school is? How's Orlando doing, whose house got burned down in a fire and has yet to get the support to rebuild it? What about his son and daughter? How are the kids in the Ezekiel's Home Orphanage in Trinidad who have to share their towels? Suddenly, my toilet paper doesn't seem like much of a necessity.
It's moments like these where I'm inclined to contrast our two worlds. Not focusing on feeling bad for the lives each has been given, but rather on using what's in my hands towards a solution. As the pandemic continues to take its toll on the world, it's easy to play the victim card. "I have to stay indoors? I can't go to the mall? Unbelievable!" But what if we stopped feeling bad for ourselves? Of course we need to feel whatever we need to feel, but we also need to move on. Living in a First World country, I always have the opportunity to be the first responder to world crises. That means using what's in my hands to respond in a way that's positive and progressive. What does that look like for me? What can that look like for me? What does that look like for you? What can that look like for you?
#selah
