I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
~Jesus (Matthew 25:40)
Have you ever wondered what it must be like to raise a child in abject poverty, where you didn't know if you would eat that week, let alone that day?
Have you any idea what it would be like to look at your little baby and know that you wouldn't live to see it grow up because you would be dead of AIDS long beforehand?
How would you feel if you looked at that baby and knew that you had infected that child with AIDS?
I live a pretty sheltered life here in Calgary in my lovely home in a nice suburb. I have no idea what that kind of suffering is like. However, millions of mothers in this world have those thoughts as their daily reality.
I never spent much time thinking about this before; it was always "out there", not here in my home. I felt sad, but was able to easily distract myself from the problem and get on with my life.
Well, I recently had a wake-up call.
My local church launched a campaign to fight against AIDS and Poverty. They've called this campaign, "Compassion in Action". It brought the whole thing home to me all of a sudden, and I began to wonder how a solitary mother on the "prosperous" side of the earth could make a difference. I began to do some research, and found many organizations that are reaching out and needing help from people just like me. Perhaps I could sponsor a child through a relief organization such as Compassion; perhaps there was a petition to sign, or an organization that could use a donation to feed the hungry and supply medical attention to the sick. I discovered there were plenty of ways that I could add my voice to fight against the problem.
And then I realized that if each of us reached out in a way that worked for us, we could really make a difference. If the equivalent population of my city was orphaned every two years here in North America, politicians would hear about it, and we would fight until something happened. That's precisely what's happening in some of these developing countries, yet those poor people on the other side of the world have no voice. Their governments often don't care, or don't have the necessary resources to bring healing, peace and prosperity to their country.
I realized that my one, solitary voice alone is a little limited. However, my solitary voice joined together with many other solitary voices, could make a difference; a real and vital difference. I then wondered what could be accomplished if every mother on the planet did one small thing to aid those in need.
That would be a true army of compassion; mothers on a mission! Step aside, because mothers are women who are not to be messed with! What an accomplishement it would be if every mom joined voices to do battle for those who cannot fight for themselves!
Darlene Hull is a speaker, workshop facilitator, and writer, For more information on AIDS and Poverty, go to:
http://www.mom-defrazzler.com/defrazzlepoverty. php
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