Importance of human life

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but waited to post it... Here it is now.

This morning we heard some stories from South Africa. One of the stories shared was about a little 3 year old boy who was crying outside of a building. It was outside an organization where they fed and educated little ones. They only have enough resources to feed and educate so many, but they let other children come and get food when they have fed those that live there.

It sounded, from the story, that this little boy was crying because he was hungry. His 8 year old brother pushed his way through the crowd and brought out two handfuls (literally, it was in his hands) of mashed potatoes to share with his brother.

Food - a basic necessity. Something that sustains and nourishes our bodies. Yet so many people go without.

Today as I had fried rice for lunch I thought about our time in West Africa last summer. While visiting an orphanage we had lunch with the kids. Our food came in one dish that we all took from and shared.

The kids, however, each had a bowl. When we cleaned up after the meal we noticed that there was food left in each bowl. Sometimes as much as half their meal. This was obviously very curious to us. As we spent more time there, we realized that whatever was leftover was their meal that night.

This was at a wonderful orphanage where the kids were well looked after and taken care of. But, it makes me think about the bowl of rice I had today...for one meal. I'll probably have a snack, I had breakfast, I will eat dinner, and possibly go for ice cream as we walk the pier tonight.

Most of the people living in the world can't imagine eating that much food, or even having all of that accessible to them.

One statement I won't forget from this morning was in a thank you note for what the group who was sharing had done...

"Thank you for teaching the kids about the importance of human life." That's a pretty huge, and yet very simple, message.