“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
”
Dearest Partners,
I apologize for the delay in getting our monthly newsletter out, but we were literally frozen in Texas. I’ve struggled with so many emotions this past week and I needed some time to process them and check my heart because I wasn’t always in a good place of choosing joy. As we went without heat, water, electricity and food shortages, access to medical care, access to transportation and more, my perspective always brought me back to my beautiful Kenyans and their daily struggles with these same basic necessities.
I’ve always said that here in America most of our problems are “First World Problems”. You know the whining and complaining “that the order was wrong” or “the line was too long” or “the portion was too small”. Yes, there’s real struggles here as well but most of the time you hear Americans complaining about “first world problems”. However, this past week in Texas, we were unexpectedly confronted with problems that my Kenyan brothers and sisters face daily. And to be straight up honest, it sucked.
As we slowly start digging out from devastation to our electrical grid, our plumbing, our water supply, our food shortages, and more, I can only pray that this experience gives us all greater empathy for our brothers and sisters across the globe who live with these struggles every single day. I pray that we rally with compassion like never before to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I recognize that it’s nearly impossible to thrive when you’re only focus in on surviving. Most of my day consisted of fetching water and boiling it! I carried water across the street to my house and had to have a neighbor help me because it was so heavy!
Though I didn’t choose joy as often as I had wished I would have, I did see so much power in prayer and so much goodness in the power of community as our street, neighborhood and community at large rallied to help those in need! It was amazing! There is so much power in community and I know together, each of our contributions to Give Amore, is truly making a difference!
Please read these 3 articles for just a glimpse at what we can do for our global community when we pull our resources and use them to impact lives so others can THRIVE!
May God Bless You and Keep You Safe,
Christa Horst
