All the Work

I don't know why I'm passionate about the circumstances that the African people face...? I don't know why it breaks my heart the way that it does? I do feel I have a responsibility to help the African people meet their most basic needs like access to clean H2O, food, education and clothes. We take all these things for granted here in the U.S.

I won't lie it makes me angry when I talk to people about this and they say "We should help America first, before we help anyone else." Yes, I totally agree America needs help. Yes, we have starving people here and homeless people. And yes, we should help BUT why does it have to be one or the other? And why can't my passion be for Africa and yours be for America but yet we help each other? We support each other's cause and mission. I don't understand why the American people trump another group of people? I don't want to sound mean but America has help. We have food banks, homeless shelters, churches, and different organizations to help those who are hurting but the people of Africa don't have these kind of resources.

I don't know if the people who make the comment "We should help America first" are just blind to the injustices of those in undeveloped countries? Or the fact that millions of people don't even have their most basic needs met? Because if they did know the extreme hardships people in the undeveloped world face, I don't know how they could be so insensitive or uncompassionate?

I got into a debate the other day with a friend who made a comment on Facebook. He said he couldn't believe that an organization wanted you to donate real money to help animals when there was starving Americans. For whatever reason this comment triggered me. Mainly b/c this friend complains a lot on FB and it's never productive. Plus in my opinion he had no right to compare the two when he doesn't help the "starving Americans." It's one thing to make this comment when you're busting your butt trying to help the less fortunate in America, it's another when you're doing NOTHING and just complaining. That is a pet peeve of mine; when someone in this world is trying to make a difference and another person disagrees with what the person is trying to do, yet the person complaining is doing NOTHING to make this world better at all. If you aren't part of the solution, keep your mouth shut.

At the beginning of this post I said I didn't know why I was passionate about the African people and their hardships and for the most part this is true BUT I know that God gave me this passion. He gave me a heart for them. I have compassion for anyone who doesn't have their most basic needs met (like people in India and Latin America) and will help whoever I can but my main focus is Africa. I have really been slacking on blogging but I am trying to get better. I don't feel that our society is uncaring of the less fortunate, I just think they aren't aware. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would do more if they knew but due to their busy lives they don't have time to research and learn, so one of my goals going forward is to educate anyone reading this on the hardships the undeveloped world face. How different their lives are to ours. I will try to do all the work so all you, the reader has to do is figure out what touches your heart and then help in some way.