The Universal Language
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The wheels of the van slipped and slid as we drove up the steep unpaved road on Genero Mountain on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. We lost traction and lost our way among all the look alike shacks and shanties. It was poverty like I have never seen….. no water or electricity, no heat, running water or indoor plumbing. The roads were dusty and muddy and the mud didn’t come from rain or running water.
We pulled up in front of a small building about three quarters of the way up the mountain. It was not quite twenty feet square. The sides consisted of 4 X 4 plywood sheets held together with 1 X 2’s. The room was corrugated panels that were just laying there. We walked into a small courtyard where washing hung to dry and several adults were sitting around. These are Lima’s poorest of the poor, part of the underground economy. They work as they can, many selling vegetables and the like in the local markets. They pay no taxes and for some there is no official record of their existence. The government provides them with little or nothing and they are left to fend for themselves. Children are usually the greatest victims in this cycle of poverty. Neither the physical surroundings nor the people were a pretty sight, but as we entered the one room of the facility all of that changed.
Inside were about fifty children quietly sitting around a large table, patiently awaiting our arrival. As we entered they began to sing for us and then they prayed. These children depend on Bread of Life, a program run by the Bible society, for their literal daily bread. Bread of Life provides them with one meal a day and for many that is the only meal they get. Most come from single parent and broken homes. They have little or no medical and dental care and infection of the skin are rampant.
They are clean and well mannered and they know the Bible, because the program that feeds them with food, feeds them also with the Word of God. Tonight’s menu was a sandwich with a very sparse spread, watered down powdered milk with oatmeal and a granola bar. One girl put the granola in her pocket to take home to feed her mother. We helped pass out the food and then we got on their level. Beverley got down on the floor with them and I hoisted them one by one on my shoulders. They enjoyed having their picture taken and then seeing it on the digital screen.
They hugged on us for dear life and we hugged them back. We came there to love up on them, but they loved up on us. We didn’t speak the same language, but we didn’t have to, because love is a universal language. I started to cry and looked over at Beverley to see her tears openly flowing. A mother also cried as she thanked us, as representatives of the Bible society for providing the food for her four children that she couldn’t provide.
I said a prayer of thanks that I was able to provide for our children, but then realized that these children have something some rich kids don’t have … the love and Word of God in their heart because a Bible society cares enough to reach down to the poorest of the poor with the richness of God’s glory as revealed through His Word. Maybe these kids aren’t so poor after all.
Question: How has your service/ministry to others ended up changing you and your heart as much as it has helped and changed those you were ministering to?
About the Author: John Grant
