Christmas issues

Christmas is a time of rejoicing at CSC. We thank God for the children that we are able to offer love and care. We praise God for the good people who make the ministry possible at Christmas and throughout the year. We thank Him for his Son, Jesus Christ, the true meaning of Christmas.

But Christmas also makes us think of some of the fundamental dilemmas of life, and to wrestle with issues about the inequities of life in a country like the Philippines. Our CSC children are given nice gifts and enjoy special meals and opportunities every Christmas. But within a stones throw of our shelter and office, children are suffering in abject poverty, with no hope of a gift and no chance for special food, or even enough to eat. We take our CSC kids out to look at the fancy lights on V. Rama avenue in Cebu City and we see kids begging or sleeping on the streets. We believe that God has a wonderful plan for the lives of our children, and are thrilled to be a part of that plan. But what about the kids who continue to suffer?

Even after 27 years of working in the Philippines, I don't have the answer to these questions. It is a fundamental, "in your face" reality of life in a poor country. Some people enjoy manifold blessings (like us) while others seem to struggle for their whole lives. While I sit down to breakfast with my family there are people just a short distance from my home who will have no breakfast. Christmas is just a time of year that brings these inequities to mind in a more graphic way. But they are every day realities.

A couple weeks ago we were speaking in a church in MN and a young couple came up to us afterwards and asked some hard questions. What should their response be to poverty? Should they stop driving a car and give more money to ministries like CSC? Should they downsize, simplify, cut back? They felt convicted by their (relative) wealth.

I'm not sure we gave them very good answers. God works in people's lives in different ways. We all need to be sensitive to how He is speaking to us about our lifestyles. I appreciated the couple's openness to change how they live if that is what God requires of them. Many Christians much wealthier than they are seem unwilling to look reflectively at their lives and open their hearts to the possiblity that God wants them to use their wealth, talents and time to benefit those who have very little.

We have appreciated so much the sacrificial giving of God's people to CSC over the years. And especially at Christmas time. We have shed tears over stories of families who decided to forego Christmas gifts to be able to give more to CSC, or friends who gave hard earned bonuses to CSC so that we could do something special for the kids. God works in a variety of ways. He really does.