I watched an outstanding movie last night: “The Girl In The Cafe“. I thought it was going to be a simple love story but it was so much more. Simply put, it’s a story about two broken people trying to make a difference. I’m not great at movie reviews so I won’t attempt that, but I will give this movie two thumbs up and a big toe. I will warn you, there was one entirely unnecessary scene with brief nudity but it could easily be fast forwarded through. In another scene the f-word was used, but it was not used flippantly so it didn’t bother me.
The weird coincidence (or not so much) is that last night I watched that movie and it was about world poverty and this morning I read this post in my bloglines about the same subject. Now this coincidence may just be the affects of some media campaign but does that mean I should tune it out like I do with all the other information I am bombarded with? I can’t end world poverty. I can’t even make a significant dent in it, but the message I heard last night was that we can’t use that as an excuse to just give up. We must not compromise or become complacent on matters of life and death.
I don’t know what I can do. To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed with the figures. More than 1.5 billion living on less than $1 a day? I spend $0.73 on coffee every day. That’s pocket change to me, and yet there are billions whose lives depend on that. Billions. I can’t even comprehend that. What’s even harder to comprehend is the six million children dying each year before their fifth birthday. I can’t imagine the pain of not being able to feed your own child. Luke cries if he has to wait thirty seconds for his dinner. It would break my heart to hear him cry from hunger, knowing I had nothing to offer. How do you explain to a six month old that there is no food? How do you explain that to a four year old, knowing she may not make it to five?
I don’t know what I can do. I would like to think that this knowledge will stay with me and change my perspective and cause me to make changes in the way I live that will make a difference. The sad truth is that I will probably forget all about this by Christmas, but let’s pray that I do not.
So very true. The city rescue mission was outside of Aldi yesterday. And you don’t want to completely pass them by. There are real needs in our community and even more so throughout the world. I wish I would have been prepared to give more. I had the kids each give one of their cans of ravioli and spaghetti O’s. One did so willingly and the other was irritated by it. Why should she have to share “her” food. No ours kids don’t understand. Yet we need to teach them.
I was looking through the world mission Christmas book the other night. Giving an oxen to a family so they can provide for themselves. Or chickens so they will have eggs to eat and sell. There are some really cool things in there. Things to consider.