I wonder what they will think?

"There's a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it." William Wallace

Coming to America! Thursday is going to be a good day. Cornell and Duncan from Care for AIDS in Kenya are coming to America. They will be speaking at Dogwood Church Friday night (not to late to get tickets http://www.careforaids.org/). It's very difficult for Kenyans to get a visa to come to America, in fact Duncan was turned down his first time. Duncan is young and single and many young, single Kenyans are turned down by the US Embassy because they come and never go home.

I often wonder about the reaction of people who come to America for the first time. I happened to run into our football coach last night and he was telling me about a young man who grew up in the slums of Kenya who was in the US speaking at a local church. The young man was sponsored by Compassion. He was nine years old before he got his first pair of shoes! It wasn't until he got a birthday card from his sponsors in America that he realized he even had a birthday! He spoke about the first time he ever slept in a bed, can you remember the first time you ever slept in a bed? I can’t remember the last time I didn’t sleep in a bed! One of the most amusing conversations I imagine having is over the storage centers that have become so prevalent in our communities. Can you imagine trying to explain to a kid, who if he’s lucky, has one additional set of clothes that that’s where we store all the stuff that we “need” that won’t fit in our house?

Now I know I’m supposed to use my time, treasures, and talents to impact the kingdom of God, but for some reason I struggle most with the treasure part. It’s frustrating because while I know this, I still have difficulty giving up my stuff. I want to blame it on American culture, but that just makes me weak or I want to convince myself that I need everything I have but come on, do I really need three TV’s? Maybe someday I will actually need the stuff in my storage unit, but much of that stuff has been sitting there for years. Oh and here’s the best one that because of how hard I work or how important the work I do is, I somehow deserve it. But if that were the case, Cornel and Duncan would be two of the richest men in the world.