One At aTime

I've got more time tomorrow so I'll post pictures and video then but I wanted to share some quick thoughts.

Two years ago at the tail end of a mission trip I lamented that I felt I wasn’t doing enough to make a difference. My good friend Bob, the eye doctor, related a story that helped me deal with that perspective. It is known as The Starfish Story.

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up a handful of starfish, and threw each one back into the surf, one at time. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one, and that one, and that one….”

I watch as my fellow pilgrims labor by serving this poor community with eye exams, medical exams, handing out eye glasses and medicine. I’m hopeful that while we’ve not ended poverty in this corner of the world, we have impacted the lives of a few. Children who were sick are now able to get better. Old women who had trouble seeing are now able to continue to sew because of their new glasses. Malnourished children have a better chance of survival because of the vitamins they’ve been given. More importantly, they’ve been exposed to the gospel of Christ.

And the pilgrims are doing it one at a time.