Please.
We Can Be Hope. We Can Be Help.
Maybe you’ve heard the story that Fred Rogers offered as advice for helping young children cope with frightening circumstances:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.
–Fred Rogers. [You can hear him tell it here.]
Friends, the stories and pictures coming from the Philippines in the wake of last week’s typhoon horrify me. This is our chance to be the helpers. Please, please, do these two things:
1. Pray.
2. Send money. Give up your coffee for a week. Invite your children to donate their allowance. Pass the hat at your office. Whatever. Money buys food. Money buys clean water. Money buys tetanus vaccines. So send some. If you don’t wish to make your contribution through Compassion International, then choose another humanitarian agency at work in the area, such as the Philippine Red Cross. (For an eye-opening perspective on disaster-relief donations of goods, you might look here.)
That’s all I’ve got for today. My heart is breaking for the families in mourning, for the estimated 600,000 souls whose homes are gone, for the over 10 million who are directly affected by the storm.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Matthew 25:34-40 (NASB)
It’s been so hard to see such hurting. The day after, the devastation did not even make the front page of our local paper. I was floored. I made my boy LOOK. How can we not? Thanks for this, Sheila. I have to shake this paralysis. This helps.
And once we know, how can we not act?
Sharing hard things with our children–another one of those hard good things we must do. I’m proud of you, Laura. You’re no shrinker.