The Ripple

Imagine you are in the middle of a crowd of a thousand people, all of them reaching out their hands to you in hopes you have something to relieve them of their lose. 

They need food, water, heat, a dry house, first-aid, peace of mind…to be loved. 

Now imagine you have been giving, giving, giving all day. Passing out food, water, spreading God's love, giving people long-overdue hugs. And at the end of the day, you look up and there are another thousand people needing the same. 

A difficult reality every missionary has to learn, is that not one person can change everything. Not one person can fill every need. But another exciting reality, is that ONE person can change ONE life. 

After three days of pouring my heart out unto hurricane victims, the burn-out started to set in. I start to second guess the impact I may be having on the people. 

"Am I really making a difference here?" 
                    "Would it even matter if I would have never came?"
                                                                                           "I can never help ALL of these people."
"I knew I should have just stayed home."

But then the smaller, quieter voice sets in. The one that is sometimes the hardest to hear. The voice of God saying, "You are not alone."  And just when I allowed myself to hear that voice, God sent me a life to change. 

A couple of my teammates and I got the opportunity to go door-to-door around a community to find out needs and to pray with people. We had gone to a few houses, wrote down some needs and prayer requests. I felt good about what we were doing, but it was one house in particular that changed thee course of my entire trip.

The family was in the front lawn when we walked up. We asked for their needs and prayer requests, and in the midst of all of their problems, they wanted to stop right then and pray for their neighbor that was in the hospital. We prayed for their neighbor, and then prayed for them and each one of them had tears in their eyes when I looked up. 
Later, we got a chance to deliver all of the needs the people had asked for. When we went back to this particular house, the family started crying again. They were in disbelief that we had come back. We gave them each a hug and one of the woman looked at me and said, "You guys are a ray of hope."

Mother Teresa once said, "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone into the water and make many ripples."

I alone cannot change the world, but I have cast a stone here, and I pray that woman uses that hope to pour life into others.