One of the things I keep getting reminded of is how blessed we are here in America to have a lot of choices. I can go to the grocery store and scan through hundreds of brands of food or the clothing stores and pick and choose what looks good and what doesn't look good. I have my pick of just about anything I want and the only thing that keeps me from selecting whatever I want is usually money.
But every time I look at pictures from poorer countries, the abundance and excess of America hits me over the head like a lead pipe. This picture I posted above was taken during my trip to Haiti in 1995. Look at the kids. What do you notice? When I took this picture I noticed a lot. I noticed that the kids spoke no English. Their dialect is Creole, which is kinda a mix of French and Spanish. I also noticed their clothing. What do you see?
All four are wearing American t-shirts, three of which have distinctly American subjects on them. The boy on the far left is wearing a Will Clark t-shirt, first baseman of the San Francisco Giants back then. The boy in the middle-back is wearing an Emmitt Smith t-shirt, star running back for the Dallas Cowboys in 1995. The girl on the right is wearing Mickey Mouse and the girl in front appears to have some sort of manger or home scene on her shirt.
I doubt that these kids have any idea whose image or logo they are wearing. You see, in Chambellan, Haiti, where this photo was taken, there is no television. No newspaper. News of the time came via word of mouth, the military (Haiti has gone through many coups), or shortwave radio. No Giants or Cowboys games.
The rags of the rich are the prize of the poor.
What I notice about these kids I noticed in pictures taken in Kenya by two of our church mission teams last month. The Kenyans have a better government and economy than the Haitians but they also often dress in the cast-offs of American abundance. T-shirts that reflect American pop culture and not their own. It was still the same in Haiti, as pictures from our latest mission team there showed.
I know it wasn't the American government who handed out the discarded clothing to the poor, and I highly doubt it was the inept Haitian government. Most likely it was the humanitarian and mission organizations that gathered and distributed the clothing, or maybe also Haitian businessmen looking to make a quick buck. But there are very few bucks in Haiti. Do I like having ten choices of milk when I go to the store? Sure I do! But while we have great choice here in America, it's important to stay grounded in the reality that most other nations do not share such choice. There are poor people around the world who would gladly take our used clothing and unwanted items and treat them as the swag of the rich. Who will wear a Will Clark t-shirt because it's a good t-shirt that covers the body and protects from mosquitoes, and not because of his smooth left-handed swing or his killer smile.
Are you willing to part with your old garments in order to clothe another person's nakedness? Sometimes people need help around the corner. Christian Community Action (CCA) is a local ministry here in North Texas that will take your discarded items and give them to the poor locally. Do some Internet searching for mission or humanitarian relief organizations that accept clothing and other items.
Your rags could become someone else's prize.
Be God's!
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