Reality Check!

  Let me paint two pictures to you. First, a girl who looks to be about 16. Jeans, sweatshirt, high ponytail, sitting on her favorite couch with a pillow on her lap helping to support the macbook pro. Shoes on her feet blankets thrown around her. The smell and warmth of a hot fire to her right. She's got more clothes in her room then she could wear in a week. She's got food in the fridge and a mom and a dad who love each other. Oh yeah and she's got a house.. No wait, she has a home. Second picture. Another girl, looks to be about 15 a t-shirt, jeans, worn out shoes, messy hair, she has no mom and no dad, she does not have a computer, she does not have baskets of clothes. And she does not have a home, she has shelters, her only help is from strangers. She is weak, afraid, tired, and alone. She is just one of the 50,000 homeless teenagers in America. (www.endhomelessness.org)

  Why do we hide our faces from these kinds of people? Do we not want to see their pain? Do we not like the feeling of guilt when we realize that we have cared way more about ourselves then others?

There are 671, 859 homeless people in America. (www.endhomelessness.org)

I see the great need for missionaries around the world. I really do. But what about the people in our own country? Why is it thought that we Americans have got it all together?
"There are 38.9 million Americans living under the official poverty line in 2009" (2010.census.gov).
Did you know that there is slavery today? Yes, there is slavery in the East and that breaks our hearts; but did you know that there is slavery in our own country, right here all around us. 27 million women and children (very few men) are enslaved today (notforsale895.com), a rough estimate given that it is still kept hidden. That is not just in other countries but in the U.S as well. I doubt that many of you knew this as most of us (myself included) have lived ignorant of this for so long.
Bottom line: America needs some help.

There is pain here. More so then we see or would like to see. Yes, the United States is a free country but many live today in bondage that we can hardly imagine.

So what can I do? Im only 16 right? I have a job in the summer and school in the winter so I'm kinda busy, right? Plus there is so much help needed. How is something I do going to help? I read this story on another blog a couple of days ago, maybe you have read it, I know its been around.

"One day a man was walking on a beach when he saw a boy coming the opposite way. As he drew nearer he could see the young boy was gently picking up starfish from the beach and throwing them back into the sea. "Why are you throwing starfish back into the sea?" he asked. "Because they have been washed ashore, the day is getting hot, and if I do not throw them back they will die." replied the boy. The man looked around him and saw that the beach went on for miles and that there were many thousands of starfish along its length. "But there are too many!" he protested. "You can't possibly make a difference." The little boy smiled, picked up another starfish and gently tossed it back into the sea. He looked up at the old man and simply said: "I made a difference to that one."

We CAN make a difference. God called us to be the salt of the earth.

"Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:17

 How many people have we chosen to walk by for the sake of being comfortable. How many times have we been quiet when something needed to be said and someone needed to be spoken up for? Why don't we do something? Why are we keeping to ourselves the salvation Jesus so lovingly died for?

I am not trying to guilt you. No, that is not the point of this post, the point is to make you aware. 

As Christians we need to be ready to share God's love. We need to stop walking in ruins pretending that everything is fine. We are to be the change. We need to be missionaries to our country. So let's stand up because after all WE are part of God's people and we represent Him, so let's do it well. 

Soli deo gloria,

Annie