"You need to get him changed too..."

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 rocked my world a few weeks ago when I heard a pastor reading it.  It says, 

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,  but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.  Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly[a] on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

I want to tell you a story.  But I want to preface it with the following paragraph to help you understand the context of the story....

{I love seeing how the gospel changes lives.  We’ve watched God take a high school drop out, and turn him into one of the top students in his class the following year.  We’ve seen the Lord take a kid who is known for fighting, suspension, promiscuity, and all sorts of trouble, and turn him into one of the most responsible, thoughtful and trustworthy individuals. And we see how after months of being the recipients of Christian love and generosity, in time their confidence and personal grooming habits even change.  The guys we disciple go from wearing whatever hand-me-downs they get, with holes, stains, and fitting poorly, to saving their money or getting odd jobs to buy better jeans, shoes, or haircuts.  And God put new dreams in their heart...success academically, career goals that require a lot of study, and financial ambitions to get out of the poverty they currently live in.}

Not too long ago Seth met a teen we’ll call Juan.  Juan’s family is extremely poor, and Juan hasn’t visited church yet, but does stop by the youth room sometimes when Seth has it open during the week.  He did come to church last night, and afterwards Seth took him and some of the other youth to buy a street burger.  After Seth dropped Juan off near his house, our intern said, “You need to get him changed too,” meaning…"he needs hope, purpose, and God’s love to transform his life like he has for myself and the others."  

So today Seth invited Juan to run an errand with him.  Seth was going to the grocery store to get some things for a 4th of July get together we’re having with some gringo families tomorrow.  Here, only the upper class goes to the grocery store, most families just shop at the markets.  As Seth was buying cheese to make macaroni and cheese tomorrow, the woman behind the counter said, “Its good that you’ve got him working…it helps keep them from robbing.”  She was implying that he was obviously poor and needed something to keep him from turning to theft.  Juan was really embarrassed, and Seth was very irritated with her comment.   

Side story:  Cruz has been having issues with shoes. Sadly, the boy can not take care of shoes for anything!  (It probably doesn’t help that he only has one pair of shoes, so he wears them every day, for everything…soccer, church, chores, etc.) Anyways, he got a new pair from the US just a few months ago, but in a month, they were falling apart.  So he had another pair at the time that we required him to wear until the end of June.  About a month ago, Seth did buy him a nice new pair to wear at the start of July.  But when we tried them on Friday, they were still way too big.  So this morning when I was in a nearby market, I bought him some cheap tennis shoes and a pair of cleats for soccer.  For less than $20, the 2 pairs of shoes made his day. (And I’m making him clean them nightly to think more about caring for them.) 

Okay, back to today…When Seth brought Juan to the house, we looked at his pitiful shoes and thought of the pair we had put back in the closet because they were too big for Cruz.  They are nice, $30+ shoes from the mall here. 

Seth asked what size shoe he wore, and it was exactly the size of this extra pair we had.  (God’s providence!) Seth had him try them on, and he gratefully accepted the gift.  (And Seth made sure he understood we didn’t want them to be immediately sold.)   

I say all of that to say, I'm praying that God will truly transform him.  Although we have some amazing stories of transformation, we also have stories of being used for our financial resources, and have seen insincere "belief" because becoming a Christian would mean we would help meet their basic needs as we are able.  Juan is very timid and has a really sweet disposition.  I pray that God is working in his heart, and as Seth spends time with him sharing the gospel and the eternal hope we cling to, that God will draw him to Himself.  (John 6:44)  And I am so grateful that although God is still working on me to "open wide my hands" to the poor, I have a husband who does so with such abandon and trust in the Lord, that it inspires me to be more like him.