Blessed are the poor

I have just finished reading a remarkable book. I found it both greatly inspiring and deeply challenging. The book's title is "There Is Always Enough", and it was written by Rolland and Heidi Baker. Some years ago (1995) they felt God's call to move to Mozambique and serve the people of that country. Out of that grew Iris Ministries. The Iris Ministries website states that, "Iris Ministries has expanded to over 5,000 churches all over Mozambique and into neighboring countries. The disastrous flooding of 2000/2001 catalyzed an overwhelming hunger for the things of God in the refugee camps where we ministered, and the Gospel continues to spread like wildfire. We now care for almost 2,000 children at our centers, and our churches are taking in orphans as well. Jesus is revealing Himself through signs and wonders, visions and dreams, and we have never seen such a harvest before us. May the Lord of the harvest send us workers!"

So many aspects of the book were both challenging and thought-provoking. I was reminded, for example, that though we in this country may be suffering to some extent from the effects of the recession, we are, by the standards of Mozambique, immensely wealthy. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, and has suffered greatly in recent years from both war and natural disasters. The book chronicles the terrible floods which hit the country around the turn of the millennium, and the vast suffering which ensued. For many people, even the little they had was lost.

Of course there will have been those in the West who will have asked the question, "If there is a God, why did he allow such suffering to happen?" Only a fool would suggest there there are easy answers to such questions. Yet the book relates the amazing fact that at the time of the floods and devastation, there arose in the hearts of the people of Mozambique a deep hunger and thirst for God. Often when the Iris Ministries team took food and clothing supplies to those in great need, though the people were very grateful for the supplies, what they wanted even more was to hear about and experience the love of God!

Jesus said, "it is easier for a camel to get though the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God." The truth is that our material wealth and possessions can actually turn us away from God. But when, like many of the people of Mozambique, a person has almost nothing in terms of material possessions, it is easier for them to see where true and lasting wealth can be found - in God alone.