by Dr. Bob Carter, Zambia
10 January 2005

Here in Zambia, our lives intersect with many who lack a loving home. I think of an orphaned high school student sleeping in a grain mill at night whom we helped to attend boarding school. I think of an unfortunate woman who spent eight months in the hospital and, while on treatment for a resistant strain of tuberculosis, she became acutely psychotic. While recovering her mental health, she fell, resulting in a badly broken leg that became infected. When she was finally ready for discharge, she said she didn't want to go home. Her family would not help care for her but would instead treat her like a burden. At Mukinge Hospital she had received love; she would rather stay with us.

And I think of an 18-year-old single orphan mother who showed up at our door, baby in arms. Yes, she had extended family, but in the intervening eight months since she had delivered at Mukinge, she had worn out her welcome among all her relatives. Now she wanted to live with us!

Jesus' Example

>We care and do what we can to help those in need, but our resources are limited while the needs around us are so great. We can't provide shelter and food for all the homeless and hungry in our area. But neither can we harden our hearts and look the other way. How should we respond when faced with overwhelming need? Looking at Jesus' example provides me with some guiding principles.

• His relationship with the Father was the foundation upon which everything else in His life rested. When He was beginning his public ministry, He withdrew to a quiet place and prayed. Our primary call is to be in relationship with the Father. The closeness of this relationship impacts everything in our lives and ministry.
• He did not take personal responsibility for all who were sick, hungry, or homeless. Jesus had compassion on all who came to Him, and so should we. But if we fail to mix compassion with insight and wisdom, we may bear burdens that are not meant for us.
• Guided by His relationship with the Father, Jesus responded to the needs of individuals one person at a time. When surrounded by a multitude of human need and suffering, we need to ask the Father which needs He is bringing specifically to us for compassionate ministry in His name.
• Jesus had confidence in the Father's supernatural provision. Our challenge is to shift our focus from our limitations to our Provider. We need to seek His will in each specific circumstance and then to respond in confident obedience.

As we struggle to respond with faith and compassion to overwhelming demands of the human need and suffering that surround us, these principles give guidance. We need vision, courage and prayer as we live these principles among the people of Zambia. Our prayer is that those who yearn for a loving home—a place of shelter, sustenance, peace and healing—will find it in the Body of Christ.