THERE IS ANOTHER BACKYARD!

Most of us have backyards, some beautifully and artistically landscaped, others not so. As I ponder my most recent missions trip back to Belize in the Burial Grounds. I realize that the backyards are much different. These yards are covered with trash and debris that could fill at least 10 dumpsters. They are covered with old wooden bridges, sort of make-shift sidewalks. They are covered with overgrown grass and bushes. Every time I go there I wonder and I look. Maybe I even shake my head, and the sadness overwhelms me. But there is so much more to the trash and the debris in these back yards. What is it?

If you’re able to look beyond the back yards to the people it gives you a totally different perspective. It’s a group of people that are struggling in there own terms to survive the life that was handed to them. It’s this third world poverty at its best. It’s the parents walking everywhere to there jobs, to the stores, to the neighbors shack. It’s a community. It’s God’s people. It’s the children frolicking about. They are playing with their go-carts. They are playing some pick-up soccer with whoever passes their way to pass the day.

It’s all those bare feet hardened by the roads of their life. These feet hardened by their backyards. But their hearts are still open to the beat of their backyards and I get to go home to mine.

One Hundred Years from now (excerpt from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft)

One Hundred Years from now It will not matter what kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in, how much money was in my bank account nor what my clothes looked like.

But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.