Waste-not, want-not

Tonight, we were sitting at dinner with the kids. It is day #18 in Ghana, and both boys ordered banku with pepper fish (fried tilapia). It's not the first time that they have ordered it since we've been here - in fact, they've ordered it several times.

I find myself eating quickly, just so I can watch the children eat. In the US, we have a mentality that we don't have enough, and that we are always needing more...we operate under a philosophy of scarcity, but the truth is, we have an overabundance. I watch my children who, three weeks ago, would eat porridge and palm soup to satisfy their needs. Today, they ate banku and an entire fish...and by entire, I mean entire. They literally suck the flesh off each bone. They will, often, eat the head and the eyeballs. Here, nothing goes to waste. I was grateful today because, having been here for weeks, my stomach is getting smaller, and I literally couldn't eat all of my food - so the boys at the rest of my plantains.

There is no point is wasting or complaining when we have so much abundance. I wonder sometimes what life would be like if we shared our abundance...if we took what we had, asked God to bless it, and gave it to those around us. Jesus did that with five loaves of bread and two fish, and 5,000 were fed. In the early church, resources were pooled so that everyone had what they needed. What if we did that? What if we only used what we needed, rather than being so extravagant that we "want" pineapple, so we buy one, eat one chunk, and the rest spoils?

When we leave Ghana, there will be three children who no longer have to eat porridge and palm soup for each meal. We are blessed that we can share out of the abundance God gives us - and I truly believe that God will bless us because we are not wasting our resources, but making sure that basic needs for ourselves and others are met. In fact, we are blessed already!