Burkina Faso is known to be one of the safest third world countries. However, there is a wall around the mission house that we stay in while working in the capital city of Ouagadougou. The guard opens the gate for us so our truck can enter the grounds and then closes it when we are inside. He also helps us with anything we may be carrying and opens the door for us to enter the house. Before we go to bed, we would give him money to purchase fresh bread for us in the morning.
Every evening after dinner we would pile the leftovers on a plate and I would take it to him. He would say thank you and then put the plate down and run over to the door, open it for me and then go back to his post and eat dinner.
One day I noticed that the man had no shoes and each day wore the same clothes. He had a large tear in the left shoulder of his shirt. Not knowing if it was appropriate, I asked Lynn Kennedy if it would be alright if I gave him one of my shirts. She said that he would appreciate it. I found a shirt that I had not worn yet and gave it to him. After putting it on, he knocked on the door to show us how it looked on him and to say thank you.
We left the house one morning in a hurry to get to a meeting and forgot to put the four fresh loaves of bread away. In December, it's very dry in West Africa, and when we returned home that evening the bread was hard as a rock and we had to throw it in the trash. Later that evening, the guard knocked on the door and said that he saw the bread in the garbage and asked if it would be OK if he took it home to his family because they had no food to eat.
I'm not sure why God reminded me of this today or why He put it on my heart to write it down. I do know that He always provides for us and we should be very thankful for what we have. We should also be reminded that there are others that we can help, no matter the size of the gift.
Even four loaves of stale bread can be a blessing to a family....
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