It still hurts 

Death is always present here. It doesn’t only chase the old like in Australia. It doesn’t discriminate. Just this week we have had 2 families in our circle affected by children dying. Kids dying in Australia is not the norm. It often makes the news. Not here. It’s the norm. Tragic circumstances and just plain old preventable illness. 

We can think that because it’s the norm that it doesn’t affect people in the same way when it’s a rare event. As I sat today at a funeral for a 14 year old boy and watched the mother emerging from her house, the grief and pain was all to real. This woman had lost her son and even though the event was not unusual the pain still crippled her like it would any mum anywhere. 

This is what poverty is about. It’s not really about food. It’s about how life happens to you when you are powerless. You can grow food. You can’t grow a functioning Government that can provide systems and services that prevent events like this being the norm. It’s the powerlessness that comes with knowing you can’t change the situation you’re in. Knowing the injustice that has characterised your life so far will continue. Not a lot of hope. 

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10