To love is to care. To care is to act. To Act is Godly.

How do you explain something so life changing that your world is rocked?

It was the first time since our son moved to Heaven that we have stepped out to go somewhere beyond our comfort zone. And although we’ve traveled in “the third world” many times before, this is the first time we personally witnessed NEED on this kind of level.

There’s a line from a song that says, “Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead.” (Albertine by Brook Fraser)

LOVE.This is an interesting word. John 3:16 says God loved the world so much that HE GAVE. He had compassion on us, and He acted by sending His Son Jesus to rescue us all from this broken world.

LOVE is something we witnessed over and over and over again while in East Africa. Our dear friends Pat & Susan Bradley through their organization Crisis Aid International (www.crisisaid.org) are living examples of LOVE in action.

We had the privilege of meeting & ministering to several of the young women and girls they have rescued from the red-light district, and given them hope for their future by providing housing, education, spiritual enrichment, and love. LOVE is changing the landscape of that capital city.

LOVE invited over 500 girls, currently working as prostitutes, to a party where they received a free hot meal, a concert (us :), testimonies and an invitation to make a new start by leaving that life and receiving Jesus. Many will make that choice because of love and acceptance.

We also saw LOVE out in the villages of forgotten people, several hours’ drive from the city, where literally tons and tons of food are being distributed each month to 2,000 families whose extremely meager income (less than a couple of dollars a day) makes it impossible to buy sufficient amounts of provision to sustain them. MANY were actually starving to death, especially children, and have been literally saved & restored through these food distributions.

Also in the villages, we saw LOVE as we visited compounds where the worst of the worst cases of malnutrition and illness have been treated and are recuperating. The beautiful smiles and huge, sincere hugs of gratitude from these who were SO CLOSE to death are beyond description.

In God’s ultimate compassionate act, He set an example for us to follow of loving and acting. And in Ephesians 5:1, Paul said to imitate God in everything you do, and to live a life filled with love, following Christ’s example.