Reflections
Table scraps
By Lonnie Wilkey, editor
10/28/2009

How many times have you told your kids when they left food on their plate, “You know there are starving kids in Africa who would love to have that food?”

If you didn’t do it or don’t want to admit you did it, you probably have heard someone else utter those words.

No doubt, most kids roll their eyes and think, “No one, regardless of how hungry they are, would eat this.”

Well, that’s not true.

On my recent trip to West Africa, I witnessed kids eating table scraps — my table scraps.

Talk about a humbling experience.

On at least two occasions during our travels to the villages in remote areas of Mali, we stopped at restaurants.

Let’s keep it in context. Those restaurants are not like the ones we enjoy in the United States. Some of the places we stopped had only one or two tables and the menu consisted basically of rice and some kind of sauce.

But on both occasions, as we went back to our truck to leave, we saw the restaurant owner gather the leftover food on our plates, put it in a bowl and give it to kids congregated outside where we had eaten.

They were not offended by the idea of eating our scraps. They were hungry and just glad to have food.

I was overwhelmed almost to tears the first time I saw it. I thought maybe that was just a one-time occurrence, but the next day (at a different place in a different village) we witnessed it again.

God used those two instances to remind me of how spoiled we are in America. Can you imagine that scene playing out here in our country? It just wouldn’t happen.

We take so much for granted here in our country. Yes, I know there are hungry people in the United States, but many of our poor receive government aid so they at least have something to eat. Even those without homes can receive meals at local shelters in the larger cities.

And while I don’t discount that there are people in the U.S.  who will go to bed at night with empty stomachs, I can’t rid my mind of the image of those kids in Mali, West Africa, eating our scraps.

I know that my leftovers here won’t find their way to those hungry kids in Mali, but hopefully I will be reminded to never take things for granted and to not be wasteful.

God truly has blessed me beyond measure.

View the original News article at http://www.tnbaptist.org/BRNews.asp?ID=3135