Greeds and Needs

I have been reminded again in the past week of both greeds and needs in our global society. While watching television late one night, I saw a spot discussing designer purses with the brand name of Mulberry in London with a price tag of between $42,000 and $50,000. According to the piece, the Mulberry is the latest "must have" bag for women of distinction.

On the other side of the coin, I was also thinking last week about the great sacrifices our pastors and missionaries make both in the United States and abroad. One of my former students from John Brown University dropped by our house for an overnight visit. She is now living in North Carolina but has been reared in Kenya in a missionary family since the age of seven. She turns twenty-one in a couple of weeks. While she was with us, she remarked that our house was "the nicest place I have ever stayed." I was a little bit shocked I have to say in my American middle class complacency. Later, as we went to a late lunch at Cheers, our local favorite neighborhood restaurant, she spoke of her life in Kenya and that she and her family did not have running water at their compound, which is located north in the country just south of Ethiopia and Sudan and west of Somalia. She and the three other siblings often had the responsibility to fill up their water containers from afar. Yes, they have their basic needs met of food, shelter, and clothing but certainly have lived for years in a country without the greeds that we have been so accustomed to in our part of the world.

Teej, as Julie's nickname goes, is now living in North Carolina, working at McDonalds, and saving her money so that she will not go into debt for the remainder of her undergraduate degree. She carries on a long distance relationship with a student she met at John Brown University. He is a native of Central America. Together they both long to go to Israel for missionary opportunities. Sponsoring mission organizations simply will not appoint new missionaries if they are in debt. Her grandfather, a pastor on a Cherokee reservation in Robbinsville, North Carolina, has also come from a long line of missionaries and pastors. It seems that several generations of the Teasdale family have given up their greeds in order to serve others.

Today, as I look at the dashiki Teej gave me two years ago after a trip with her fellow students through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, I think once more of our great wealth here in America. Our retirement house is modest by most standards and unlike our "dream" home we still own in Siloam Springs with its custom-built features, wood floors, and large one and one-half acre wooded lot. The dashiki is a brightly colored tunic-style shirt that one wraps around her. It has colorful motifs and fringe around the neck and borders. The dashiki can be worn with brightly colored pants and a hat as an outfit. It has even gained popularity in America during the 1990s! Today I look at it and value it more dearly than a mere $42,000 Mulberry purse.