Blogging friends

Thanks to everyone who wrote kind comments on my blog about my late mom. Thank you to those who  visited my friends' blogs which I linked to mine yesterday.For the readers only seeing this post today,  I know Diane will enjoy hearing from you, so do pop over and visit her blog here. By the same token, if you visit Penny, not only would she be pleased to hear from a fellow blogger, but I'm sure she would appreciate any support she can get for a mission she supports here in Kenya.

As an expat who's lived in West and North Africa and currently living in East Africa I can personally testify first-hand to the abject poverty among the masses in these countries.  In most third world countries, for every 100 people that are fortunate enough to have employment, there are always tens of thousands who merely subsist and eke out a living; some by farming and selling vegetables, eggs or milk on the market; others by collecting scrap and transporting it to the cities with great difficulty to sell it; others even breaking stones and selling it. I've seen all these but not one moved me as much as the latter; women sitting on the roadside with a family of children playing nearby while they chop stones by hand. Backbreaking, muscle-aching and and skin-tearing agony!

To anyone who may be thinking I'm using my blog commercially, you're wrong. On the contrary. We've all, at some time,  shared tragig stories through our posts; I often read about prayer requests for victims of natural disasters, someone with a terminal illness or a person who's had a serious accident. I always add that request to my already-long prayer list and then petition it to God believing that He will offer comfort or provide protection or peace.

However, faith (believing) without works is dead, as we see in James 2:14-16 :  "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?"(New King James Version Bible)

If there's a disaster relief fund or some worthy cause that I feel led to donate towards, I do it. Not much, a few dollars at best, but every bit helps. I calculate that if I entered a supermarket in between monthly grocery shopping days, (we don't do it, as we can only go shopping once a month, thank goodness!) I'd spend anything up to KSH4000/US$46 on not-such-necessary items.  So I feel I can spare half of that for a worthy cause without breaking the bank. Above all, remember to only give if you feel convinced and happy about it. 

If you feel in any way inclined to help, even with as little as twenty dollars, please visit Penny's blog and chat to her. Your contribution could make a world of difference to a Kenyan family.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.