“I Looked POVERTY in the Face Today”

“I Looked POVERTY in the Face Today”

By Bishop Sarah Frances Taylor Davis

Copyright © 2005 Bishop Sarah Frances Taylor Davis

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

They were children who looked with curiosity at a lady who was called “Bishop”; but who gathered around when asked to take a photo; who smiled big when smiled at; who wanted to hang on when embraced by her.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today….

It was pastors and people gathering in a crowded hot, mud church building sitting on homemade benches (men) and mats on the ground (women and children), but praising God and dancing and praying as if they were somewhere in a cathedral.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was praying through the lips of the young and the old; prayers of the men and the women. Prayers like those on the Day of Pentecost…. all praying, and I not understanding any of it, was able to feel the Spirit of the Lord in that place! Hallelujah, Jesus!!!!

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

They were fourteen in total: 7 men and 4 women and 3 young men; no jobs to go to; dressed in shirts and ties and some even with coat jackets; sitting on a rented non-air conditioned van rented by the Bishop; going with the Bishop to the villages where some AME members who have no churches, meet under trees to worship.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

They were fourteen strong on a rented van for seven hours, still smiling and singing as they ALL shared their first meal of the day together: three half-filled bags of mixed nuts the Bishop brought from Maseru (to eat in the hotel room if she got hungry, but decided to bring for the trip today).

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today….

She was children of all ages running around dirty, but with smiles on their faces as they were at recess at their over crowded, windowless, no electricity provided schools.

I looked POVERTY in the face today….

She was children of all ages running around dirty, but with smiles on their faces as they were at recess at their over crowded, windowless, no electricity provided schools.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was a little African toddler who had flies all over his/her (couldn’t tell the gender) face because of an infected open sore on the back of his/her ear. The infection caused the ear lobe to be three times the size of the other ear lobe; yet the little toddle had that special smile of “I love you, and I know you love me” which completely swallowed my heart.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was young people and older people running up to our van so that we could buy some of their vegetables as they shoved them through the windows of the van.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was the lady on the side of the road who was now smiling and seemingly saying “Thank you Lord, someone bought my pumpkin!” as she walked back to the side of the road slipping her 10 Meticais ($0.50) in her pocket and starting her sales calls all over again.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

He was at Muda and was pressing his claim for the Bishop to please buy 3 goats and 5 chickens so that their church project could get started which would bring in money for their families and the church.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

He was the administrator for Ndeja, a new church work. He wanted the Bishop to know that they are now having church under a tree because the wind had blown down the first church they had tried to build. He pleaded that they needed to build another church soon so that members would not leave and go where they could worship in a church building and not under a tree. [Ndeja is a new work off the main road and in the bushes and through the cornfields for about a 20 minutes drive.]

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was an elderly woman who had brought a bushel of corn for the Bishop because the Bishop had come to visit them in the bushes.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

He was on a home made crutch, hopping on one leg, but singing about heaven and Jesus! He was waving his hands and praising his God as the Bishop and her delegation approached the pulpit under their tree.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was men and women…walking down a long road from Beira to places on the road to Mau (2 hours in a van)…..feet in tongs and some barefooted, but walking briskly toward the nearest village or city.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was bent from the waist down in stagnant, dirty water with a hoe in her hand working the rice fields.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was men and women with hoes or sickles in their hands, working the sugar cane, the barley and the fruit plants on the sides of the road, in the fields and in the marshlands.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

They had uncovered butts, dirty, torn t-shirts, torn skirts, no shirts, towel diapers with plastic coverings, but they were playing in the dirt, with each other or playing alone.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

He was sitting on the side of his hut in the bushes with his children making baskets with his hands from straw.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was some 25 children leading the way for the Bishop and her delegation to their church (Zinga-Zinga, Pastor Louisa Rosario) up the mountainside off the main road and about a 25-30 minutes walk; they were singing and smiling and excited.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was approximately 80 children and about 87 adults who were sitting and listening to the Bishop tell them about Jesus and His love.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was seventy-five children who have no schooling because they are too far from the nearest school and the main roads, but who when the Bishop promised that Zinga-Zinga would have a church and a school in the very near future…clapped and sang and shouted on their feet!

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was a 2 year 2 month-old baby girl whose eyes just rolled around in her head, never focusing on anyone or anything as I held her in my arms and prayed for her. Her name is Baby Betinho Alberta Olieveira.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was lines of people, some with babies on their backs in the hospital waiting on their turn to see a nurse or doctor while the bishop was escorted immediately to a room with a doctor and examined.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was three little boys (8-9 years of age) dressed in blue shirts with an HIV/AIDS logo on it and the name of the home from which they had come. They came to me and said: “We are orphans of parents who have died of HIV/AIDS and we would like it if you could give us a donation to support our care.” After I gave my gift, one looked me in the eyes and said: “Thank you madam and may God bless you.”

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was a blind lady with her baby on her back and with 2 little girls (I assumed to be her daughters) leading her by the hand begging for whatever anybody would give them.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was a pregnant blind woman with two girls (9-10 years of age) by her side.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was the Bishop and her delegation of traveling preachers, spouses and others leaving for Caia and Marromeu with six (20 liter) containers of diesel on top of the 15 passenger van where the luggage was stored and exposed to the sun. When asked about the danger, the driver replied…”it will be alright; diesel is too scarce further north and where it can be found, it is too expensive.”

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was our van being stopped and harassed by the black Mozambique policemen, even with our hand-made church sign on the dash board, while a white driver was not even waved down, but given a smile by the police and allowed to continue his travel.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was 316 children, women and men all together in a too small mud church, but all were praising God and listening intently as the Bishop preached through the interpreter; sometimes smiling, sometimes clapping their hands and sometimes roaring with laughter.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was Pastor Manuel Emiliano calling the Bishop forward to give her the gifts from the people of 7 de Abril African Methodist Episcopal Church: two live doves, a branch off a banana tree full of bananas, and a straw hat.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was a young man packed and ready to travel with us back to Beira to look for a university to enroll in, but was told he had to stay because we did not have room for him on the already packed 15 passenger van. [The Bishop promised him that he would indeed get into school and that she would not forget about him.]

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was Aida, an 11 year old girl (a twin) who was cooking a meal for herself and her five other siblings who live alone with her in a hut. They are orphans because their parents died from AIDS.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was a mother of twins (one twin three times the size of the other) with each sucking on each breast at the same time.

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

She was a two year old girl whose buttocks were bare as she played in the dirt.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was a little boy with his finger in his baby sister’s mouth, while the baby was sucking on her mother’s nipple.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

It was babies everywhere on every other woman’s back or in their wombs; it was toddlers running around dirty with colds, sores in their heads, open wounds on their legs or ankles, behind their ears and/or on the sides of their eyes or mouths; it was little boys and girls with runny noses; swollen navels, and red eyes.

​

INTERESTING……

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

but I didn’t see POVERTY lamenting its plight or looking like it felt sorry for itself. POVERTY was moving forward making the best of all of its situations…

POVERTY did not see itself for what it was. POVERTY did not know that it was POOR, or MAYBE it just did not let its “lack” keep it from trying to get more.

​

I looked POVERTY in the face today…..

….Lord help me never to forget what POVERTY looks like…let me remember so that I will always be found trying to help my sisters and brothers.

Copyright © 2005 Bishop Sarah Frances Taylor Davis