Day 2 | Pray for Families' Physical Needs

If you've ever been on a trip with Casas por Cristo, you know first hand the stark contrast between the world in which we live and the border cities in which we serve.  It is almost incomprehensible to understand how such poverty can exist only yards away from such wealth; how one fence can make a line in the sand that changes everything.  Today we are praying for the physical needs of those that live daily in extreme poverty.  The most obvious necessity that we at Casas por Cristo address is the need for adequate housing.  However, the physical needs of those that we serve reach far beyond the lack of shelter over a family's head.

We tend to become most aware of the great needs of the families that we serve as we recognize our own basic needs in life. In the winter, we become aware of the freezing temperatures as we seek warmer clothing and turn up the heat in our homes, only to realize that for most families across the border this luxury is not an option.  When we sit down for a meal, we are reminded of empty refrigerators and cupboards that we see in families' homes daily. When the storms come and the winds and the rain barrel in, we think of the buckets on the floor of homes that we visit, or stories of makeshift walls falling in on families that could not withstand the howling wind. Whenever we step into a warm shower, we are reminded of the bucket and bar of soap we have seen in a pallet shack with a dirt floor.  We think of the number of times that we've seen a child in a metal basin bathing inside their home with water heated on the stove. When we turn the key in our cars countless times daily, visions flash by of people standing on street corners waiting to catch the bus or walking their kids miles to school. And as we lay down at night to go to sleep, we think of the children that we have seen sleeping on concrete slabs and on air mattresses in the dirt. We remember the elderly couple that holds one another in the cold on a twin cot, or entire families that pile together into one bed, because a bed is already a luxury in itself.

So today as you go about your normal routine, we encourage you to think about everything you do from the moment you wake up to the time you lie down to sleep. Become aware of these privileges in the normalcy of your day.  Don't let them be overlooked today.  Recognize them for the gifts that they are.  Allow your eyes to be opened to all that surrounds you.  Thank God for all that you have, and pray for those that are without.  Pray for individuals in desperate need that seek daily what you may have never known one day without.

- Brittany