Do We Need Another Story about Starving Children and Poverty?

I must admit that as important as I believe it is for all of us to be involved in the fight against poverty there are times where I just don't want to see another story, magazine, blog post, facebook status, or tweet dealing with this issue.  I admit that constantly hearing about it is a drag.  I mean I get it.  Poverty is a huge problem.  To that end I sponsor a child with Compassion International (compassion.com) and serve as a Compassion Advocate.  I've adopted 3 children from Ethiopia.  I serve as an associate for America World Adoption (awaa.org) and regularly speak on adoption and orphan care.  I regularly address the issue in sermons. I work to constantly remind people that this issue is not going away and yet it is important for us to continue to work to end it.  Nevertheless, there are times when I simply want to say that enough is enough and I'd like to hear some good news for a change.  Really, I just want to get lost for a while in mind-numbing nothingness.  I want to pretend for a minute that all is right with the world and whatever is not right is simply not my responsibility.

Then my 9 year old son who lived the first 7 years of his life in Ethiopia reminded me why we have to continue to tell the stories and to continue to inform ourselves on the issue of poverty and the many evils that accompany it.  The other night at dinner he mentioned that he "needed" an ipod.  When asked why he "needed" an ipod he said because "everyone has one."  Fortunately, I had just received in the mail Compassion International's kids' magazine Explore in the mail.  In this month's issue there was a page that had pictures of 4 different "houses" from around the world.  3 of these houses were what we Americans may consider to be shacks made of mud, cardboard, and scraps of metal and plywood.  Then there was one traditional American home.  I used this too illustrate to Feromsa, who has apparently forgotten his life in Ethiopia, that not everyone had such an American home and that they certainly did not have an ipod.  Many of them did not even have food.

Now then, if someone who lived in the struggles of poverty can after just a couple of years in America forget those struggles, then how much more are we who have been blessed to always live here likely to forget unless we are constantly reminded?