By Paul Tatham
tatham47@hotmail.comFew South Floridians will forget August, 1992.
That month a compact but devastatingly powerful hurricane called Andrew buzz-sawed its way ashore south of Miami.
More like a large tornado, Andrew
was the second-most powerful hurricane to make U.S. landfall last century.
Entire neighborhoods in South Florida were leveled. The town of Homestead was
essentially erased from the map.
The Christian school where I
served, 60 miles north of Miami, called an emergency administrative huddle to
determine our response to the calamity. We sent out an APB to parents, asking
for donations and workers willing to load relief trucks.
The response was overwhelming.
Parents rallied to the cause and trucks quickly filled with canned food,
bottled water, diapers, flashlight batteries, propane canisters, medical
supplies, and anything else we thought dazed victims would need. Supplies were
then assembled into “CARE packages” for easy delivery.
As we were mapping out the
details of the effort, I remember suggesting to my fellow administrators that
we enclose a gospel tract with each package. I had been rereading the familiar
John 4 account of the woman at the well, where Jesus ministered to her physical
thirst but focused on her more vital spiritual need for “living water.” Since
it was our usual practice to include a little plug for God in similar past
drives, the suggestion was quickly adopted.
It was our prayer, of course,
that some of the recipients of those packages would read the tract and, perhaps
learning of God’s simple offer of salvation for the first time, open their
heart to the Savior. Only Heaven will reveal the outcome.
But in a slew of similar acts of
kindness in which I have participated over the years, I am sad to say that that
has not been the norm. They ministered solely to physical needs. We believers
are quite good about “sharing the love of Christ” in material ways, but when it
comes to sharing the gospel, we often fumble the ball. We’re great at handing
out sandwiches but not so great at handing out the vastly more important good
news of salvation.
Now the old adage is true: people
don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Shoving a
gospel leaflet in someone’s face without coupling it with some act of kindness
is not the best approach. We need to include a sandwich with salvation. But
often the “spiritual” part of our efforts is missing entirely, and I wonder
just how much good they actually do.
This is what I appreciate about
the indigenous ministries assisted by Christian Aid Mission: they always
include spiritual with material aid. While many of the projects and missions
call for material resources, the sharing of Christ is always front and center.
Christian Aid has a 60-year history of taking great care that the indigenous
ministries they supply have the sharing of Jesus’ death, burial and
resurrection as an essential part of the effort.
The gospel is what distinguishes
the Church from good, charitable organizations; without the hope of eternal
life Christ offers, eternal benefit for the recipient is diminished or
extinguished. As Jesus once asked His disciples, “For what will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Is ministering to the physical
needs of a lost and dying world important? Absolutely. Will such good works
attract people to our Savior? Certainly. But, often only if we help them make
the connection.
*Paul Tatham is a retired Christian educator living in Orlando, FL., and a Christian Aid ministry partner
