Even today I sometimes cannot freely order food when traveling in the United States. I look at the costs and realize how far the same amount of money will go in India, Myanmar (formerly Burma) or the Philippines. Suddenly I am not quite as hungry as I was before.
Many national missionaries and their families experience days without food—not because they are fasting voluntarily but because they have no money to buy rice. This occurs especially when they start new work in villages where there are no Christians.
Remembering the heartbreaking suffering of the national brethren, I sometimes refused to eat the desserts so often served to me. I am sure this made no difference in supplying food to hungry families, but I couldn’t bear to take pleasure in eating while Christian workers in Asia were going hungry. The need became real to me through the ministry of Brother Moses Paulose, one of the national missionaries we sponsored.
Millions of poor, uneducated fisher-folk live along the thousands of islands and endless miles of coastal backwaters in Asia. Their homes usually are small huts made of leaves, and their lifestyles are simple—hard work and little pleasure. These fishermen and their families are some of the most unreached people in the world. But God called Paulose and his family to take the Gospel to the unreached fishing villages of Tamil Nadu on the east coast of India.
I remember visiting Paulose’s family. One of the first things he discovered when he began visiting the villages was that the literacy rate was so low he could not use tracts or printed materials effectively. He decided to use slides, but had no projector or money to purchase one. So he made repeated trips to a hospital where he sold his blood until he had the money he needed.