Sometimes things really catch your attention.

Paul was recounting something that caught his while in Ubaúna as we talked last night.

We were visiting a member of the church. The couple has three children. The middle girl, Giselle, is approximately 9 years old. Paul noticed she was missing her big toe. This seriously messed with him.

If a child, or an adult for that matter, suffered an accident here in the U.S. in which they lost a toe, they would be rushed to the emergency room, modern medical marvels (including the attempt to reattach the toe) would be utilized, pain medicine applied in abundance and the system would do everything humanly possible to minimize the consequences. While none of us would want to have such an experience, we take comfort in the fact that if we did, we would have help available.

Giselle lives in Ubaúna. She had none of this available. No hospital, no pain medicine, no doctor, no help, no system. Far from any form of assistance, she would have suffered, horribly, for days. The recuperation would have taken months and would have been more difficult than we might be able to imagine. For us living in America, it is incomprehensible and frightening to even imagine; for Giselle and everyone living in a place like Ubaúna, it is reality.

This is the reality of northeastern Brasil; this forms the mentality that the good news has to penetrate; this is what Jesus sent us to do and to grapple with.