I’ve been thinking lately about those grand statements we tell ourselves or our children and wondering if they really are true? You know the ones: You can be anything you want to be, or if you can dream it – you can do it! But the one question that caught me was 'Can we really change the world?' And as I chewed over this, questioning if it indeed was an absolute or false advertising, I simply had to answer this question with a resounding YES!! Absolutely we can change the world!
Often the world seems such a large and difficult place, fraught with conflict and problems far beyond our capacity to solve. But at other times, the world becomes immediately smaller and connected in just the blink of an eye! One of those moments occurred recently!! Here’s what happened!
I had flown to Vanuatu for the first time ever! I couldn’t speak the language, didn’t know any of the landmarks and I did not know a single person! Thankfully we were in a team and got straight to work on the community centre and houses we had promised to build. As we started this laborious building process, a lady from the Port Villa church proceeded to prepare meals from the produce in her own backyard, roast pigs she had grown from young, and serve these meals to us like we were royalty.
As we got to know this beautiful woman called Sandra, sharing stories about our faith and our families, I uncovered one particular detail about her family that absolutely floored me! Sandra disclosed that, on top of the one child who lived under her metal shanty roof in Port Villa, she also had two other sons who were currently working in Australia, picking flowers or fruit and sending the money back to her. But this profound demonstration of community wasn’t the only thing that amazed me. When I quizzed Sandra on what part of Australia her boys worked in, she proceeded to quote the exact state, suburb and street that my own mover lived in! Not only did Sandra’s family and mine share the same basic address, but my mother had regularly dropped off extra pastries, pies and other cooked item from a community pantry to support the beautiful Vanuatuan people that lived at the end of her street.
I instantly realised that I had flown across the world to meet a family that my own mother was feeding back in her own neighbourhood!! Suddenly connected! Linked! Family to Family, and just like that, the world became a smaller place and changing the world seemed not so difficult after all!
So, can we change the world? In the words of the boy throwing back starfish after beached starfish; “I guess it changed the world for this one”
And, if you’re not careful, like my mum, you might just discover that you already have!!
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