REFLECTION: S.I.F.A.T. by Emily Holland In the forgotten woods of rural Alabama, tucked in between hills and trees and pastures, I have found myself drawn again and again - for six years now (which is quite a sum if you’re only seventeen) - to a place I know I could forever belong. Most folks don’t know of its existence, but I do, and your children do, and if you so chose, the power of this place would seep into your soul and forever change you. SIFAT is a “thin place,” like Pastor Vicki always talks about - a place where the layers of space separating earth from heaven seem to be softly scraped away, and the incredibility of concepts like grace and unconditional love don’t seem so impossible anymore. Counselors dressed in plaid button-downs and muddied Chaco sandals lead campers through painful, hungry days spent as the voiceless citizens of a slum city or the homeless residents of a make-shift refugee camp. SIFAT exists to address poverty at its very root, and part of their method includes educating naive American teenagers on the realities of life for our brothers and sisters around the world. SIFAT isn’t easy. But it is wonderful. And watching members of my youth group experience a single glimpse of the emotions that accompany hunger and need was more powerful than I can put into words. SIFAT is a place for the heart to be broken and for eyes to be opened. Please, ask Jeremy or me or any other member of the youth group about it. What we learned there is meant to be shared. The world is unfair and full of dark things, and we are children of the Father of Lights. It is our business that people are hungry. It is our business that people are without clean drinking water or are dying from smoke inhalation or are going blind from vitamin deficiencies. It is our business to care, and it is our business to act. And though I have yet to discover exactly what that means for me and my life right now, but I haven’t stopped searching. We aren’t here on earth very long. It is time to make a difference. Emily Holland
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 01:25:31 +0000
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