92. To Be Like Him
R
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
...You are the helper of the fatherless.
Psalm 10:14A
MANDAstood before the congregation, struggling to express
her feelings about the youth group’s mission trip to Costa Rica.
“I think I’ll just tell you about the day we ministered to the peo-
ple at the garbage dump,” she began. “It was an incredible sight to
see these people that the Costa Ricans refer to as ‘scavengers’ crawl-
ing all over the mounds of refuse, pulling out cast-off items and even
old food from under stacks and stacks of garbage. I soon realized,
though, that the smell of the dump was going to be much harder for
me to take than the sight. The closer we got, the more unbearable it
became.
“Whitney, the missionary leading our group, could see that I was
about to lose it! ‘Amanda,’ she said, ‘just inhale as deeply as you can
and the smell will get bearable.’ I did it and she was right. The smell