What you are about to read is a true life experience shared with me by a very dear friend - a 19-year-old college baseball player who spent the majority of this past summer working at an orphanage in Ethiopia. His name is Benton Moss. He is entering his sophomore year at the University of North Carolina. I consider Benton to be one of the most amazing, mature, dedicated and giving human beings I’ve ever known! Normally I try to inspire others through my writings. This week, I am proud to step aside for Benton and let you read his words …. Jim Loria
“For six-and-a-half weeks during the recent summer months, I was blessed to be able to serve as a volunteer in Ethiopia, working full time in an orphanage that consisted of 175 kids. The children – paired in eights – would each share and live in (what I would view to be) a tin shack for a home. They all go to school during the day (although it is not anything like the education system in America). Their big meal is a cultural dish called ‘injera’ and ‘wot’ (looks like sourdough bread and stew). They don’t have the luxury to eat beef or chicken because it is very rare in Ethiopia.
Traveling to Africa was the most life changing experience I have had in all of my 19 years. It has been a month since returning from the cradle of humanity, and I’ve had ample time to reflect on how different I am as a direct result of my experiences living in Ethiopia. It is no secret that this country is poverty-stricken and disease-riddled that features dilapidated living environments, homeless children and bad drinking water. It may as well be the antithesis of America: while America is the beacon of liberty and freedom and prosperity. We are not nearly as affected by these diseases as the third world countries. So, after viewing people suffering from a combination of these problems, I found myself angry, full of rage, and crying out daily to the One who crafted this universe to do something.
After a month or so of reverse cultural shock with my return to America, I felt guilty about eating certain things. I was angry at every material extravagance around me, and furious about the indifference of American’s in general to the problems faced by the rest of the world. The average American (myself included) consumes hundreds more than the average Ethiopian. People in the U.S. let 'things' control their lives, they pursue them, they hoard them, they're stingy with them, and then they throw them away... only to do it all over again.
Whereas, most of the orphans that I sweated with, got dirty with, and lived with, for a better part of each day wore the same pair of clothes day-in and day-out because it was an unstated fact that they had one simple outfit; here in the U.S., one might be thought of as a fashion idiot if he wears the wrong colors together. In Ethiopia, the small amount of material things they did have always came second to their relationships among one another. So, because of this strong sense of community inherent in the Ethiopian culture, whether it is kinship or friendship, the result is that each member of the community looks out for the next, sharing with those who have none, and helping those who are struggling. Honestly, it is really the poor helping the extremely poor because there are no real rich in Ethiopia.
I believe that this same sense of community was present at the very beginning of America during the Founding Fathers’ lives at the time of this great nation’s humble beginnings, and I believe that it has been replaced by a rugged materialistic individualism that exalts the individual pursuits above the common good. Often we stuff our lives full of possessions only to find that they drive away all the happiness we knew before we had them and replace it with an ambition for more and more. We attain material desires only to watch those desires multiply. Now, I’m an ambitious person, I’ll admit this. But I’m not merely talking about ambition. I’m talking specifically about life.
I found unconditional love in Ethiopia, and after returning to the U.S., I can see that America is truly the nation in need. Ethiopians may be poor in wealth but they are rich in relationships. It is my greatest prayer that in America, we would see our current circumstances changed: that our material blessings would be leveraged as investments in relationships, that they would be shared to increase the sense of community among fellow brethren and that they would not simply serve to increase our own happiness and personal satisfaction. If they are merely used for our satisfaction, their usefulness fades away after consumption. I left on this trip as a college student in search of something profound, and I found it in the simplicity of God’s unreserved love illustrated every day by the hospitality and community of the people in Ethiopia.”
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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES …
“I shall pass through this life but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it. For I shall never pass this way again” - stated by Etienne de Grellet, prominent French Quaker Missionary.
------------------------------
“Humanity is the keystone that holds nations together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life” – stated by Connie Mack, Hall of Fame Baseball Manager
------------------------------
“It's the most breathtakingly ironic things about living: the fact that we are all...alone. Singular. And yet what we seek - what saves us - is our connection to others” – stated by Wally Lamb, Author
------------------------------
“I don't want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well” – stated by Diane Ackerman, Author and Poet
------------------------------
“Sometimes you need to realize that there are different experiences in the world, other than just playing your sport. There are different people who have different types of struggles. You just have to be a part of that, and it gives you a better understanding and appreciation, and makes you understand how lucky and blessed you really are” – stated by Chris Duhon, Duke Graduate and NBA player for the Orlando Magic
###
“For six-and-a-half weeks during the recent summer months, I was blessed to be able to serve as a volunteer in Ethiopia, working full time in an orphanage that consisted of 175 kids. The children – paired in eights – would each share and live in (what I would view to be) a tin shack for a home. They all go to school during the day (although it is not anything like the education system in America). Their big meal is a cultural dish called ‘injera’ and ‘wot’ (looks like sourdough bread and stew). They don’t have the luxury to eat beef or chicken because it is very rare in Ethiopia.
Traveling to Africa was the most life changing experience I have had in all of my 19 years. It has been a month since returning from the cradle of humanity, and I’ve had ample time to reflect on how different I am as a direct result of my experiences living in Ethiopia. It is no secret that this country is poverty-stricken and disease-riddled that features dilapidated living environments, homeless children and bad drinking water. It may as well be the antithesis of America: while America is the beacon of liberty and freedom and prosperity. We are not nearly as affected by these diseases as the third world countries. So, after viewing people suffering from a combination of these problems, I found myself angry, full of rage, and crying out daily to the One who crafted this universe to do something.
After a month or so of reverse cultural shock with my return to America, I felt guilty about eating certain things. I was angry at every material extravagance around me, and furious about the indifference of American’s in general to the problems faced by the rest of the world. The average American (myself included) consumes hundreds more than the average Ethiopian. People in the U.S. let 'things' control their lives, they pursue them, they hoard them, they're stingy with them, and then they throw them away... only to do it all over again.
Whereas, most of the orphans that I sweated with, got dirty with, and lived with, for a better part of each day wore the same pair of clothes day-in and day-out because it was an unstated fact that they had one simple outfit; here in the U.S., one might be thought of as a fashion idiot if he wears the wrong colors together. In Ethiopia, the small amount of material things they did have always came second to their relationships among one another. So, because of this strong sense of community inherent in the Ethiopian culture, whether it is kinship or friendship, the result is that each member of the community looks out for the next, sharing with those who have none, and helping those who are struggling. Honestly, it is really the poor helping the extremely poor because there are no real rich in Ethiopia.
I believe that this same sense of community was present at the very beginning of America during the Founding Fathers’ lives at the time of this great nation’s humble beginnings, and I believe that it has been replaced by a rugged materialistic individualism that exalts the individual pursuits above the common good. Often we stuff our lives full of possessions only to find that they drive away all the happiness we knew before we had them and replace it with an ambition for more and more. We attain material desires only to watch those desires multiply. Now, I’m an ambitious person, I’ll admit this. But I’m not merely talking about ambition. I’m talking specifically about life.
I found unconditional love in Ethiopia, and after returning to the U.S., I can see that America is truly the nation in need. Ethiopians may be poor in wealth but they are rich in relationships. It is my greatest prayer that in America, we would see our current circumstances changed: that our material blessings would be leveraged as investments in relationships, that they would be shared to increase the sense of community among fellow brethren and that they would not simply serve to increase our own happiness and personal satisfaction. If they are merely used for our satisfaction, their usefulness fades away after consumption. I left on this trip as a college student in search of something profound, and I found it in the simplicity of God’s unreserved love illustrated every day by the hospitality and community of the people in Ethiopia.”
------------------------------
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES …
“I shall pass through this life but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it. For I shall never pass this way again” - stated by Etienne de Grellet, prominent French Quaker Missionary.
------------------------------
“Humanity is the keystone that holds nations together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life” – stated by Connie Mack, Hall of Fame Baseball Manager
------------------------------
“It's the most breathtakingly ironic things about living: the fact that we are all...alone. Singular. And yet what we seek - what saves us - is our connection to others” – stated by Wally Lamb, Author
------------------------------
“I don't want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well” – stated by Diane Ackerman, Author and Poet
------------------------------
“Sometimes you need to realize that there are different experiences in the world, other than just playing your sport. There are different people who have different types of struggles. You just have to be a part of that, and it gives you a better understanding and appreciation, and makes you understand how lucky and blessed you really are” – stated by Chris Duhon, Duke Graduate and NBA player for the Orlando Magic
###
Jim Loria
E-Mail: loria@sfstampede.com
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