When you walk with someone, how far do you walk? How much time, money etc do I invest into the life of someone else? I do not know. I think the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10v30-35 is challenging enough but in practice it is a bit more difficult.
There is a guy from this community who has been addicted to thinners for many years and he came to us for help. After a couple of weeks with him we managed to take him to a rehabilitation house (more like a farm, actually) 1 1/2 hours from Belo Horizonte. For this to happen, we had to invest a lot of time into his life, meet with his family, buy him medication, give him food, give him some things which we will never see again, be shouted at and verbally abused by him and then take him to this place. He was glad to get there but did not say thankyou. Also, he had been to 2 rehab places before and not succeeded in their programmes, only lasting a few days in these places. He is HIV+ and does not take his medication, homosexual, has lived in the streets, has been shot in the head, fallen twice into the main city drain which is about 10 meters deep (normally people die when they do this), has been burnt but got no sign on his skin of this and has also thrown a brick at a drug trafficker (they would normally kill you for this). Knowing this history and experiencing his nastier side, we still chose to help him because he is so loved by God. He is not a nice person but God´s love in us is bigger than that. It has to be. His rather colourful life story also gives me hope that he is well protected because he is still alive after all he has experienced.
In contrast to that, 2 days ago a lovely lady in this community fell down some steps and died, leaving 3 children. She got no second chance, or third, or fourth......just the one. Sometimes it does not seem fair but that is the reality and contrast of life here. There is a funeral for her in the basement of casa Luzeiro as I write this (someone has just come to our house to borrow a fan to keep the flies off the body).
I heard some teaching this week about Spiritual Warfare. It was very good. One of the things the preacher said was that God will put people in your path....one or 2 at a time, sometimes more....and they are the ones you are to love, take care of because he is entrusting them into your care. More than that we cannot do. Sometimes even that is difficult enough.