“Where is that boy?” our dreamer muttered, tension rising, as he searched the city after nightfall. In distant suburbs, mortar shells thudded. Machine guns rattled. The streets of his usually bustling city were deserted. Huddled in public parks, refugees snatched sleep before dawn’s onward scramble.
His hands clutched sandwiches and drinks. His forehead beaded up with sweat. His mind raced.
“You’ll never find him. You’re risking your life going out now,” the sandwich vendor had warned.
Yet our dreamer pressed his search on from public park, to park, to park. His quick errand morphed into thirty minutes. Then an hour. Then two hours.
Futile? Risky? Crazy? Yes! But his awakened heart propelled him on.
Two and a half hours later, he spotted that six-year-old boy! He was nearly a mile from that street corner where the boy had first approached him, sobbing, “I want to eat.”
He had seen many panhandlers, but never raw hunger like this. So he’d offered the little boy some money. But the boy had looked him in the eye and refused, “Not money. I want to eat.”
Our dreamer was compelled to find food and get involved. Not cash – food. Not through another – personally. Not for his own people alone – but help across sectarian lines.
“I’ll bring you some food,” he’d promised. And he knew he couldn’t sleep until he’d delivered.
The terror of fleeing warfare hadn’t eroded the simple trust of this child.
Recognizing our dreamer approaching, he jumped up shouting, “I told them you would bring food!”
Our dreamer joined the boy and his family on the ground for their first meal since yesterday. This picnic would have to strengthen them for their 16-mile odyssey to take shelter with a relative out of the line of fire – for now.
But that nighttime encounter was only the beginning of this dreamer’s search: the search for understanding.
Peering at me through his thick eyeglasses, his anguish is unmistakable. “My heart drove me to risk my life to keep my promise of food to that little boy. Yet the heart of another man just like me is just as compelled to kill as his ritual duty. How can two humans created by the same God be so different?”
He continued, “A family thousands of miles away, whom I’ve never met, sends us help even while they struggle after a hurricane’s devastation. Yet right here, people are betraying their own neighbors. Why?”
It’s all a matter of the human heart. As Jesus, the standard of and model for our values, pointed out, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
This dreamer’s heart treasures people as they are, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, religious heritage, and disability. He lives his life that way.
Against the tide of violence, he has founded a caring community with mentally challenged adult orphans. Our dreamer rescued one of his “challenged brothers” from wandering the streets, abandoned by family fleeing war.
Your interest in Dreams InDeed is a clear indicator that, like us, you value people. Not only your friends and family, neighbors and coworkers, but also people unlike you, those you don’t yet know.
Just as this dreamer did, we at Dreams InDeed have decided to extend ourselves in harder places. We need your help to expand our reach and diversify our support base. We can take on these new challenges together.
In an ancient text, the sage Solomon advised, “Two are better than one.” Why? Two get better returns on labor, assist to recover from stumbling, enjoy the fraternal esprit de corps warmth, and stand against overwhelming odds.
Each one, please bring one: an inquiring mind, a donating friend, a corporate match, a pro bono advisor. Contact us to explore how you can leverage your engagement with Dreams InDeed.
Thank you for standing with us.