Make a difference ... give a bar of soap

Does it take American Idol to make us realize have blessed we are as a nation? We found out last week that AIDS is not the big killer in Africa but malaria. And malaria is so very conquerable! Just a mosquito net, some clean water, and a few inexpensive pills and malaria would be history. Right now one child dies every 30 seconds from malaria in Africa. The best preventive is long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net that cost less than $10. It could work for the whole family.

Sometimes it takes something as simple as a bar of soap to humble us before a world at need. This weekend the Hatcher household is running out of hand soap, the kind that graces every sink and shower in American homes. For some reason we have been led to think that every sink demands its own bar of soap. Well, I’ve had to find that bar of soap at the last place I used it. Got in the shower this morning and realized the bar was at the sink where I had used it for shaving. What a bother! I had to turn off the shower, walk my wet body over to the sink, retrieve the soap, and return to the shower. Can’t wait to get to the store and buy more soap. Even the courtesy soap from motels is gone.

Typically we have a bar of soap at every sink and in both showers. We have extra bars under each sink. Soap galore. We’ve got gallons of clothes washing detergent as well as a full quart or more of dishing washing detergent. We’ve got bottles of 409 as well as Clorox cleaner. We’ve got special cleanser for the stainless steal fronts of dishwasher and refrigerator. You name it, typically, and we’ve got it to get the dirt out and off.

Yet, just this week we’re down to one bar of soap. But millions and millions of Africans go to bed every night unprotected by prowling mosquitoes who are on the look for blood and they prefer the blood of children who are the least able to give them a swat. And I would bet many of the same go to bed without a bar of soap in their little hut.

A bar of soap costs less than a dollar. A mosquito net costs less than $10. One protects against dirt for a week or so. The other staves off death for a lifetime. The question should be: how can we get a net in the homes of African families — a net that values at 10 bars of soap?
I believe the first step to making a difference in Africa is acknowledging the blessedness of our lives, the abundance we awake to every morning, and the sheer volume of stuff that comforts our daily existence. When we get a hold of the blessings that accompany us from dawn to dark, we can begin to ask, “Why should others not also have at least a pinch of possessions — whether they are a bar of soap or a mosquito net?”

Last week via American Idol we gave about 10 cents for every 300 million of our population to fight malaria. We pay more than that to stay clean in one week. When we get a perspective our aim is sharper and our impact is greater. It’s time for us in this great and blessed country to take aim across the big drink and do something big for God and his children. Truly it is more blessed to give then to receive.