My Hero:  Olga (red shirt)

Can't believe that I've held out on you all for this long but it's finally time to introduce you to my current hero.  Her name is Olga, she's married, has 3 kids, lives in Monterrey and had to vision to feed hungry people in one of Monterrey's most dangerous neighborhoods.   She sounds awesome already doesnt she?  

Olga feels called to feed people, to serve people, to clothe poor little kids, tell them about Jesus, love people.  She felt God leading her to the place in Monterrey where the police refuse to go to at night and she answered that call.  She set aside other pursuits in this life and decided to stand with the defenseless, the hungry, the naked, the poor.  

Who goes to a place of sadness, crime, abuse, and extreme poverty and says that God is going to restore that place and those people?  Olga did.  She's just as "normal" as anyone else- as your neighbor or the person who bagged your groceries yesterday.  But clearly, Olga is different, very different from most people I know.  She can sense where God is leading her - She is believing God and trusting in him to feed hundreds of people everyday.   A couple of weeks ago, I read the following in a book by John Piper:  "Ask yourself: Of all the spiritually minded people you have known -- those who seem to walk most consistently with God and are in tune with God's Spirit -- do they not all overflow with Scripture?  Prick them, and they bleed Bible."  Last week, I went to breakfast with Olga and 2 other Back2Back staff members to tell Olga that someone had just donated 7000 pesos (which is around $700 USD) and that she could finally purchase the old truck she's been renting when she needs to transport food donations to the people.  Olga didn't even have a car.  Her husband rents a taxi everyday and at the end of the day, he can drive food out to the people in the rio.  Olga and her husband just cried tears of joy at the table.  It was the answer to their prayers and she told us of the dreams she's been having for this ministry and where she feels like God is going to provide.  If you talk to Olga, she bleeds Bible.  She bleeds hope and encouragement and vision.  

When I think of all the villages that must exist in our world where people literally starve to death and who might possibly be the one to "rescue" those people and feed them- I think i often envision some hollywood celebrity with tons of money walking around the dirt roads of the village playing with kids.  Perhaps my idea is totally off.  I'm beginning to realize that more often than not, it is not the wealthy (in terms of monetary wealth) who feed these people and save their lives, rather it is the poor themselves who are wealthy with vision and hope and determination.  

So how is Olga doing these days?  She's working to build a soup kitchen, outreach center, pharmacy, doctor's office, church, community center, feed children and clothe them... all in the place that the rest of us had already forgotten with money she doesn't even have yet.  

"Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." - 1 John 3:18