Both of the kids had their first sleepover last night & at lunch time Kiel & I took his Mongolian friend home. After dropping off his friend we were suppose to go get our hair cut. But we went to the hair dressers & they said they did not have any openings. When we were leaving a young man started walking next to us, extremely dirty, crippled & homeless asked us to some money in Mongolian. I told the man nicely in Mongolian that I was not going to give him any money.
Next to treat Kiel & to spend some time together alone (dad & son) we went into a restaurant to buy some lunch. After we ordered our food Kiel told me that he felt really bad for the young man. He asked me many questions about why & how that man was crippled (the kids see very, poor homeless people on a daily basis here.) I told Kiel that I did not know. He continued to tell me that he felt really bad for this man because he was poor, looked like he had no home & was in need. Kiel then asked me why did we not give this man any money because we had extra to give.
I told Kiel that some people it is ok to give money to, but others if you give them money many times they will spend it on alcohol or other things instead of things they really need. He said dad then how can we help this poor man because I really want to help him (every 10 minutes he would look out the window for the man.) Our meal came & the portion size was really big, much more than we really needed. After Kiel prayed for our meal I said to him what I always do if I see someone poor & in need close to a restaurant. I told Kiel that to help this man lets save half our our meal & place it into a container. Then after we leave the restaurant lets give it to the man as a gift because he is probably very hungry.
We walked out of the restaurant & the man was still sitting on the sidewalk waiting for people to walk by. Kiel was not scared of the man as we walked up to him & gave him our meal. The man was very happy, said thank-you in Mongolian & we walked to the van. Kiel didn't say anything about the man on our way home, but had a peaceful smile on his face.
Tonight after church (the same every week) we had 15 people around our table to share our home, our food & our friendship, to people that are new to Mongolia, need a friend & to people we have grown to love. During the meal Kiel stood behind me & just quietly hugged me. I leaned my head back & told him that I loved him. I asked him if he wanted to have some supper & he told me that he was not really hungry. I told him he should eat something so he went & got a small plate of rice & a glass of juice. He finished his meal & was satisfied. 20 minutes later Kiel hugged me again & told me that he was so happy that we were able to help the poor homeless man earlier in the day.
Kiel normally really enjoys eating foods of any kind, from any nation & usually eats too much. But, today after seeing the poor man in need gave what he had as a gift & I think realized that there are people in need & he didn't need to eat to excess this evening. These are the blessings & gifts that we (Teresa & I) are so thankful to God that our kids see & experience on a weekly basis when living in another country where there are many, many people in need.