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I cooperate with God in a home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico.  We currently care for about sixty  children.  Most of them come to us from desperate situations.  Many have suffered abuse of one kind or another.  Others come from dire economic situations.  Some have no parents or one or both of the parents are in prison.  They are all needy in one respect or another.

The staff members at the Home For Needy Children are there primarily because they recognize the need of the children and want to help meet their needs.  Therefore we have house parents, cooks, a pastor, an accountant, maintenance workers, administrators, school teachers and even a gardener (me).

Occasionally someone comes to help, but in the long run it becomes apparent that he or she needs as much help as some of the kids at the home.  Some are asked to leave.  One former administrator spoke at our morning devotions and felt the need to remind the adults that this was a home for needy children, not a home for needy missionaries.  It was a  clever line and spoke to the reason why one missionary family had recently left.

That event occurred many years ago.  I have occasionally thought about it and the idea of “needy missionaries”, chuckled and continued my job.

In the last couple weeks I have given more thought to the concept of needyness and what it really means and whether or not there is room for “needy missionaries” at a home for needy children.  One reason I have been having second thoughts about this is the Lord’s prayer.  Jesus wanted people to learn how to pray correctly; to really understand what prayer was all about, and what some of the important  characteristics of communicating with God are.  The main emphasis Jesus put on prayer was that we are all very needy.  In fact this short prayer is all about our needs.  Jesus introduces the prayer by saying that the Father knows our needs before we pray about them, and then proceeds to tell his disciples to pray for the Heavenly Father, to meet those needs.  He knows the extent of our needs, though many times we do not.

What are our needs according to the Lord’s prayer?  Holiness on earth as it is in heaven.  His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  His will being done on earth as it is in heaven.  What we have here is a recipe for true happiness, because, after all, God loves us and wants us to be happy.  When we talk about needs, what we are talking about is the need to be happy.  If we are not happy it is because some real or perceived need is not being met.

Those first three needs are God oriented.  We need to be holy as God is holy.  We need God’s kingdom on earth.  We need to do God’s will.

The next four needs that Jesus mentions are directed more towards the Community of Faith and to individuals.  We need daily bread, which is symbolic of how need God to meet our physical needs, such as food, water and air to breath.  If God doesn’t meet these needs we die.  By the way, when was the last time you asked God for food, water and air?  I think generally we take those things for granted.  Jesus seems to be saying that is a big mistake.

The next need Jesus mentions is our need for forgiveness.  Just as important is our need to forgive others.  Of all of our needs, this need to forgive and then be forgiven is the only need Jesus repeats as important to his listeners she he finishes the example prayer.

Jesus follows forgiveness with our great need for deliverance and “salvation”.  He says we should pray, in the modern versions, for “deliverance from the Evil One” and that the Father “saves us from the time of trial.”  Satan is the Evil One who prowls around like a hungry lion, seeking to devour us, destroy us and wreak general havoc upon us and the Community of Faith.  If God doesn’t deliver us than we are dead meat.

Jesus also instructs us pray that we are saved from the time of trial.  None of us like pain, suffering, disappointments or emotional distress.  Job suffered all those things in spades!  Why?  Because God took away his “hedge of protection”.  Basically we are praying for God to maintain that hedge of protection, so that we don’t suffer, especially like Job did.

So there it is.  Jesus points out the fact that we are all needy, weak, vulnerable  people.  We need God’s intervention in our lives everyday.  All of us are desperately in need of God’s mercy and grace, every moment of everyday.  We are all needy – children and adults alike.  Poor abused kids, and missionaries.

In other parts of scripture we learn that our greatest need that needs to be met for us to be supremely happy, is to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbor as our self.  One way missionaries meet these needs is to help the poorest of the poor in places all over the world.  In this sense, the Home For Needy Children where I and many others cooperate with God, is indeed, a home for needy Missionaries.

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