Between my third and fourth years of college, I spent three months with missionaries on a beautiful, but poverty-ridden Caribbean Island.  I’m sure living conditions  have improved somewhat since I was there, but can you imagine having a piece of bread and a piece of cheese with homemade (oh-so-bitter) cocoa for breakfast and supper every day – and hard, sticky rice for a noon time meal.  Once in a while there was a bit of meat – curly meat – in the rice.  That was pig’s tail!  And, all the while eating, the rice had to be constantly waved over to brush the flies away long enough to get a bite without one.

Without refrigeration, fruit had to sit atop an upside-down bowl placed in a larger bowl with water to keep ants away.  Cock roaches were nearly 3 inches long and would greet us when we walked into our flat in the evening by crawling up the backs of our legs.  There were no windowpanes in the openings (windows) of the house where we stayed so bats felt free to swoop in one window and out another or hang around for a while on the walls (leaving you-know-what to clean up in the morning).  There was no getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom!!  Before we could get into bed, everything had to be checked to make sure that nothing undesirable was going to be in there with us.  And once into bed, a nylon ‘curtain’ hanging from the ceiling had to be tucked in all around us to make sure no creepy-crawly would join us.  There were scorpions to beware of – and the bane of my life, the eight-legged arachnids!  The latter were as big as a teacup – the black one would only rip your flesh off if you tried to bat it off, but being bitten by the brown one could kill you.   And then, houses (even in the cities) were built on stilts which had nothing to do with potential flooding, but rather to keep the snakes out of your living area.  My students at a high school in Providence told me that nothing much had changed.

Come with me . . .    

In a Western European country, working with missionaries for a month, the typical row house about 900 sq.ft. was cramped and claustrophobic.  Not my opinion only, but this country is noted for absolutely tasteless food – and nary a ‘sweet’ that was sweet enough to be determined – to be a ‘sweet’!    Plumbing in kitchens and bathrooms – no where near the standards we would be used to.  I found their air of superiority not only towards foreigners (my friend and me, included), but among themselves to be totally unfounded.  And then, of course, all that rain!

Come with me . . .

I know that you know I am passionate about the ‘other’ land that I love – and not so much about the country as I am my work there.  Most Americans I know would have a really difficult time adjusting to a run-down 400-500 sq. ft. flat – or to such small appliances – windows, plumbing, and electricity that don’t always work – many foods unavailable – a State religion of fear and superstition – a country still rendering a Communistic mentality – a government that watches over evangelical churches – hospitals that have not yet heard of the word ‘sterilization’ – many people literally starving – and a country that treats the thousands of orphans as if they are animals.

Come with me . . .

Think of all the war-torn countries – one that Love From Above is trying to supply food and needs monthly in order that people can get more than a slice of bread or one potato every other day!  And then, the countries that are under such an unrelenting regime dictating and controlling their every move!  Once again, my foreign high school students told of unbearable living conditions in their native countries.  A run-down tenement in Providence was luxurious to them!

Come with me . . .!    Come with me for just a week to any one of these places and you will see why this writer has such a deep appreciation for ever having been born in America (compared to one who has never been out of the country, yet thinks they have all the answers) – it is then that you would understand my appreciation with all that God has blessed us.  I get chills on the 4^th of July thinking of what our forefathers went through for all the rights and freedoms we have – and I thank our Almighty God for all He has allowed us.

There is much more I could write, but as America, truly the Beautiful, celebrates her birthday this month – the Fourth of July –- for those who spout seemingly endless negativity about our land, come with me!  I’ve traveled enough to learn that although America is far from perfect, it’s the best this planet has to offer at this time in my opinion.  And, as Christians, instead of complaining, holding a negative spirit, saying injurious things about our country, we are actually commanded to pray for our leaders.   Romans 13.1 – “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”  (Also, Colossians 1:16,17  –  Proverbs 21.1  –  I Timothy 2:1-4  –  and more)   In my opinion, if followers of Christ spent as much time praying over our leaders as we do complaining about them,  we might be living in a very different country than what exists now.

From personal traveling experience, I am very happy to have been born and raised in the United States of America!  PLEASE, God, BLESS AMERICA!  A most BLESSED and Happy Birthday to the USA!!