Note from the Board – Rod Robison – July 2024

The Scent of The Forgotten

By Rod Robison
Unite 4 Africa Board Chairman

I’d heard it said that you can sometimes smell abject poverty.  But it wasn’t until several years ago when I actually experienced being smacked in the face with the stench of destitution that it became real for me.  Television and social media images of starving children living in filth that most of us have clicked or scrolled past only offer antiseptic renderings of the real thing.   No mediated lesson in poverty can prepare you for standing in it up to your ankles.

That’s exactly where I was.  Several inches deep in the Riverton City dump outside of Kingston, Jamaica.  The “ground” below my feet was actually over twenty feet of rotting garbage. The heat of the scorching sun overhead penetrated the refuse, cooking the concoction until its pungent odor hung like a thick, devilish haze.  A light afternoon breeze carried some of the foulness away. But not enough. 

In a few minutes I would be able to retreat to the cool comfort of the tour bus.  But for those around me who called the dump “home” it was just another day at work.  Both adults and children rode the garbage trucks from the entrance of the dump to wherever the trash would be dropped, hoping to get first “dibs” at the bits of spoiled food, discarded rags, or bottles that could be sold.  A teenage boy jumped off one truck near me just as its metal jaws vomited out its latest load.  An elderly woman dressed in someone’s tossed out dress huddled in a cardboard shelter sorting out her “finds.”

I looked out across the endless mounds of trash. Mixed in with what passed for food was medical waste and dung.  I found myself taking short breaths.  Partly to avoid the stench.  Partly knowing that, with each breath, I was taking into my lungs God only knew what.  

I had come to this forgotten corner of the world as part of a contingent of Christian broadcasters hoping to share with their listeners the plight of the Riverton City people. With our audio recorders we captured the sounds and voices of the people. But the smell could never be captured.  I climbed aboard the bus and sucked in my first breath of fresh air in nearly a half-hour.  

The sheer magnitude of the problem could have easily compelled all of us to turn away and never look back, doubting that we could make a drop of difference in such an ocean of destitution. But we didn’t turn away.  We didn’t forget. In fact, for each of us it was life-changing and even encouraging that we could, in fact, make a significant difference in these people’s lives. 

We saw hope in a seemingly hopeless situation because during that same trip we also witnessed those who had been snatched from the grip of poverty through empowerment. Not simply giving them a handout, but offering them a hand up to a new, better life in the name of Jesus.  

We met a single mother sobbing with joy and thanksgiving for a 10 x 10 square foot home that had been provided for her and her four children.  A young lady who was assisted with her education had graduated and become an administrator of a nearby college. A disabled woman confined for years in a dark hole she called home now had a wheelchair that allowed her some freedom.  We saw grotesquely deformed children literally tossed away by their poverty-stricken parents, given love and provisions.

Every one of them and hundreds of others were plucked out of the stench of destitution because someone was willing to be Jesus to them.  Those of us who claim His name as our label of faith would do well, at least once in our lifetimes, to draw in the scent of abject human privation.  Perhaps only then will we really know what Jesus meant when He said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers of mine, you did for me.” 

Although my experience in Jamaica was years ago when I worked in Christian radio, the experience has remained as a vivid reminder of how I can make a significant difference in the lives of  “the least of these.”  That is one reason why, after retiring from Christian radio, I said “yes” when I was invited by Okongo Samson to join the board of Unite 4 Africa. I’m just one person, but God can use me to impact and empower others who, through no fault of their own, are caught in poverty’s vicious grip.  And He can use you too. The simple act of donating to Unite 4 Africa is an act of obedience to God and a demonstration of His love toward others who are in need. I invite you, not only as a board member of Unite 4 Africa, but as a fellow Christian, to join my wife and me in making a difference through your gifts to a ministry that is impacting and empowering people who need your help. 

Thank you for caring. Your generous gift today will make a difference in someone’s life tomorrow. www.unite4africa.com/donate.  

 “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

 1 John 3:17