Elizabeth is on mission in Brazil.

For a little while, we were receiving donations of sacks of food items that gave us an excuse to leave the house and deliver them to some of our friends who are in need. Judi and I went one day to deliver a sack to Dona N., who lives in one of the poorest houses in our neighborhood with her 9-year-old grandson, Wanderson, both very dear friends of ours. When we got to her house, no one was home but she heard us yelling for her from around the corner as she was returning to her house. She apologized for not being there when we got there, saying that she was bringing food to her ex-husband who had fallen ill. She told me, “We’re not together anymore but we all have to take care of each other in times of need, right?”

I stood there in awe as these words left Dona N. so naturally, like she had never thought of doing otherwise; this woman who is perpetually in a time of need still finds it within herself and her means to meet the needs of others. She’s like the poor widow from the Gospel of Luke who gave two small coins amidst the donations of the wealthy: “She from her poverty has offered her whole livelihood” (Luke 21:4). Dona N. is one of the many here who reveal to me my own poverty before God in her honest simplicity.