It made a difference to that one!!

There is an old parable about a man and a million starfish....

One early morning, after a fierce storm had hit the coast, I strolled to the beach for my morning walk. Horrified, I saw that tens of thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach by the winds and waves. I was saddened by the realization that all of them would die, stranded on the shore, away from the life-giving water. Deciding that there was nothing I could do, I sat down on the sand and put my head in my hands.

But then I heard a sound, and I lifted my eyes. There, in the distance, I saw a man bending down and then standing up, bending down and then standing up. Curious, I rose and walked toward him. I saw that he was picking up the starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the sea.

'What are you doing?' I yelled.
'Saving the starfish,' he replied.
'But don't you see, man, that there are tens of thousands of them?' I asked, incredulous. 'Nothing you can do will make a difference.'

He did not answer me but instead bent down, picked up another starfish, and cast it back into the water. Then he smiled, looked me in the eye, and said, 'It made a difference to that one.'

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People sometimes wonder why anyone even tries to help in places where there is so much that needs fixing. Haiti is just one of many places in the world that seems beyond help. We know that the issues in Haiti are much bigger and deeper than anything we can solve or even 10,000 ministries of our size can solve.

We want to be where God wants us, whether we can see change happening or not we are just attempting to walk in step with his plan for our lives. We believe that we can make a difference to some people, some of the time and as long as we are willing to go where God leads us - then the rest is up to Him.