Greetings from Africa

I’m with an inspiring group of African leaders in an absolutely beautiful setting – at the top of Lake Tanganyika in Bujumbura, Burundi. I can hear the waves crashing on the shore – like an ocean beach with crystal clear fresh water. (They say Lake Tanganyika contains 1/6 of the world’s liquid fresh water, in a deep rift between the mountains of Burundi and Congo.) Every meal, every break I meet new friends doing amazing things to serve God and/in neighbor.
Tonight, we sang the well-known song, “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” Sean Callaghan from South Africa suggested we need to remember Jesus’ words – that what we do for the “least of these” we do for him … and he suggested it’s not just that we need to “be Jesus” to those in need, but we must realize they are being Jesus to us … if we have eyes to see Jesus in them.
Anyway, I started scribbling down a second and third verse to that song, inspired by what people around me embody in their service to people in great need. Let me know if any of you every try using it (feel free to improve upon it first!) in gatherings somewhere … and let me know how it is received.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open they eyes of my heart.
I want to see you. I want to see you.
To see you low and beaten down … in the homeless, sick, and lonely,
In the suffering and oppressed, we see you lowly, lowly, lowly …
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open they eyes of my heart.
I want to see you. I want to see you.
In what we do for them – the least of your sisters and brothers,
We also do for you, in the outcast and the lowly
Lowly, lowly, lowly …