A break

It is the last weekend before the end of term. I have been tidying and getting ready for teen-group today. There is one more week to go before the summer holidays and more than ever do I feel the need for a break.
Yet, there is so much to do. At half past seven this morning a local believer came by to ask for a loan. She wants to buy a goat-kid and raise it so that in nine months time she can have more kids (goats) and start moving out of poverty.
The way out of dependency is long and filled with risks; a goat is so easy to steal, and so easy for her husband or son to sell if they need a little money. It has to be cared for almost like a child and all of that just so that the family has a little more food - in nine months time.
Twenty five years ago some poor families were given a piece of land to live on. It wasn't clear to everybody who the land belonged to or what right they had to be there – or perhaps it was - but today, these families live on land that is worth millions of taka and yet remain poor because they can't come to an agreement with the legal owner - a church - about who has the Right to the land.
Twenty five years ago it was a good gift that someone gave these poor families, today they are no better of because somewhere during these years they decided they wanted all the land for themselves; and the church decided it wanted it back.
I know these two aren't related, except for that they are part of poverty, but it is with fear and trembling that I give a loan (US$ 10, GB£ 5 or DKK 50) to someone so that she can buy a goat. Not that I doubt her intentions, not that I doubt her need, but I sincerely doubt that poverty will concede defeat and give her the break she so sorely needs.
May God have mercy upon her.