This is is a blog that I wrote last month but the internet was down so I couldn’t post it. We have safely made it to South Africa and are headed to Mozambique tomorrow. Pray for safe travels and safely as we camp in the bush.
The homeless. The poor, the ones we have forgotten about. We pass by then on the streets everyday. They must’ve done something wrong to be on the streets like that. They’re probably drug addicts, abusers, liars, cheats. I’m sure some of you have made those judgments. I did. But that all changed when I got to know them for who they really are.
Have some of these people abused drugs and broken the law? Probably. But that didn’t change the fact that God allowed me to look at them with the eyes of Jesus, with love. Day in and day out I would see these people come into the Kawan Center to get food and rest. More than physical hunger I could see they were so hungry just for a friend, someone to share their stories with. My favorite times were when we would go out on the streets at night and just hang out with them in the territory. That’s when they really opened up and shared their lives and hearts with us.
Dave Brown has an awesome account of his friendship with Steven, a refugee who watched his family get brutally murdered as victims of genocide.
I remember one night after a long conversation with Bill (I changed his name for confidentiality), he said “Are you hungry?” I’ve never been asked that by a homeless man. Then he gave us a Malay dessert. I’m pretty sure if I were homeless I would not be giving up my food.
The police in Penang don’t like the homeless to be living on the streets so once a week they do a “sweep”, and come by in a big truck and pick them up off the street, and throw them in a jail off the island. They stay there for about one month to three years, until they’re released back onto the streets. This was the reality of all the people that we met. They would have to hide or run on “sweep” nights.
Kawan means friend in Malay and that’s what we were to the people we met. We were friends. As I grew to know these people I learned that my judgments were wrong, and in turn, as I served them, they taught me more about compassion and grace, which was ten times greater than anything I gave them. It’s funny how when you serve you get served in return.
