Some things I’m learning.
It is such blessing to be able to speak the language of the people you try to minister to. Yes we have translators, but they’re not always around.
So many people live on so little. Each day as we pass by the markets, we see the same people, sitting in the same shop, doing nothing but waiting for the next customer, selling nothing but a few fruits and vegetables and beans. For so many people here there is no hope of doing more than what they’re now doing. It is such a blessing to have an education and so many opportunities in the states. Literally, to have anything at all is a blessing and worth thanking God for. If I were in the places of some of these people, I wouldn’t even try to live; I’d sit down in one spot and wait till I die.
And about those people who are believers… I see them in their poverty and how their circumstances require them to just work work work… or not, or just try to live with what meager goods they have, and yet the Lord loves them just as much as He loves me. They rest content, why do I feel like I’m always having to do something for God and then feel bad when I miss my daily bible reading or something? Seriously? Quit striving! Sometimes I feel like I’m still living under the fear of God instead of for the love of God, but only sometimes. Still, though.
I’m also realizing just how tight the chains of poverty can be, that once it has you it is truly a trap, and breaking those chains require a massive community effort, many resources and much time. I understand that a community can not be changed simply by throwing money at it, if for no other reason than most people wouldn’t know how to manage it effectively – corruption, theft and irresponsible behavior notwithstanding. Rather, the end of poverty and the redemption of a people in bondage begins with changed mindsets and changed hearts.
As we’re working in the nastiest slum in the city, I’ve begun to understand why God, when giving the law to the Israelites through Moses, places such a heavy emphasis on cleanliness and purification. Cleanliness is an anomaly in the world; mankind, in general, is dirty, and wherever we are is, in general, polluted. If you want to have a clean community then, it does take a concerted, community effort and mutual understanding of expected standards. For example, the Israelites are commanded to clean and purify themselves and everything else with them before entering the camp after returning from war. (Read Numbers 19:31-34.) In the same way, we are having to be extremely conscientious of our cleanliness when re-entering our… habitat; we don’t want any of the disease or filth of Guachupita to contaminate our living spaces and make people sick. Our first priority when we return is bathing and getting clean. If we could do all that before entering the property, we would. We’ve even thrown the idea around of sleeping separately from the rest of the group, just to be doubly safe for everyone else’s health. So God was not giving needless rules our trying to be a heavy-handed taskmaster over the Israelites by inundating them in cleanliness rules, but was showing them ways to promote public health for the greater good of the community.
Numbers 31:19-24:
19 “All of you who have killed anyone or touched anyone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives. 20 Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood. ”
21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is the requirement of the law that the Lord gave Moses: 22 Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead 23 and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water. 24 On the seventh day wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp. ”
