Ministry to Children

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From Water to Spirit and Truth

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)-John 4:9

This woman went to the well late. Usually one would draw water first thing in the morning, but she went at noon time. She was alone at the well and most likely she wanted to be alone. She had good reasons to do this. It was better this way. She chose to separate herself from others voluntarily. However, Jesus disrupted her plans.

The conversation between them is really interesting. They were both talking at different levels. Jesus initiated the conversation at the material level and brought it up from there. She was trying to keep things at a material level. She wanted to keep the conversation on the subject of water. Water was just an excuse the Lord used to bring this woman to new level of spirituality. Jesus wanted to her to become a true worshiper.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.-John 4:23-24

This verse above is the heart of the story. In order to get to this point, it was necessary for this woman to recognize that Jesus had something to give. However, Jesus could not give her anything until she was willing to face the Truth about herself. And she did. She confessed that she had five husbands and was presently in an adulterous relationship. This was why she went to the well late. It was not because she was a Samaritan. They were in Samaritan city and there was no need for them to hide from the Jews. However, her circumstances made her an outcast among a people who were already marginalized. She was considered the lowest of the lowest. Yet, she was the person with whom Jesus chose to share the Truth. She was not ready for it until she admitted to him why she was marginalized. The surprising twist is that Jesus did not dwell on this. He just wanted her to know that He knew about her life and this did not change His mind. She was still His candidate to become a true worshiper.

Jesus started the conversation with water and brought the conversation level up to true meaning of worship. He really knows how to talk up. It started with water, one of the basic material elements and the discussion went on to speak about the essence of God being Spirit. Today the conversations in the Church seem to go the other way round. It seems like everything is being reduced to materialistic notions. Success is gauged on materialistic standards. Today the person that Christians want to emulate is no longer the saint who embraced poverty but the financially successful businessman. I know a group of Christians who skipped an important Church service to attend a talk on how to become a millionaire in five years. If they were at the well with Jesus, they would left Him there and went to this conference. 

In the church, we are still talking about water when Jesus wants to take the conversation upwards to worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. We will never hear the words of Jesus unless we are willing to leave behind our materialistic desires. We cannot have the best both worlds. For the true worshiper, only knowing how to worship in Spirit and Truth can satisfy the soul.

In our ministry, we see the failure of the materialistic mindset. It is not a compassionate mindset. It is a mindset that does not have room for mistakes or failures. Jesus approached a woman who was considered a failure in this world. She failed five times in her marriages and yet she was His choice to be a true worshiper.  God is Spirit and He is not confined by our materialistic notions of success or failure. He is defined by one thing and one thing only. St. John tells us that God is Love. Love is the standard by which God defines a successful person. It is the standard by which we learn to become true worshipers of God.

 

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Cooking with Yuri: Suelen’s Story

But when I looked for good, evil came to me; And when I waited for light, then came darkness.-Job 30:26

Many things have happened since we last cooked with Yuri. However, I cannot give a proper update without telling the story of Yuri’s courageous sister, Suelen. In my previous post about Yuri, I mentioned that Yuri’s father abandoned the family when the children were very young. Then something tragic happened to one of the boys in the family which changed their lives forever. It was something that hit the national news but I don’t think that it is appropriate for me to go into the details here. It was the final straw for their mother and she lost all grasp of reality. She started using crack and eventually ended up living in the streets in Cracolândia. The children were left to themselves with no adult presence. The three boys accepted their so-called fate and became homeless in the streets where they engaged in crime and drug abuse. Sueli was left alone with her youngest sister who was barely nine years old. Suelen herself was only about fifteen. She refused to allow circumstance to determine her life. She refused to consider homelessness as an option. She wanted to take care of her little sister. In this vulnerable state, she got involved with young man who initially appeared to be a godsend but then out to be a nightmare.  He was physically abusive and got involved with drug trafficking. She had a son with him. When she turned 18, she decided to leave him. She packed her bags and left her boyfriend with her child and youngest sister but they had no place to go.

This was about the time the team met Suelen. Yuri was incarcerated and he wanted to get in touch with his sister whom he considered as his only chance for a better life. The team took all the information we had regarding Suelen and searched for her. It took a while but we finally found her taking shelter in single room which was actually rented by another friend. This friend was a physically handicapped man who lived on his disability check which was hardly anything.  However, with the little he had, he opened up his home which was a tiny room for Suelen and her family. This man did this without any hidden intentions. It was out of pure generosity. The team managed to find ways to get Suelen the help she needed and she eventually rented a small apartment in the outskirts of São Paulo. Suelen never asked for a single cent. She worked for everything. Our mission managed to raise some funds to pay for the youngest sister’s school uniform and other educational expenses. Suelen eventually met a younger man whom she married and now they can support the household with two incomes. They earn enough to survive and provide a safe environment for the children but it is still quite financially fragile. Suelen unexpectedly became pregnant and this happened at the same time as Yuri got out of the Juvenile Detention Center. Sueli and her husband opened their tiny apartment up for him.

Everything seem to be going well for Suelen and her family then all of a sudden her long-lost mother showed up at her doorstep looking very pregnant. Suelen was expecting to deliver her child in two months time and her mother was due at the same time. Her mother was still a crack addict and has no intentions of giving up the habit. However, she wants Suelen to take care of her child. She made it clear that she was going to leave her child with Suelen and return to the streets. Sueli and her husband do not know what to do at this moment. However, Suelen knows that she cannot feed another mouth in her household. Yuri needs to return to school and complete his probation before he can get a job. Sueli’s mother is not mentally stable and does not think rationally.

I cited the verse from Job because I have been meeting a lot of Jobs recently. Suelen is a Job. She did not ask or deserve these troubles and sufferings. They just happened. There is no magic wand to wave and change this situation. Suelen and her husband want to get ahead in life but they have to consider what that means. Many of us limit the idea of getting ahead to finances. However, this is not going to happen for them. They are earning too low to even imagine a moment in their lives where they will be financially secure. If Suelen and her husband want to become financially stable they would have to kick Yuri out of the house and refuse to take care of the mother’s new child (her sibling). Only then, they might be able to get somewhere financially but they would lose their souls.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?-Matthew 16:26

Tough decisions await Suelen and her family and she called and talked to us about this. She does not expect us to have the answer. We are grateful for this because we have no answer. However, she wants to know where God is in the midst of it. She is not angry with God. Suelen has gone through enough in this life to know that God is present in the midst of all this. Sueli is a living testimony of God’s gracious presence in her life. She survived the odds to get where she is right now. She has actually ahead of us spiritually. She has experienced God’s goodness in ways which we cannot imagine. Through her troubles, she did not say “no” to Life even when everything around was teeming with negativity. Suelen is a Job and we called to be her friends in this difficult time. However, we don’t want to repeat the mistake of Job’s friends. She asks us to walk with her to discover the courage to say “Yes” to Life. We are going to wait with her to discover God as the foundation of our strength.

We are going to cook with Yuri this week again.

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When Better is not Good Enough

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. -John 3:1-3

Nicodemus was a seeker of the Truth. He saw a spirituality in Jesus that was new and unique. He wanted to better himself. He wanted to know more about Jesus’ doctrines so that he could be a better person. However, Jesus basically told him that better was just not good enough.

Jesus did not wait for Nicodemus to ask his question. He knew immediately the nature of the visit. Jesus did not preach a message of detachment from the world. This was the teaching of the Buddha. He too agreed with Jesus that better was not good enough. However, Jesus gave a very different answer to the spiritual problem. He told Nicodemus that one needs to be born of the spirit.  It was contrary to detachment from the world. Being born of the spirit was coming back to this life with all its problems and injustices with new understanding of reality. Christianity does not promise a change in the political and social structures of the world. There was very little said of social reforms in the gospels. However, it does talk about the person being transformed to see reality in a new Light. We cannot follow or even understand the teachings of Jesus without this new understanding. Those who limit themselves to doctrinal understanding of the faith are settling for a better spirituality or religion. Jesus tells us that this is not enough; better is just not good enough.

This is true in all aspects. In our work, the homeless would not leave the streets for better conditions. Better for them is not worth leaving the streets. They desire something new. In fact, people in all phases of life are always talking about change. They are always talking about the new or reinventing themselves. It seems like we know instinctively that we need something new. The old has shown itself to be lacking. However, we cannot create the new within ourselves. Churches or any religion cannot give or even usher the new. This is something beyond us. We cannot domesticate the forces that bring about the new.

Jesus said: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(John 3:8)

The new that transforms our hearts and minds can only be done through the Spirit. No one has monopoly of the Spirit. The best we can do is to prepare ourselves for the Spirit. If we invest our time and energy in the old things or values that keep us imprison in the things of this reality, then we won’t be aware of the presence of the Spirit. Those who are seeking the new are aware of the futility of the old. These will understand the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes when he professed, “Vanity of vanities; All is vanity.”  Seeing the futility of the old is really the prerequisite that helps us prepare for the new.

We cannot produce the new within ourselves or others. All we can do is prepare ourselves to meet the One who can transform us from within. The preparation is knowing that we are part of the new. Many in the streets have seen the futility of the old but they do not know that they can be part of the new. However, the new has a place of them. This is the good news. The New is open to all but only few seek it.

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Deliver Us from False Optimism

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.-John 8:32

Over the past few months, we have been visiting a family that is living in a tiny abandoned house in a city outside of São Paulo. We met this family through one of the sons who lived in the streets. Presently he is incarcerated for dealing drugs. Unfortunately his two older brothers are also in detention centers for the same crime. We are working with this family to help them stop the cycle. However, we can see why the three older boys left this household. It was due to their living conditions. The streets were better than living in their house and yet this is all they have. They do not have a functioning sewage and consequently there are puddles of sewage water in the house. The walls of the rooms are moldy.  Besides this, there is hardly any privacy for the family members. This house is not fit for living but they do not have much of a choice. There are still three children ages 7 to 11 that are in danger of following the older siblings’ example. This is why we are working with this family. We want to stop these young ones from running away to the streets and embracing a life of crime and addiction.

One day the father of the household informed us that he had a leaky roof which was causing the house to flood even more. We asked him what he needed to fix the leak and he told us that fifty prefabricated roofing sheets should do the job. We got the money together and bought the sheets. When the day came for us to help him install the sheets, we saw the real problem for the leak. There were hardly any tiles on the roof. The materials we had were insufficient. We were shocked and a little discouraged. However, the father was optimistic. He was confident that what we had was sufficient to stop the leak. He was insistent that it would work but he was wrong. No amount of enthusiasm and optimism was going to change this fact. Some people would mistake this optimism as faith. However, Faith has nothing to do with false optimism. Having said this, none of us had the heart to take this false optimism away from him. It is this false optimism that sustains him. It gives him hope each morning to get out of bed. This man works hard but he does not earn enough to rent a house and feed his family. He can only do one or the other. He chooses to be optimistic because it is the only way he is able to put on a smile and face harsh reality. However, it would be foolish of us to confuse the smile for evidence of happiness.

Why is the Truth important? Why not just let the poor man continue in his false optimism? The poor man wants to be happy. He is seeking happiness like anyone else. He deserves to be happy. This is why the Truth need to be spoken.

True Happiness comes from knowing the Truth. The first step is perhaps to confront this false optimism. Falsity cannot be the foundation of any happiness. It can only lead to illusion and complete breakdown of the human spirit. Our motivation to work with this family is Love. It is not Love that comes from our own sense of morality but it is fruit of our own personal quest to know the Truth. Truth helped us understand the meaning of Love. Therefore, we cannot love someone honestly if we are going to abandon them to the destructive consequences of false optimism.

We don’t have the monopoly of the Truth. We need to seek Truth together with this man. His false optimism has made us question our own notions of happiness. It made us question whether we are putting all our eggs in the wrong basket, a basket that does not exist. It makes us wonder whether we are not succumbing to false optimism. We need to challenge ourselves with the Truth. We don’t go to this family thinking we know everything. We only know that our happiness lies in the Truth and we need to have courage to tear down the walls of false optimism to seek it. Love is the key that helps unlock the Truth. When we allow Love to bring us to places and people to serve, we find ourselves walking closer to the Truth. It frees us from the shackles of false optimism.

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The Temptations of Life

After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.-Matt 4:1-11

Like most people, I was hooked on the series, Breaking Bad, for a while at least. For those who don’t know what I am talking about, Breaking bad is a series about a high school teacher, Walter White, who was the epitome of an average guy with regular family and work issues until he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Then he decided to do something radical. He used his talent as a gifted chemist to manufacture methamphetamine to be sold illegally. His primary reason for doing this was to ensure that his family would be financially stable when he dies. Eventually, his cancer went into remission, unfortunately by this time, he had bigger problems than his cancer. He became addicted to power and wanted to become a powerful drug kingpin. I heard an interview with one of the main actors in the series and he was amazed to find the number of people rooting for Walter White regardless of what he had done. I think it is because people can identify with Walter White. He is a family man who looked out for his family. This appears to be a noble cause but appearances can be deceiving. I was reminded of the story of Walter White when I reflected on the gospel text for this week (Matthew 4:1-11).

I have read the story of the temptation of Christ countless times. I often read it as if it was something Jesus experienced in a mystical way and had very little to do with our practical existence. However, for some reason, it hit me today that this story is really about our day to day practical living.

In the New Testament times, cities were a safe place and the desert was a place where you were left unprotected. It was not a place of retreat, but a place of confrontation with brutal forces of nature. Jesus went into the wilderness to reflect on the harsh reality of life. In the wilderness, all the facade of life fades away and you are faced with the Truth. In the face of Truth, a decision awaits each of us. Jesus waited for years before he went into the wilderness. You need some preparation to face the harsh Truth of life. Unfortunately, not everyone is prepared when entering the wilderness. Some are pushed into the wilderness too soon and forced to make decisions without any understanding and wisdom like the homeless children in our ministry. Some try their best to avoid the wilderness. They choose to live their lives on the surface where it is safe. Unfortunately for these, they will never experience Life.  The wilderness is not an option. We have to go through the wilderness if we want to live an abundant life. We have to go into it prepared to face the devil. The devil waits for us in the wilderness.

I just want to focus on the first temptation in this posting. It is the most reasonable temptation. Jesus was hungry and he had the power to transform stones into bread. So, why not do it?

The answer to this question is that which separates us from the world. If we believe that God is God, then God needs to be real in our everyday situation. If we believe that God is good, then we need to trust His goodness in our everyday existence. If our faith in God does not inform our everyday decisions, then it is pretty much useless. Faith becomes nothing more than a theoretical exercise. In the wilderness, we decide what kind of God we want to trust. Jesus thought that it was pointless to trust in a theoretical God in our harsh reality. He trusted in the living God who is present in His life in a real way.

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The very notion of a God who speaks is to show us that God acts in our lives. God’s words are synonymous with actions. His speaking reveals that He speaks into our reality. He is a personal God. This is the part that most good people (agnostics and otherwise) have a hard time with. We need faith to see God acting in our very existence. The devil wants to reduce God into something theoretical. He is quite successful. In this world, we have many theoretical theists and practical atheists.

Many, if not all, of the homeless children and adults have faith in a doctrinal God. A God who watches over them but is helpless to help them transform their existential situation. This God is not worthy our adoration because he is not active in our reality. The God of Jesus is a God who acts in our reality. Jesus did not need to abuse the power He was given to get what He wanted.  Those who use scripture and religion to get what they want do not believe in the God of Jesus. In order to believe the God of Jesus we have to trust that He will act. Not in a whimsical way. He acts in the harsh reality of our lives. It is not easy to trust in this God. The devil offers an easy way out. This is always the choice offered in the wilderness; the easy way to self-destruction or the hard way to abundant life where we see God in action.

 

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Regaining our Humanity Through Repentance

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”- Mark 1:15

This was the sermon Jesus preached at the beginning of his ministry according to the gospel of Mark. The message is simple but it is hard to preach. We are afraid to preach the message of repentance because it sounds judgmental. It is easier for us to speak about the compassion and love of God and avoid the subject of repentance. We like to leave it for the last. Jesus began his ministry with the message of repentance. The gospel Jesus preached was a message of Love and Compassion and Repentance is the very core of the gospel. To omit the message of repentance is to dilute the meaning of the gospel. It is inevitable. We need to preach about repentance if we want to see the power of the evangelical message manifested in our lives.

Jesus did not preach the gospel shouting at people on a street corner to repent. Perhaps we would like to imagine he did this at the sermon on the mount. We forget that people who heard Jesus preached said that he did it with authority. It was this authority that drew people to listen to Jesus even when he had harsh words to say. Whenever I see people so-called preaching in the streets, I don’t see people being drawn to the preacher. At best people might walk pass and feel sorry for the good-intentioned soul and at worse they might think he is a lunatic and make fun of him.

What was Jesus’ authority?

It was not knowledge because the pharisees and scribes had knowledge as well. It was not credentials because Jesus had none. The only difference between Jesus and the spiritual leaders of his time was that Jesus had compassion. The gospel records in numerous accounts when Jesus was moved with compassion. Compassion and love are inseparable. It is different from feeling pity or sorry. Feeling sorry for someone does not move us into action. In fact, it is quite condescending. No one wants people to feel sorry for them. Compassion is different. It moves our soul. It makes us try to understand. It makes us walk with those who suffer and walk alone.

Our message of repentance must flow out of genuine compassion. Most of the homeless children and adults are in the streets for variety of reasons. They are not responsible for many things that led them to the streets but they still need to repent. The meaning of repentance is a change of lifestyle. Our friends who are homeless have to recognize that they have made the choice to use drugs, steal and reject their families and friends.  They chose a destructive lifestyle even though they might not have had many choices. It is important for them to know that they made a choice to be in the streets because it helps them gain control of their lives. Recognizing that they had a choice gives them back their humanity. When we neglect to preach a message of repentance to these littles ones, then we continue to dehumanize them. We continue to subject them to the lie that they are helpless victims. Repentance presents a choice to them. It gives a choice to be free from the lies and shackles that dehumanize them. It is the first step towards regaining their humanity.

Repentance is universal. It does not matter who we are, we can be a homeless person or a CEO of prosperous company. Repentance is applicable to everyone. It demands that we ask ourselves whether our life choices are bringing about the person that God intended us to be. Are we reflecting the image of God in our lives in all areas?

Most of the homeless people have forgotten that they can make choices. We are here to remind that they are humans and that they can make choices. However, only Love can give them the courage to make the choice for repentance.  We cannot preach the gospel effectively to the homeless, the prisoners, the orphans and the widows if we do not love them. It is love that is going to help them hear the message of repentance. It is love that is going to give them the strength to repent. There cannot be true healing in the lives of these people without repentance and they cannot hear the message of repentance if it is not preached with compassion and love.

 

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Cooking with Yuri

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. -Romans 8:5-6

Last Tuesday, all the men from the team went to visit a fifteen year old boy, Yuri, to teach him how to cook. You never know where this work in the streets might lead you. It led us to the kitchen in a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of São Paulo.

It was the first time I met Yuri even though I have heard about him for months. The team has known him since he was ten years old. His father abandoned the family at a young age. His mother remarried and her husband died suddenly which led to his mother having a nervous breakdown and disappeared. Almost all the kids in the Yuri’s family left for the streets except for their oldest sister, Suely. Yuri wasn’t always a pleasant boy in the streets and was deeply involved in theft and drug trafficking.  Eventually he ended up in the juvenile detention center where our team spent months visiting him. It was in the center where Yuri had the chance to seriously think about his life. He wanted to change. He himself admitted that he needed to change the way he thinks.

Yuri was released from the center about a month ago. His sister was able to receive him into her simple home which she shares with her husband. However,  he only stayed there for a week. Boredom got the best of him and he decided to visit his old friends. One thing led to another and Yuri almost got arrested. He did not succumbed to drug trafficking but he was with people who did. The police decided to let him go but it shook Yuri up. He got in touch with us and asked us to help him to change his ways. He returned to his sister’s house and we visited with him. We encouraged Yuri to learn how to be a contributing member of the household. We decided together that the best way he could help the family was to cook for his sister while she was at work.

My first impression of Yuri was that I could not imagine this sweet boy being involved in any crime. He cleaned the kitchen for us so that we would have a clean place to work. He was willing to learn even though it was a little awkward for him to be working in the kitchen. In his cultural environment, the women always did the cooking. We used our food preparation time to disciple Yuri.  We spoke about practical implications of changing one’s way of thinking. Yuri wanted to change but he just did not have any idea how change would come about. We told him that changes can be gradual or radical and in his situation, he might have to make a radical change from his past which includes leaving behind friends who can be bad influences. Yuri listened intently. He did not say anything but he listened. This is the first step.

It is also our first step moving into an area that requires much reflection and thought on our part. No matter how we look at it there can be no genuine change without repentance. We need to preach the message of repentance to Yuri. However, we need to know how to preach it in a way that he can act upon it. No room for generalities. We have to speak to his heart. For this, we need to spend more time cooking with Yuri.

 

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Our Visit with Veronica

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.-John 13:34

For those who do not know the story of Veronica, I wrote about her in our introductory post of this blog (see link below). However, I will give the nutshell version here; Veronica was a homeless girl whom we met about 20 years ago. She was ten years old then. She left the streets and lived in our missionary community until she became an adult. Today Veronica is 30 years old. She lives in a city called Ponta Grossa which is in the southern Brazilian State called Paraná. We travelled ten hours by bus to visit her last week.

Veronica came to this city from São Paulo with almost nothing. She worked in a Drug Rehabilitation Center for a few years and she eventually got a position as an advocate for abused and abandoned children. Veronica had firsthand knowledge of the plight and suffering of these children but she lacked any formal training in the legal matters concerning her work. A particular director of a social program saw Veronica’s potential and helped her to get scholarships for training programs.  This eventually perked her interest in Law and now she is due to completing her Law degree.

Veronica had planned a busy schedule for us in Ponta Grossa. There was a list of people she wanted us to meet. For Veronica, we are her spiritual parents and she wanted to show her parents all the good things that had happened in her life. Needless to say, we could not keep to the schedule due to time restraints. However, we saw enough to realize how God has transformed this homeless girl into a rich child of God in this city. Her treasures are where neither rust, moth or thieves could steal.

One visit that marked me was with a single mother with a two year old toddler. Veronica was the godmother of this child. Veronica met this young mother when she was about to get an abortion. Abortion is available in Brazil even though it is officially illegal (personally, I don’t how this works). Veronica had a long talk with this young woman and managed to talk her out of the abortion. The young woman herself was an adopted child of a wealthy family in the city but for some reason, she was estranged from the family. They had practically abandoned her. She was squatting in an abandoned house and had no financial resources. She was planning to use pills to effect an abortion. However, she really wanted to keep the baby but was afraid that she could not manage financially and emotionally.

Veronica used her own personal money to help this woman rent a small apartment.  She also supported her emotionally during her pregnancy. The family eventually took their adopted daughter back after the birth of the child and assumed financial responsibility for her. When we visited this young mother, she was truly happy to see Veronica and she gave all of us warm hugs. Most importantly, we saw the baby boy sleeping peacefully in his bed. This boy wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Veronica’s willingness to be God’s instrument of compassion and love to this young woman. This was something Veronica did privately and no one knows about it, not even her husband. Veronica wanted us to see it. It was something special she wanted to share with us.

We met many people like this young woman who were blessed by Veronica’s kindness and generosity. However, the most powerful sign of her willingness to God’s instrument was the young toddler sleeping in his crib. The baby is alive because this young girl twenty years ago said “yes” to God. Veronica is forever part of this young child’s life and so are we through her. God has made us rich indeed.

Read the story of Veronica on our Introduction Post:

Introductions

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Thoughts on the Passing of my Father

“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”- Ephesians 6:2-3

One of the toughest things about being in foreign missions is leaving behind loved ones. It did not take long for me to realize that life goes on for my friends and families even when I am not there. Life waits for no one and it keeps moving on until death comes along. Death has a way of making us come to a standstill and ponder life.

Last Sunday evening, my week looked like any ordinary week. We had our ministerial work planned out for the week. I had some plans to complete reading some books so that I could start on a new one. I already had ideas about my blog postings. Then Monday morning the call came. My sister called to say that my father had suffered a heart attack and was on the way to the hospital. While she was going into the details, she received another phone call.  My father had passed away there and then. He was 86 years old. There was silence between us and a sense of emptiness.

My father was living in Singapore and I have been away from Singapore for twenty years. All these years, I have never lived in the same continent as my father. Yet it was comforting to know that he was in Singapore. He was part of my spiritual foundation. Now he is gone.

My father was a hardworking man, but not more so than the average person. He was a product of his time and culture. Outwardly, there was nothing spectacular about him that would set him apart from the others. Every night before he went to bed when he thought that all the children were asleep, my father would pray by himself quietly. I was born a night owl and I would stay awake and spy on my father praying. I observed how he prayed quietly and it sounded like he was mumbling some secret words. I waited for him to go to bed and I would mimic his actions. I would make soft mumbling sounds which I thought was the magic of prayer. Thankfully, I matured in my prayer life and learned how to pray, but my father was my first teacher.  It was my father’s quiet spirituality that thought me to be aware of God’s presence. My father never intentionally taught us about prayer. He never tried to encourage us to pray. He did it through his actions. He just lived his life and his spirituality was the foundation of all his actions.

As a committed Catholic, he went to church every Sunday even though he was not a big fan of the Roman Catholic Church. However, he always joked about leaving the Roman Church to join the Anglican Church which horrified my mother. In his humorous way, he added fuel to the fire by threatening to take me along to the Anglican tradition. I was only seven years old then. Eventually I did join the Anglican Church and it was my father who was horrified. Then I made things worse when I told him that I wanted to be an Anglican priest ( I was 20 then). He was not happy about it but he knew that it was beyond his control. Then my mother passed away from cancer. It was during this time that my father had a change of heart. He saw my vocational calling in a different light. I discerned that my priestly vocation was leading me to the mission fields in South America and my father accepted my decision without any resistance. The day I left for missions, he asked if he could go to the airport to say goodbye. My father is not one to do things like this. However, he wanted to be there so that I would know that I am going to missions with his blessing. I left Singapore in 1993 for missionary work and I knew that I wouldn’t return to live in Singapore anymore. I knew that it would be the last time I would live on the same continent as my father. My father knew this as well, even though we never spoke about it.

The things that I remember most of my father now are those things that reflect his quiet spirituality. He was compassionate person. He had a strong sense of justice and he did not hold a grudge against anyone. He lived during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. He was traumatized by the cruelty that he had witnessed. Yet, he was not bitter against anyone. I attributed all this to the quiet time he spent in prayer. He did not ask God to change his situation or circumstances. My father prayed to be aware of God’s presence in his life. This is the legacy I received from my father. I pray everyday to be aware of God’s presence where I serve.

Francis Dass    September 1,1927-February 10, 2014

 

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Better than Silver and Gold

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.-Acts 3:6-8

Today a young girl named Ana Paula asked us what we have to offer to help her leave the streets.  We were little taken aback when we heard this, not because of the question. It is just that Ana Paula rarely engages in any conversation with us. We were surprised that she asked us this decisive question.

Ana Paula is a young adult who had spent most of her childhood in the streets. She does not have any family except for her boyfriend. Igor, her boyfriend, is also an orphan and had spent his childhood in the streets. He has been in and out of the juvenile detention center for several years. Recently, he seemed to have stopped all criminal activities. He even tried to find a job as a cleaner. Perhaps together they have been seriously thinking about finding a way out of the street life. Henceforth, Ana Paula wanted to know what we have to offer.

There are so many social agencies working in the streets. Each group has something different to offer, perhaps a special program to help those living in the streets. It is only natural for Ana Paula to think that we are just like them. She thought that we must have something different to offer as well. Unlike us, most of the non-governmental organizations have silver and gold backing up their programs. We don’t have a social program nor the silver or gold to start one. Nevertheless, we still have something to offer. We do not go to the streets empty handed. The story from the biblical text above is rich in meaning and I believe that gives us a strong foundation for any Christian missionary work, local or otherwise.

Peter has seen this beggar many times. At this particular moment when Peter passed him, the beggar was expecting something from Peter. Perhaps he was asking the same question with his look as Ana Paula asked, “What have you to offer to help me?” Peter gave him the answer. The answer marks the difference between Christian missionary work and social work. We need silver and gold to be successful in social work but Christian missionary work can only be successful if we understand Peter’s answer.

Many things can be said about this healing incident. I have to limit myself here. Today we have a very superficial understanding of healing. Our understanding of healing is  limited to physical healing. We have doctors today to do this. However, doctors cannot heal the soul. The gospel heals the soul. Critics of our work tell us that social workers are more qualified to do our work. They are right if we are trying to do social work. However, we are here to offer the one thing that social workers cannot offer. We are here to offer what we have received. We are recipients of God’s healing. God’s healing has a name and His Name is Jesus. We present the Healer that brings wholeness to our lives has a Name. This Name is only powerful to those who have experienced His healing power in their own lives. If you think that this healing is purely spiritual and has nothing to do with practical life, then you have not experienced the healing power of Jesus. The man healed by the words of Peter was transformed completely. He could no longer return to his old way of living. Healing that the gospel proclaims changes our practical life. It cannot be the gospel if it does not do this.

We gave Ana Paula an answer. His Name is Jesus. We did not preach to her. We did not bring her to a church. Neither did we try to convince her to read the Bible. We told her why we were in the streets. We don’t have silver and gold. Silver and gold did not bring us to where we are today. We have one thing to offer and it is better than anything the world has to offer to her.

Ana Paula did understand what we were offering. She knew that she could not take advantage of all the social programs available for her if she was not healed first. Many of the social agencies have good things to offer but Ana Paula does not believe that she is worthy or capable of achieving any success in this life. She needs to be healed. She needs what we have to offer. We can only offer what we have received. Silver and gold cannot match what we have received from God.

 

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