We have recently had a situation unfold that reveals once again the difficulties and struggles for the poor of the world.
There is a couple, Rose and Chris, we have known them for perhaps the whole time we have been in Baseco. When we first met them they had two little boys, Christian and Barnie. Since then they have had three more children – Jim Boy, Eli (whom I call “Girlfriend”) and just recently they had a little girl, Christine, a couple of weeks old.
Chris has always worked really hard carrying vegetables up and down the markets all night, earning 150p per night (AUD 3.50) 7 nights of the week. He has been a good dad and a good husband, in a world where most of the men are definetly not the best examples of manhood, Chris has been a good guy and a good friend to myself and Christine.
But, poverty puts incredible pressures upon people. Imagine working 7 nights per week for AUD 3.50 per night, long, hard, heavy work…and yet you are still unable to improve your living standards for your family, you can’t afford schooling, if a medical problem comes up, you have to borrow money for the medicines and it will never change for you…this is it. You have no education, no rich friends, you have being doing this for years…this is your life. Nothing is secure or certain, you live day by day, hoping there is no great emergencey or drama that comes along and messes everything up.
If that was you, and there came a chance for some quick cash, something that would ease the pressure, if only for a week or so – would you take it…?
In the last few months Chris, got involved with the wrong crowd, criminals. They began to hatch plans to rob some of the rich businessmen in the local markets. They carry out the plan and succeed in getting 5,000p each (AUD 125, more than a months wages). Due to the success they hatch another plan, this one fails and Chris gets caught, all the other guys escape. Chris gets a good beating from the crowd and the local authorities and is then jailed in the local lockup. The lockup provides no food or water for prisoners and Chris shares a 5m square cell with 50-60 other guys. He can be there for a month or so before he goes to a real jail.
I went to visit him and as I looked in his eyes and saw two things – terror, absolute fear and secondly, innocence.
The fear was there because he though he was going to be “SALVAGED”. A salvage is when the rich person who you tried to rob pays people to kill you, as this is much cheaper and quicker than going through the courts. The suspect will dissappear (or escape) from the cells and be found a week or so later floating in the Pasay River. It’s a well known and common practice as the rich deal out justice to the poor.
The Innonence was God showing me that Chris had no understanding, no idea at all of the consiquences of his actions. He did the crime, but it was like his heart was still clean – he is not a bad person.
With the threat of salvage a real possibility, me and Marco get involved. We are in the police station at 3am the next morning, talking with the cops, eating, drinking with them, hanging around – getting to know them and letting everyone know that we are interested in Chris. This makes it harder for him to dissappear, especially as a white guy is involved. It seems to work and the salvage oeration does not happen. Chris will go to jail and may well be locked up for 10-15 years. Chris will survive jail, as he is young and very strong. He will get fed once he gets in there and will have shelter…he will be ok….
BUT WHAT ABOUT ROSE AND THE KIDS…he was their sole provider. There is no social security here, how will she survive. She will begin with relatives and friends, asking for help, daily food and milk for her kids, but they will all eventually get sick of giving day after day, she will go from organisation to organisation looking for help – some with give sporadic assistance, but it will stop. Then she will begin selling whatever things she has, but she will run out of stuff to sell. Her kids will begin to get hungry, become thin, what can she do…? Maybe she will prostitute herself, she has to get money some how. The foreigners come and prey upon people like her all the time, she will survive for a while doing this, but what will the cost be – HIV, disease. If she gets sick and dies, what happens to her kids, will they siply have no choice but to follow a similar path…tough life, tough choices. What would you do…? How would you survive…?
The only good thing about Chris and Rose, is that God has us here. From the time of Chris being incarcerated and for maybe the next 15 years, we will supply her every need. Money, food, clothing and all of the extras needed for life. We won’t just give her enough to get by on…we will give her more than enough, just like Jesus did for us. When we work in our countries we want enough for our daily needs and then we want extra for all of our various “wants”, we will supply her needs and there will be extra for her “wants”. God blessed Abraham with abundance so that he could be a blessing to others, we are going to bless her. We will also be involved as much as we can with Chris while he is in jail.
Now listen to this, as we began to bless Rose, God began to bless Chis in the jail…
The chief inspector in charge of Chris’ case began to personally provide Chris with daily food, taking him breakfast and removing him from the cell to eat in the police staff room. Rose visited Chris with the five kids, the next time she arrived at the cells, some of the police had brought old kids clothes from their homes, as well as old toys for the kids…and they gave them all to Rose. God’s Spirit is one of grace and mercy, we were all guilty at some stage, but the grace and mercy of God saved us, redeemed us, paid for our sin, removed our guilt…His mercy endures forever, amen. Chris is guilty, he will go to jail and we will look after his wife and kids.
This little example of the real life struggles amongst the poor hopefully will help us re-evaluate our view of the poor. Sometimes we might travel to another country and we get hassled by all of the beggars, they are smelly and dirty, we don’t want them always around us, or we see all the sex workers young and old, and we think they all should be doing something else, they need to make better choices, get a job…but who knows why they are doing what they are doing…How many kids are they trying to support, what happened in their life to get them to where they are now. There is a reason they are begging, maybe they have nothing else they can do.
In the worst case scenario, if I saw Rose out on the street, begging with grubby, dirty kids (this will never happen to her) what would I think of her, would I give to her, would I help her. Probably not. But in this case we know her, she is a friend, we know her kids, we understand her life. We can help, and so we will.
40% of this nation live on US 2 per day, 50% of them live on less than US 1, and for the vast majority of them – IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT.
