Yesterday just 100 yards from my house I watched a young man (estimated age 20-22) wading in the waste canal at the edge of our street. I was mesmerized...shocked...sickened... as I watched a fellow human being wade shin-deep in a sludge of garbage, rotting waste, human and animal feces. His flip-flops made a squishing sound as he sunk into the ooze with each step. He was collecting bits of plastic trash in order to sell it to one of the many local recyclers (a few pennies per pound of scrap plastic). His face was handsome, his shoulders broad. This young man was created by God for dignified manhood, but has been reduced to a life almost too tragic to contemplate. I cried on the way home.
I have no easy, trite answers. There are millions of people in India earning money the same way, or doing many similarly terrible things in order to survive.
Then I think back to the jubilant faith of the village Christians I just spent three days with up in the mountains. These believers have all come out of the oppressive darkness of Hinduism. Their beaming faces, hearty laughter, radical generosity, and excitement about their future are the hope of India. Shine Jesus shine!
I have no easy, trite answers. There are millions of people in India earning money the same way, or doing many similarly terrible things in order to survive.
Then I think back to the jubilant faith of the village Christians I just spent three days with up in the mountains. These believers have all come out of the oppressive darkness of Hinduism. Their beaming faces, hearty laughter, radical generosity, and excitement about their future are the hope of India. Shine Jesus shine!
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