Loving the beggar

Living in a place where everyday we interact with people begging from us on the streets has grieved me, stretched me, made me feel very uncomfortable, raised many questions in my mind and caused me to reflect. How does God see this? How should I feel? How did Jesus show love to those begging on the streets when he walked them himself? How should I?


There are many complex issues and questions involved, which I do not pretend to fully understand. Nevertheless, I thought I’d still share a few thoughts and reflections:

• It grieves God that people are living in poverty such as this, and it should grieve me too. Seeing this kind of brokenness everyday can cause a certain level of desensitisation in me. But God, who sees every iota of pain in this world is not desensitised to human suffering. In fact he has entered into it, experienced it himself, and so identifies like no other with those who suffer. I need, on an on-going basis, to allow my heart to be broken by the things that break his.

• Lament in the tradition of the Psalms and prophets is quite lost on us today. We don’t like to dwell with sorrow, but usually prefer to move on quickly to lighter, more encouraging topics. Sometimes what we want from our interactions with poor people is to leave with our conscience clear, feeling okay about doing our bit to help. But maybe we’re not supposed to feel okay. Maybe we are supposed to lament... for the plight of people we meet, the brokenness of a world that puts them there, and our part in it all.

• What I see around me is not the end of the story; I need to cling to the promise of a time coming when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying nor pain anymore.”

• People reduced to begging have their dignity robbed. Just being in such a position of powerlessness and dependency is dehumanising and humiliating, but the way they are so often treated makes it even worse.

On one occasion when a lady came to beg from me, a security guard who saw the interaction came over, started yelling at her and hit her with his baton. It was made very clear to her that she was a worthless intrusion and embarrassment that was bothering the respectable white man. But she is a beautiful person loved by God and made in his image. So how can I interact with people in a way that confirms their inherent dignity and value as image bearers of God?

• Some people will hire a baby to carry around for the day. Some will feign injuries to arouse compassion and make more money. Others really do have malnourished young children they are trying to care for, or debilitating injuries that make it impossible for them to work. Some of those who beg are children who have grown up knowing no other way.

• Many beggars will turn their takings in to their boss who “owns the street”. They will only see a very small amount of the money themselves.

• While there are times when simply giving to supply material need is what is needed, it’s pretty clear to me that in the long term just handing out money is far from the best way to empower the poor and help them become the people God made them to be.

• Jesus would stop to show compassion for those who begged; who were ignored and marginalised by the ‘respectable’ people in his day (Mark 10:46-52). He also commanded us to “give to the one who begs from you”. Surely following him includes adopting a similar posture of compassion, interest, openness and generosity to ‘the least of these’ on my path?

• But it is impossible for me to give to, or try to interact well with everyone who begs from me.

• The business of restoring a broken world is God’s. While he has a part for each of us to play in bringing healing, I need to leave to God what is God’s, seeking out the life and works he has prepared in advance for me. I am not Jesus and should not get around with a messiah complex.

There are no clear answers. Many questions remain. We can lament, hope and pray. May we be led by the Spirit in showing the love of Christ to the people around us, and may his grace cover our many failures to do so.

Bricks anyone?

A couple of weekends back our team managed to get out of Dhaka for the weekend. We took a four hour ferry ride down to Chadpur; a large village south of Dhaka. It was nice to get away for a retreat, and I was very interested to see a bit more of Bangladesh from the river. While the scenery definitely got greener the further we got from Dhaka, I was quite amazed at the first hour or so of the journey.

For what I’d guess would be around 30 km, lining the river was what must have been hundreds of brick kilns (along with ship yards).



One of the things about living in Dhaka is that you don’t really see much in the way of blue sky. On a clear(ish) day the sky is a kind of light grey with blue tinge. And it’s nearly impossible to get sunburnt. Even though it’s extremely hot in the summer, apparently the UV rays are mostly blocked out by the air pollution. And now I see another of the reasons why. With so much traffic on the roads and industry like this (with I’m guessing not the tightest pollution standards) it’s not too difficult to get a sense of why the city is smothered by its emissions, and the lungs of its inhabitants pay the price.

Dreaming Dreams

One of the things we’ve done as a team recently is each share our dreams, passions and sense of calling. It’s been very encouraging to hear the dreams and passions God has been giving each of us, and I'm sure the balance and complementary nature of them will definitely enrich us all.

So I thought I’d share some of the dreams and passions I feel God has been placing on my heart. And having condensed them down into a few bullet points, some of my dreams for K-town are;

• For my community to experience the Lordship of Christ (for more on what I mean by that check out my earlier post Setting out). I want my poor neighbours to know the love, justice, opportunity, dignity, grace, peace and family of the kingdom. And in serving my neighbours I want always to be sensitive to following both the Spirit’s lead and the community’s agenda (i.e. rather than impose on the community my westerner’s perception of what needs restoration, I want to understand from them their hurts, frustrations, dreams and priorities, and work with them on those rather than just on what seems important to me).

• Now for a string of M-jargon... I’d love for there to be movements of national, incarnational, wholistic and contextual ministry to the urban poor in K-town and beyond! In other words, I’d love to see local followers of Jesus living with the poor, and ministering Christ to the whole person in culturally appropriate ways. It seems pretty clear to me that ultimately it needs to be through nationals that the gospel is extensively ministered here, but I’m also encouraged that there seems to be a role that outsiders may be able to play in supporting and helping to catalyse such ministries.

• For there to be models of discipleship and Christian spirituality that demonstrate following Christ is not a bideshi (foreigner’s) religion. Christianity is understood here as the religion of foreigners, substantially because the very foreign Christian culture of the west has for so long been exported along with the gospel. But Christ needs to be seen as the fulfilment of this culture’s destiny, and followed as the Spirit leads in more natural expressions of the culture. So I’m keen to come along side local followers of Christ and explore more contextual models of discipleship and spirituality.

• For unjust structures that keep the poor oppressed and marginalised to be challenged and transformed in Christ to more closely reflect the values of the kingdom.

• For the spiritual forces of evil at work in the city to face opposition, losing their influence in the lives of people and systems as the reign of Christ is extended through communities and the city.

• For growth in unity, cross fertilisation and prayer amongst followers of Jesus in the city, and in particular urban poor workers.

• For me, our family and team to live lives and rhythms here that enable us to drink deeply of God’s grace and presence, sustaining and nourishing us in life and ministry.

Someone once gave me the advice to dream bigger dreams than you dare to think could possibly be achieved in your lifetime. Well most of these dreams are just so much bigger than me, and very clearly not things I/we could possibly accomplish. But all things are possible for God. And so to the extent that any of these dreams are consistent with His plans, and His plans for my life, then I would rejoice to play whatever part in it all He has for me.

An evening at the cha-walah's house

I've been a little slow to blog about this, but wanted to share about an evening we had at our cha-walah friend's house about a week ago.

Every morning on the way to language school we pass by a cha-walah (a guy with a tea stand) on the corner near our building. We often stop there for a 5 taka (8 cent) cup of cha, and soon sparked a friendship with him. Then a couple of weeks ago he invited us around to his place for dinner.

So one evening three of us met him at the spot he sells his cha, and got rickshaws most of the way there. After paying the rickshaw-wallahs he led us on a nice walk past a lake and through some poor commnunities before we arrived at his home. It was great to be finally at least walking through some poor communities, and seeing not just brokenness but life! It's a real contrast to the part of town we're staying in for language school. Children happily playing simple games on the pavements, running up with enthusiastic greetings and following along beside.

When we finally got to the cha-walah's place they pulled out all the stops for us.
After kicking off with some fried snacks and cha, we then went up to the roof for some stumbling (and at times hilarious) Bangla conversation, to escape the heat since we'd lost power, and to get a better look of the neighbourhood. It was a bit surreal to be up there, amidst a poor community, looking out over the area, with calls to prayer ringing out through the city, and some much welcome rain starting to fall and cool the air. Definitely made us look forward even more to settling down in a poor community in K-town.

We then went back downstairs and watched our friend's wedding video. Midway through, one of the cha-walah's friends who had dropped by blurted out, "Oh, where are my manners, will you come to my wedding?" A wedding invitation from someone you've just met - you won't get that in the west!

Soon we were served an amazing (and pretty spicy!) Bengali meal...fish, chicken, beef and vegetable dishes, heaps of rice, and mishti (sweets) to finish. (It was a little embarrassing when my nose started watering). They then showed us some of the family's special garments, and also invited us for a trip to their village sometime. When it was time to leave our friend found us rickshaws to get home and called later to make sure we arrived safely.

There's no doubt that when it comes to many facets of community and hospitality, we have much to enjoy and learn from our asian friends. Luckily we will have the chance to practice when they come over for a meal with us on Friday!

Story time

This week each member of our team has been having one night to tell their story. After we listen to our friend’s stories we then have a time of prayer and listening for any words of encouragement the Spirit may wish to give us for them.

What a blessing it has been both to be able to share my story and to hear those of my team mates; to be heard and to listen, to pray and be prayed for. Our lives have led us on very different journeys. God has been shaping us in different ways, giving us varied gifts, similar but also unique passions and dreams. And now our lives intersect as we begin to walk together in community and mission. I’m excited to ponder what may spring from both the richness of our diversity but also commonality of vision.

Telling our stories has helped us know and appreciate one another more; our joys, our sufferings, our brokenness, our passions. It’s been very encouraging to get a glimpse of how God has been at work in each other’s lives, how he has spoken and revealed himself to us in varied ways, and used both our blessings and trials to mould us into the people we now are.

Highly recommended for any community that wants to know, understand and love each other more!

Setting out

As we set out on a new phase of journeying with the poor, I thought I’d start by reflecting a little on my vision for life and ministry in K-town (while knowing that any specifics around these are still a bit like looking through fog).

But one of the things I do know for sure is that over the past few years as I’ve been drawn into wholistic ministry among the poor, coming to grips with a vision of the kingdom (or reign) of God has been so incredibly crucial and helpful.

Vinay Samuel writes that a wholistic ministry based on kingdom theology of mission, centred in the rule of Christ over the whole of life, seeks to impart a community with the values of the kingdom and the spiritual challenges of the kingdom. It recognizes that enabling people to experience Christ’s Lordship is the key to wholistic ministry.

I think he’s onto something pretty profound here. According to Samuel, key to wholistic ministry is enabling people to experience the Lordship (or the reign) of Christ...and I think he’s right. So this gets me dreaming about some ways in which Jesus could wish for us to help give people a taste of his Lordship. A few wonderful aspects of his reign that come to mind are:

* When freedom is secured for those in bondage

* When those who are hurting find healing

* When peace and reconciliation come to broken relationships

* When those considered dispensable by their society are valued and given back their dignity

* When opportunities for land rights are made available to people with no such hope

* When the wisdom, talents, gifts and beauty of the poor are given expression and contribute to the richness of our common human experience

* When dignified work is available to all, and when those who cannot work are lovingly supported by their community

It seems to me that as my neighbours are touched by aspects of the kingdom such as these, then perhaps the good news of a new King who orders his kingdom with love, forgiveness, justice and peace, might make a little more sense.

But what might any of this actually look like in my K-town slum, in the face of seemingly overwhelming needs? I don’t know.


I have so much to learn from my neighbours. I want to see God’s beautiful image in them and how he is already at work in their lives. Where will the Spirit lead? What will the dreams of my neighbours be, and how will we best be able to serve and partner with them?

So many questions and unknowns. How in need of prayer, wisdom and the Spirit’s leading we are.