Finding Ways to Help the Poor
It is not always easy to come up with ways to really help the poor. Of course we can do a whole heap of things that do help in varying ways and for varying lenghts of time, but how do you really change some ones life with an easy, long term solution…?
PEDI CABS – a short distance, low cost, public transport type vehicle…
Many people in Asia ride some form of Pedi Cab as a means of employment. As with many industries, the person who actually does the work gets the least pay, and it is true in this industry. Most of the people who ride the Pedi Cabs do not own them, they rent them from some one else. The rental price varies depending upon the area the Pedi Cab (Unit) is ridden. If it is ridden in a high traffic area, or a market area the rental might be as high as 100p (AUD 2.50) per 12hour day. It does not sound all that much, but when you realise that the average fair might be 10-15p per trip, you need approx’ 8 fares to pay your rental, before you begin to earn any money. Now add to that equation this – the Units can only collect passengers within their registered zone. You can take a passenger outside of your zone, but you must ride back into your zone to collect a new passenger. We knew people who worked in this industry, and they could sometimes work a 12 hour day and after they had paid their rental, they could come home with 40 or 50p. 1kilo of rice is 30p, not much too feed your family on after a whole days work…
So…we give out Pedi Cabs, to poor people already working in that industry. We don’t give them for free, we charge 10p (1/10 the going rate) per 24hr day to ride one of our Pedi Cabs. The 10p we collect daily from the rider is then used to send one of the drivers children to school for a year (we make NO profit at all), BUT the driver gets a cheaper rental rate, one of his kids in school (which he is effectively paying for), he does not have to work as many hours per day, he has the unit in his possesion, so he can ride it in the night and perhaps an older son can ride it during the day, potentially doubling the families income and as a bonus, we let him ride sundays for free…and it is working, it is increasing incomes, increasing family time and increasing how many of his children can attend school.
Must of been a God idea, not just a good idea…
What is Poverty…
I used to agree with a statement that we use often in the west, but since we have lived amongst the poorest of the poor, my thoughts have changed. The statement is this “POVERTY MENTALITY”, my understandning of this statement was that poverty is a state of mind and that the poor did not need to be poor, if they would only change the way they think. Now there are clearly some truths in the statement, but I have also come to realise that people are poor because they have nothing or very little of anything, in a material sense.
As you know, we live in a slum, we often have western visitors, preachers and missionaries pass throught to visit, minister or just see the slum. One of our visitors shared with some of the poor on having a “Poverty Mentality” and that’s when I saw the errors in the statement. Poverty is not completely a mentality, it’s when you have nothing. Poor peole are poor because they have nothing, and have no way of getting anything. Our visitor was sharing from a position of new found wealth, but he was poorer than the people he was sharing with. He was sharing from a position of strenght and judgement. Jesus was amongst the people, living as they lived, walking where they walked. Some of us need to spend more time with “people”, less time in the pulpit where everything is perfect and ideal. So many people live life hard, we don’t need to make excuses and reasons for it, we just need to help them up. Sometimes we will do that through giving, sometimes through education/training, and always through love and showing them Jesus. Don’t condemn the poor, encourage them forward. Everyone needs Jesus, poor or not…
Redeem and lift, get people to know Jesus, help them get closer to Him. Jesus enriches lives beyond measure, eternal salvation, eternal hope – that’s great treasure, pearls of great price.
We can have every possible thing that we use to measure wealth, but still be poor because we don’t know Jesus Christ. What does the bible teach on the perils of earthly riches -
- the more you get, the more likely you areto forget the God who gave it to you – Duet’ 8:13-14
- don’t set your heart on riches – Ps 62:10
- riches can cause great fruitlessness – Mark 4:19
- how hard is it for the rich man to be saved – Matt 19:23
Don’t invest in things that perish, things that can ensnare, things that fade away or dissappear with a stock market crash – INVEST IN PEOPLE. Invest in a soul, collect them, build them up – He who wins souls is wise. Don’t build your reputation, don’t build a ministry, build a person, build up people, invest in anothers eternity. Make someone smile.
The hardships amongst the poor – no hope, no help – just Jesus
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 the Spirit of God showed me 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. 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.
Find the poor in your world, your country and help them, bless them, share with them, be Jesus Christ for them…get involved and make a differance in someone like Rose where you are.
