Can Uneducated People Change the World for Good?
A friend of mine named Francis works as an advocate for the people of a slum in Delhi and he has married into a poor Muslim family. Yesterday he brought two of his young brothers-in-law to join our program: Shamim and Mohammad. These teenage boys have been working most of their lives. Just last week Shamim ironed jeans in a factory and Mohammad worked as a demolition laborer. They have never been to school or learned to read or write. They kept their eyes downcast as I tried to welcome them and explain to them the housing arrangements. I asked Francis if they wanted to be here, he insisted that they did. Francis looked at them and told them that they are good, don’t let anyone tell you that you are bad. In other words, do not let anyone look down on you. Then Francis turned to me and said, “you know Jesus used a small group of uneducated people to change the world once before. It was a miracle; we are just hoping He will do it again. We need a miracle. Let’s see.”
Already this morning they were clapping and laughing with the rest of the group. After we sang and danced a little, I said that our God loves us so much that it makes God happy when we enjoy worship. One of the other students told me that he never knew happiness before he met Jesus and joined this knew family.
According to the United Nations Development Programme Report of 2007/2008, India had a literacy rate of 64.1%. The United States has a 99% literacy rate and Burkina Faso has the lowest literacy rate in the world at 23.6%.
We want to help Shamim and Mohommad learn to read and write—but even more than that we want the love of God to transform them and to use them to change their world for good.
Mary, The God-bearer.
I was asked to deliever a message the Sunday before Christmas in Delhi. Below is a copy of my manuscript.
Luke 1:26-38 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34″How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.
What if we were standing here, singing in this room and suddenly a huge a angel was here in the room with us–Gabriel, the most famous of angels. We would be scared right? And then what if Gabriel said that we were going to have a baby…
Then Julie spoke up and said, “How can this be, we are a small church, no?”
The angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God—nothing is impossible with God.
Then Elisha said, “We are the Lord’s servants. May your words come true.”
It might sound pretty weird to think about the angel showing up in this room and telling us that we are going to have a baby and that baby would set up the Kingdom of God forever.
The angel came and told Mary that she would give birth to the baby Jesus. But just like Mary was asked to carry Jesus into the world, we are asked to carry Jesus into our world. And, this is why Christmas is such a great celebration. We are not just celebrating the past, we are celebrating the present and the future too. We are celebrating that we have Jesus with us today and we are a part of this Kingdom that will never end.
But what do I mean that we are called to bring Jesus into our world? Didn’t Mary already do that 2000 years ago? Well yes. Did Mary give birth to Jesus is Delhi, India in 1977? No? Mary conceiving under the power of the Holy Spirit was a real historical event. She was a real girl. It was a real birth, Jesus, a real baby who cried and pooped, who grew up—was, and is, the Prince of peace.
Well where is Jesus now? We could use some peace now. Jesus is in heaven with his Father. So is that it? Have we been left to live out this mess on earth until we die and go to heaven or the Prince of Peace returns and sets things right, Someday? Yes…and No. Not exactly.
As Mary was asked to bear the Christ-child we are asked to bear Christ Jesus in our word. Jesus left us to continue his work—by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a saying that says, “you’re the only Jesus some will ever see.”
See many people in Delhi will never read the bible and find out about Jesus. They might never read a tract or watch God-t.v. They might not come to a crusade or a worship service—but they will sell you subzee (vegetables). They will work at the desk next to you. They will recharge your phones. They will be your teachers, they will be your students. They will live next door to you. They will beg from you. They will be your auto-valla. They will be your passengers.
I know a man who shares the good news of Jesus with each auto-valla who drives him. He figures he has a captive audience throughout his journey. Sometimes these guys have never heard of Jesus. I’d love to hear about more stories like this.
But sharing the message of Jesus is more than speaking words, it is doing the stuff that Jesus did. Last year when Tenu started teaching she found out that the head-mistress at her school was suffering from asthma, so she asked her head-mistress if she could pray for her. So right there in the office she laid her hands on her and she prayed in Jesus name that she would be healed! Then a few weeks later the head-mistress came to her and said, ‘I just wanted to thank you for praying for me, I haven’t had any asthma attacks since you prayed.” Tenu responded, ‘don’t thank me, thank Jesus who healed you!”
I heard a story about a statue in Italy of Jesus. There are many statues of Jesus in the old Christian world. But this one was ruined during one of the world wars and the hands and feet of Jesus were blown off. Then someone wrote under the statue—now you are the hands and feet of Jesus.
Throughout the bible God is calling a people together who will be a ‘light to the nations’ to be God-bearers, to be ambassadors of Christ. Without us, the City of Delhi will never know Jesus. Your neighborhood might never hear the good news of Jesus without you. It is our job to love people the way Jesus did and to share the good news of the life that Jesus has to offer. It is our responsibility to respond like Mary to the call to bring Jesus into the world.
God gave Mary a big and important job that she didn’t know how to do, and we have been given an important job (sharing the good news with our neighbors). And we might not know how to do it. But the Holy Spirit will empower us to do the things Jesus did as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary. It might not be easy.
Noel Isaacs, Lovey’s brother tells a good story about this He was leaving a train station with a foreign friend and they were approached by a man with leprosy. Noel’s friend hugged the man and gave him some change. Noel’s eyebrows went up, he couldn’t believe his friend had hugged that man. Noel felt in his pockets and didn’t have any money. A sense of panic came over him. This man was deformed and was missing fingers…. Noel felt like he heard God saying, ‘will you do it?’ Noel leaned over and hugged the man. As he did that Noel began to cry. The man followed him to the car and as he looked at Noel—Noel saw that he was crying too. But he looked different now—the ugliness of his face was gone. Jesus touched people with diseases.
We have a choice. We can say, I’m the Lord’s servant—let’s do the stuff Jesus did. Or we can go or own way. Our own way might be not to worship and to get caught up in trying to get wealthy or it might be to look religious and include lots of good things, but it doesn’t matter. If we are not doing what God is calling us to do, we are nothing.
Just think about it… Mary might not have looked like she was doing what God was calling her too—she was pregnant and unmarried. But she was doing exactly what God wanted her to do. I had a professor who used to say, I wonder how many teenage girls Gabriel had to visit before he found one who was willing to give birth to Jesus?
Are we willing to say, “we are the Lord’s servants,” may it be like you say? May your will be done, Lord. Will we bring Jesus into this world this Christmas? Will we share the message of Jesus, will we do the things that Jesus did? Will we love the unloveable? Will we say, “yes,” to the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit? Or will we try to do good things on our own power? I want to challenge you. At least one time this week I want you to say to someone, “can I pray for you right now?” and I want you to stop right away and pray for the Holy Spirit to come. Maybe it will be when your neighbor complains of a headache. Maybe it will be when your friend calls and is worried about something. Maybe it will be when a sick or injured person is asking money from you. If you can give some blanket or food or small money—give. But don’t stop there. Look at the person in the eye bring Jesus into their world. Offer to pray for them. You never know what God will do. This is the best way we can celebrate Christmas.
Now, if you are feeling timid and wondering how you could ever do something like this, come and let’s invite the Holy Spirit to empower us. If you want prayer for the H.S to empower you, come to the center. And, if you need Jesus in your life today, if you do not know Jesus and you want to please come over to this side and receive prayer.
A Long-Term Foreign Tourist
Ok, so I kind of am a tourist. But, I am a professional tourist–a long-term foreign tourist (LTFT) One of the things that comes with being a LTFT in the capital of India is that you are expected to be a tour guide. I have been to the Taj 4x, the Red fort 3x, Jama Masjid 3x, Humayan’s Tomb 3x, Qitib Minar 3x, and I have taken guests shopping in Delhi’s Bizarres so many times that I cannot count. The worst experiences by far are the ones that involve leading a group of 5 or more white people around. With a group of whities you are a sitting duck. “Madam, Madam, looking free,” “Hello, Hello,” and when you ignore them “what you do not speak?
But the funniest thing about being a LTFT is when you end up being a tour guide to Indians visiting from other parts of the country or even other parts of town. See all of the attention of the gauntlet (peddlers and all) is focused on you, people think that your Indian friends are your guides or are working for you in someway. Yesterday I was taking around Soniya (a Delhi friend of mine), Arun (a guy from Andra), and two American girls. Arun was by far the most excited tourist and had the biggest camera. I was his guide. But later we joked that people must have tought that I was a very rich lady who hired a professional photographer to photograph me and my friends in Old Delhi.
While taking a group of 5 or more whities around is the worst possible tour guide situation for the LTFT, the best possible sinareo is when the LTFT can be enfolded into a brownie dominated group. The trick is Indian clothing and not speaking. Then people think, she is not really a foreigner, she just has a skin disease or she used too much whiting cream and an LTFT is left to enjoy her friends and seeing the sites. I’ve thought about purchacing a burka for such situations.
me tourist nehe ho (I am not a tourist!)
The other day I left Humayan’s Tomb which is a beautiful mausoleum with my dear friend Christin by auto rickshaw. Auto rickshaw drivers in Delhi tend to be clever and rarely go by the set meter, but the guys sitting outside of the historical tourist spots are most devious of all. You ask them how much and they say “just Rs. 200″ when the metered price would only be Rs.50. Then once you are on the way, they try to talk you into going to a cottage emporium so that they will receive commission from the shop keeper. Over and over I find myself saying, “me tourist nehe ho, Delhi me rihate hai. Come karo.” (I am not a tourist, I live in Delhi, come down on your price.) On this particular day, I was very tired, not feeling well, and a bit chilly. Our driver had spent 250 days in America and spoke English well. He wanted to take us to a shop so desperately and he knew that I was “old to Delhi,” so said, “come to this shop with me, you don’t have to buy anything, they will give me Rs.100 and you can keep your Rs.70, I will take you home for free.” While this was somewhat tempting, I am not so Indian enough to go for it. I just wanted to go home. “Bahai, No, I just want to go home. Take me home.”
Later on that same day, Christin and I were leaving the movie theater at CP. It was just after ten thirty and that is late for Delhi. We were looking for a auto-rickshaw again. These guys were asking ridiculous prices. Then one guy agreed to my price, but I looked and there was another man in the back seat. They were both large men. “Who is he?” I asked. “My friend,” he said. “No, No.” I said and we walked away. We were not about to get into a rickshaw with two men we could not beat up. Finally we found a smiling little guy that together we could have beat up. But we didn’t have to beat him up, he smiled and sang songs the whole way to our house where paid him, shook his hand and said, “Thank you.”
“Hop on the Bus, God’s on the move, there’s a seat for you”… or at least you can stand on the stairs.
Two weeks ago I offically started VDS, a leadership training program. During the first week I wanted the students to experience Delhi so one day I planned a simple outing consisting of roaming around the old Lodi garden ruins and kicking around a football in the grass… but after getting down from the metro we were unable to get auto-rickshaws. Abel, one of the locals, was incharge of transportation because he knows how to get around. I suggested he look into the bus situation… he raised his eyebrows and ran across the street.
About ten minutes later he called us over. 
All of us crossed the four lane road to join the hundred plus people waiting at the stop. “We are looking for Bus # 417 Abel told me.” Just then a bus packed with people pulled in and out of the stop at an alarming fast pass. We jumbed back a few feet after seeing the number and hearing the driver’s assistant call out, in rapid sucession, all the stops that bus would make . A few minutes later Abel called from his place across the divide that our bus was coming. The bus pulled in and the men of our group pushed/helped the ladies board. They jumped on as we were pulling away. I wish I could describe the experience, but nothing would do it justice. We were packed standing in the ailes and after every stop someone would insist that we move further towards the front. I just kept laughing cause I didn’t know what else to do. The foreigners were not the only ones with wide eyes, some of the Indians in
our group had never been to a big city before.
After the bus we had to walk about a half a mile and I thought everyone was going to be mad at me for insisted we visit the garden, but as soon as we were in the park everyone was happy. We took off our shoes and walked through the grass. We kicked around the ball. I sat and watched the birds. It was divine. We rode auto-rickshaws back to the metro station.
Commentary 1
As I was getting ready to leave Delhi. I started thinking about how I could begin to explain to friends in the states what my life there is like. I wanted to take pictures of everything I saw and try and capture my life on camera. But there are so many things that pictures can’t explain and not only that but I didn’t get around to taking all the pictures I imagined I would take. So below are a few pictures of the flat I stay in, my bed on the floor, my plastic toliet seat and shower that has no seperation or curtain defining it from the rest of the room, the redgate to our building, the presswalla kids that ring our door bell five times a day, a newspaper recycle man on a bicycle on the street below, and the porch we hang our laundry on and if by chance it is not over 100 degrees we sit on. But I would like to describe a few moving shots of everyday sights that will help you place where I am in coming from as I marvel in being back in the States but know that a piece of my heart remains on the otherside of the world.
That man on the bicycle is calling out in a loud and repetative tone, “PAPER, PAPER, PAPER.” Then a fruit vendor comes pulling his cart down the street calling out, “Carbusa, Alm, Liche, Carbusa, Alm, Liche,” (Watermelon, manago, Liche). A woman in a house dress comes out of her balcony and asks the man his rate after telling him how much she will pay she lowers a bucket down on a string. He puts what she asks for in the bucket but tells her to give his price. She insists on her price and lowers down her rupees. Next a man who is selling something in a basket on the back of a bike, but I haven’t figured out what comes down the road calling out his merchandise to a tune that is bound to get stuck in your head all day. I’ll video tape it one day. Though I am enjoying the piece of being in a place where vendors don’t call out loudly at 6 in the morning, I am confident that after a few months of being in the states I would miss it.
X-Patriot
It is weird for me to think that my this time next week I’ll be back in the U.S. of A. Being away for 9 months has made me very aware of just how American I am. Sure I have criticisms of my culture and certainly for our government, but America is beautiful and we take that for granted. The streets are clean. Furthermore the common courtesy that we give one another is unique. We allow space between people in lines to buy burgers. No one stands over your shoulder when you are shopping. Not to mention that we have porcelain toilet seats–here they are plastic. For an American reading this, you might say “of course,” but for someone else these things are not first nature.
Monsoon Season?
When a friend asked me about monsoon season a few weeks ago this is what I wrote:
The monsoon season in Delhi offically starts at the end of June and lasts until September. However it doesn’t actually rain much in Delhi so it reality it is more like this: there are two summers in Delhi. The first summer begins in April and lasts through June. It feels like Phoenix. The second summer begins in July, it lasts through September and feels like Houston. Only it doesn’t rain in Delhi as much as it does in Houston, it’s only hot and humid like Houston.
We were in summer # 1, it was dry and hot at least 110F each day. But then it started raining, and thunder storming and it has dropped 20 degrees. This nice weather has been off and on for five days or so. Last night it rained the whole night. I love sleeping to the sound of rain.
Prospective International Students
Dear Prospective International Students,
If you are not sure what to do with your life right now, but you know you want to follow Jesus and you have some kind of desire to make a difference in the world then VDS India would be a great program for you. As a student you will grow in your basic Christian knowledge, your relationship with Christ and you will learn more about the world. You will also be given opportunities to serve the local community in practical ways. At the same time you will make friends with Indian students and learn about their lives and their experiences. This will impact your life and help you discover the calling on your life. I know young people who have spent time here and as a result have dedicated their lives to Asian studies and international relations, others have become doctors, some continue with their dreams of movie producing but with an altered worldview, some become pastors, and some specifically reach out to internationals in their own hometown. I have seen some people come here and love the food and others survive on toast. But no matter what, experiencing the Kingdom of God on the other-side of the world will add a richness to your life. Furthermore the church here and there church there will be blessed by the unity that comes through relationship that surpasses national or economic status.
Please pray and consider joining us. To request an application and pastoral recommendation form leave a comment and with your email address. Applications, recommendation forms and a $150 nonrefundable deposit are due no later than July 1st. Your tuition fee is $1000 which covers the cost of your basic expenses in India and contributes to the community enabling us to keep the Asian student’s fees at an affordable cost for them
Sincerely,
Amy Coffin
