The Real Problem, the Real Solution (South Asia 3)

I knew there would be poverty, I just didn't know how much. It was everywhere. I expected nicer and poorer areas, but instead the poverty was everywhere in South Asia.

Trash covered the streets, piled up in gutters and overflowing on sidewalks. The cobbled sidewalks were broken, there were layers of dirt over everything. The sidewalks were lined with little booths for street vendors to sell food, which doubled as a place to sleep at night.

There were people begging all the time. Little kids constantly walked up to us holding out one hand for money, the other hand held near their mouths to signify they wanted money for food.

Beggars sat by the corners and along the streets, asking for money. Many were missing limbs, a few were blind.

It was crazy to realize that these people had probably been begging their entire lives. Typically in the US, the homeless haven't always been homeless, and they could potentially get out of their situation. In South Asia, these people have always been beggars and always will be. There's no moving up, to fixing their lives, no getting back in shape. Though the caste system is technically illegal, it still plays a huge role in society and culture, it still dictates who does what, where they live, what and if they eat.

So different. And walking through the streets that first day, I honestly didn't know how to feel.

A group of 15 or so white people walking through the streets, what did we look like to the people who saw us? Just the stereotypical group of rich, white people, coming to gawk and feel pity for the poor people of South Asia. Coming to take pictures and take them home to rich America and show them off and say “feel sorry for these people,” “feel guilty because you have so much and they have so little,” “do something for them,” “feel pity for them.”

And I didn't want to feel that way. I felt like I should feel pity because that was the way I was supposed to feel. But I didn't feel like that was truly how I was supposed to feel.

I don't know if that made sense, there were a lot of feelings in that paragraph.

It's just that, what good does my pity do? Yes, I have so much, I am so rich compared to so much of the world. But what does me feeling guilty about that do for the poor?

I could come back from seeing so much poverty and give all my stuff away in a moment of frenzied guilt, but in a few months I'll realize I really do need a coat and boots and I'll have to go out and buy new ones. And what good does that really do for the poor in South Asia? What good does that even do for me, in the long run?

Here, in America, I've always been against the idea of working for money, wanting to have lots of it. I want to rely wholly on God and not be seeking fulfillment in the things of this world, but rather in Jesus.

If money doesn't matter in America, where pretty much everyone has it, why should it matter in South Asia where few people have it?

God showed me my double standard. He showed me I should feel sorrow for the people I saw, but not because they lacked money. Rather, I should be sad they didn't know Him.

Would having money, a home, or even food actually make these people happy? Would they be fulfilled? No.

If Jesus is the only true source of joy and fulfillment, then He is all that matters. Not money, not possessions, nothing of this world matters, only Jesus and knowing Him.

It was really cool to have been given that perspective going into the trip. While of course, it was incredibly heart-breaking to see so many people living in such poverty, so sad to have so many little kids coming up to us begging for money, it wasn't hopeless.

It would have been easy to see so much poverty and fall into a sense of hopelessness at the enormity of the issue, and the fact that we, only there for a short week, couldn't truly change anything.

God showed me that I could do something – I could love people and I can tell them about Him, and that's enough. And those are all things I can do in the US as well, because everyone who doesn't know Jesus is truly poor and broken.

So that was my goal, my purpose, and my desire through the trip. Because the truth of the matter is there is hope, found in Jesus Christ!

The solution to the problems in South Asia isn't more money or more food. Those things are great, they make a huge difference, and of course I wish every one of those beggars, every one of those children, had a home and food, but money doesn't save you.

The real problem is not knowing Jesus, and Jesus' love is the only solution to that. Jesus is the only salvation, and so there was hope in all the brokenness because Jesus is greater than poverty.