Trials

Something is not right. I'm not sure how to deal with the situation here. We have our own house keeper who cleans and cooks once a week at our apartment. She does whatever we ask. I did not come to India to live the rich man's life, I came to preach Christ crucified. This is greatly disturbing me. All of the American's are telling me that it's fine to hire out servants, that we are providing them with work and a decent wage. This is disgusting to me. I know better and will not be swindled into believing such a lie. Jesus said that WE are to serve, not be served. Today was equally disturbing. I basically have done nothing but sit around and eat. I have done nothing productive whatsoever. I've just been lounging with the others at the office. It's terrible. During lunch today we had cheeseburgers and I had to listen to everyone complain. Can you imagine a more distasteful scene? Here we are feasting on burgers and complaining about how the internet is slow, the power keeps on surging, it's hot outside, this burger doesn't compare to an American burger, and then there are children starving to death in slums nearby and dying without Christ. I wanted to stand up and scream, "AT LEAST YOU HAVE FOOD!" I would laugh at this absurdity if it wasn't morally abhorrent. Furthermore, everyone is so concerned about money, food, and merchandise. The name "Baptist" and "evangelical" are paraded before Christ. And no one really has that boldness that I expected them to have. When you read the sermon on the mount or sermons by Paul or anything from the mouth of Jesus, do you imagine them being wimpy, frail, weak, pampered men who complain about not having air conditioning? Heck no you don't, but that's what I'm seeing here for the most part.

I found some people. who spend almost all of their time helping and ministering to orphans and slum children. They teach kids how to read, teach them about Jesus, and can afford to give them one good meal a day (and for some of them, this is the only good meal that is available to them). They wake up every morning at 5:30 to pray and are definitely not getting enough sleep. But they don't care, they are doing God's work. They have seen many come to Christ through their ministry and are extremely joyful. They are always laughing and making jokes and teaching people.

I'm starting to see the evil in India. I learned last week that a man in the slums poured gasoline over his wife and then set her on fire. People watched as she burned to death. This murder was never reported to the police and if it was, they probably wouldn't care because the murdered woman was in a low caste. In India, a man can legally beat his wife if he wants to. I've heard some people talk about seeing it happen in the streets in plain site of everyone. Women aren't treated well here. It seems to be a popular thing in America to say that Christianity is opposed to women's rights. This is absurd. Just look where Christianity has had the greatest influence -- Western Europe and North America. In those regions women have equal rights with men and can get jobs, an education, and not marry if they so choose. Now look where Christianity has not had a great impact -- Africa, the Middle East, India. In those regions, women are treated like property. In the slums, the families are killing their baby girls. They do this because they have to pay for wedding dowries when their daughters marry and to them, it is more shameful to not be able to pay for such a dowry than it is to murder one's daughter.

I'm not sure what to do about all of this. I'll pray and wait, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to stand up and tell these lazy Christians what's up. Normally when I do that though, things don't end well. We'll see soon enough.