“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For …
Tough-looking teenage boys who reduce themselves to goofy noises to try to make Sakeenah smile and then melt to pieces when she does Seeing a new bird fluttering through the slum that I've never seen before Shadia making phone calls home to her 'mata ji' and 'papa' Every moment that one of my learners puts …
In a recent post I mentioned that we took in a foster daughter a few years ago, and we have been through many struggles together. One of the central struggles has been our young Shadia's battle with Borderline Personality Disorder.1 It was the impetus for a lot of tears in our family. But also a lot …
Advertisers work to make us insecure, feel that our lives won't be good enough until we buy more things. Technology is designed to be obsolete within a year, to be replaced by expensive new products. Clothes go out of fashion by the next season. Consumer goods break down before the next holiday rolls around. Many …
"Nobody can serve two masters. They will either hate the first and love the second, or be devoted to the first and despise the second. You can't serve both God and money."1Do American Christians split allegiance between Jesus and our possessions? If someone from outside saw how we prepare for Christmas, what would their guess …
Some friends and I used to meet for a Bible study in inner-city Los Angeles. One week in particular was life-altering. I don't remember what passage we studied that week, but the discussion moved to Luke 14:12-14: "He then turned to his host. 'When you give a lunch or a supper,' he said, 'don't invite …
Continue reading Inviting those who can’t pay you back, Part I
“We want to do another play program in your slum. But this time there are students from England coming. It’s important that we are able to do this in your slum because we’ve done it there before and you helped make the program proceed in a more organized fashion. We’d appreciate it if you could …
When we were first planning to move into a slum, the OG’s who advised us on how to get started kept repeating the same refrain. “Don’t do anything.” For the first year or two, don’t do anything at all. Don’t start a business. Don’t start a school. Don’t start a service. Don’t start a project. …
Tonight is Moharram1 and the entire slum is awake and engaged. Peregrine has gone to sleep because she's not feeling well, but there's too much energy in the place to stay quiet in the room. So I go out, without purpose or direction. I wander about the slum. A boy is excited to see me and …
Stranger in a Slum 