Crazy But Can't Deny

The answer to the question I asked in my previous entry is "Yes, I can live in humility among the poor and marginalized without coming and leaving." How do I do that? By living incarnationally, living alongside them, experiencing everyday life with them, living like they do.

It took me awhile to "digest" Shane Claiborne's book. I just finished reading The Urban Halo by Craig Greenfield. This is an autobiographical book about Craig and his wife Nay living in the slums of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It's powerful because of his honesty about the struggles and victories they experienced as they lived and empowered the people of this community. (Another great read FYI.)

Craig, his wife Nay and their two young children live in the Vancouver downtown eastside now. Craig is the International Director of Servants To Asia's Urban Poor and we've had the privilege of meeting them.

You might be wondering why I've been talking so much about the poor and marginalized. As I look back at my life, it seems I've always been reminded of them. When I applied to go to Camden, NJ (later being placed in Philly) to work with innercity kids for the summer with Tony Campolo's UrbanPromise Ministries many years ago, it was out of curiosity. After that summer I wondered how people in North America ended up living in poverty. When I got hired as the ESL and GED teacher at Hope Learning Center at Union Gospel Mission, I hesitantly took the job. That was one of the most challenging but most rewarding jobs I have ever had as I got to know people struggling with addictions, women trying to find acceptance on the streets, struggling newcomers to Canada, up-close and personal. It was a real privilege. Living in Manila was eye-opening in so many ways. The two years there made me think and wonder what I was really supposed to be doing here on this earth as a follower of Jesus, among so much corruption, injustice and poverty.

For some unknown reason to us, John and I are strangely being nudged toward Servants to Asia's Urban Poor's ministries. Why, we don't know except to say that it has to be God. This amazing organization has incarnational communities among the poor all over the world. From an outsider looking in, I think "Wow, these are very special people doing a very special job. I have such respect and admiration for them." But as God continues to push us closer and closer to in mind and spirit towards the work Servants does, I'm getting scared. This could all lead to nothing but it could very well lead to something and that's what I'm afraid of.