Kami Rice continues her guest series for the Emerging Scholars Blog about her journey to India. Â
Since the day my high school youth group reported to our congregation about our mission trip to Brazil, when some of the other kids–some of whom had discussed, as we drove through Miami during our debriefing time, which fancy new car they wanted their parents to buy for them–poured stories into the microphone about how poor the people were, I’ve had an uneasy relationship with how church people talk about poverty.
I didn’t think the people we met in Brazil seemed all that poor. I had jaunted off on my own with some of the Brazilian youth group girls on several occasions, so I had seen more of their lives than most of my teammates had. But maybe I had missed something? Like maybe a gene for compassion?
This morning I worked on a writing project that included a scene from my first ever visit to a slum. That slum was in Kenya. This afternoon I visited an Indian slum.
And once again, as in Kenya and as in Brazil before that, I was struck more by what the people I met today have than what they don’t have. After spending a couple hours joining in on a tell-Bible-stories-through-henna-designs class with young girls and then briefly meeting widows praising God during a church service–all part of an expansive outreach founded by an Indian family–my hosts and I departed, following one of the pastors through a narrow walkway with low buildings and their front doors squeezing close on either side. Some of the doors were open, giving momentary glimpses into small but orderly spaces where TVs occasionally glowed into the gathering dimness. [Read more…] about Do We See the People or Their Poverty?