XV Trampling the Poor in the nations beginning with M

 Crouching behind statistics of economy and trends in politics lie malicious traps that trample the poor. These traps may be direct assaults on their well-being or, more often, indirect consequences from power plays far removed. The poor are left with upheavals beyond their control, with fear and uncertainty always at their door. 

What follows are some realities that lie behind statistics and trends. They are extracted from a sampling of nations, all beginning with M. From these we see what trampling of the poor looks like. 

Madagascar:  Indigenous ethnic religion oppresses the people and their aspiration to rise out of poverty. The population relies on subsistence farming, but slash and burn has decimated about 80% of the rainforest cover for plants and animals. That means that the majority live on about $2 a day. 

Malawi: High population growth, high poverty, and huge national debt challenge life there. Lack of adequate medical care has left AIDS as the leading cause of death. 

Malaysia - Sabah and Sarawak: “Insider capitalism” (meaning the powerful get richer and the others get poorer) has left 26% below the poverty line. Racial discrimination, corruption, and crime will leave them there for a long time.

Maldives: Except for the privileged and powerful, people in the Maldives face rising crime, gang wars, abuse of children, and endemic drug use by teenagers. All this combined with the spiritual strongholds of pre-Islamic occult suppresses visions of change. 

Mali: This country ranks at 178th out of 182 on the Human Development Index. One in five children does not survive beyond the age of 5. One-third of those surviving are malnourished. 

Mauritania: Being divorced to marry another is considered a compliment in this land. So much for family stability. Oil discovery has increased corruption and further impoverishes most of the population. Thousands live in slavery in the interior, abetted by racial discrimination of the White Moors against the Black Moors. 

Mexico: Drug cartels, gang violence, and corruption in law enforcement leave 60% of the population in poverty. These are mainly the rural poor and exploited slum-dwellers. 10% of Mexicans are Amerindians. They have no official status and thus face severe poverty. The insatiable drug habit of people in the US brings huge income to the government, blunting any real effort to eradicate the drug trade. 

Mozambique: The legacy of Marxist economy, recurring cyclones, a destructive colonialism, and civil war has left this nation one of the world’s poorest. The consequence are found in poor health care, AIDS, malaria, TB, and other lethal diseases amidst the poor. Traumatized by violence, natural disasters, and disease, spiritual brokenness lies deep in these people.

Myanmar: Systemic violence has not left this nation for decades. The present junta has targeted minorities, who already carry burdens of impoverishment and torment. The military has redefined “ruthless.” 

These sad profiles set the poor before us. We may note several recurring headings:

Vulnerability. The poor lack arms, education, wealth, power, health, food, advocates. This sets up a scenario of easy abuse and unchallenged exploitation by the powerful, the armies, the educated, the strong.  The poor have little reason to hope for change.    

Violence. The sinister of the world face little resistance to their designs of evil. Gary Haugan is the founder of the International Justice Mission. He argues in his book, The Locust Effect, that until violence is addressed, the poor lack the means to rise out of poverty.

Law enforcement. This has a tight connection to violence. Haugan gives story after story of how law enforcement sides with the criminal, the predator. How can there be hope for justice in the courtroom when those who represent the law are also violators?

Light in the soul. The poor must combat the message that accompanies these discriminations—that they are the lowest of society, they don’t matter, they have no worth, and they bring scourge on their society. The determination that can counter that requires spiritual strength that is rare in those communities.

There is light ahead for the poor. Next week I will write on the virtues of the poor. (No kidding.) And the Psalmist reminds us: “Justice will again be found in the courts, and all righteous people will pursue it” (Psalm 94:15).

What can we do for the poor of the world? I recommend using Operation World. This monumental work is a day-by-day guide for prayer for all the nations of the world. Its primary focus is the expansion of Christ’s kingdom. One part of the examination always relates to the poor. 

This web site takes you to the nation of the day and prayer focus. For today we pray for Benin. 

https://operationworld.org

With apologies to: Macedonia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco, Mauritius, Moldova, Martinique, Mayotte, Montenegro, Montserrat, and Mongolia.

Operation World has been the source for the information in this article.  

 

X The Grip of Hunger in Chad

The people, the influences, and the dire human conditions in Chad exist in far too many other places. By giving a close look at what holds a tight grip on hunger there, we will see the wider boundaries of this food crisis. And in all those places are found God’s other children, brothers and sisters who live and die without enough food. 

 

What follows are some of the major causes that hold food scarcity in Chad and leave over 85% of their 15 million people in hunger.

 

Climate Change.  This land lies in the deserts of Sub-Sahara Africa and the Sahel. The dangers of climate change are particularly alarming for Chad. The trend is rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall—this in a land dependent on arable lands for farming and pastures for herding. Because of poverty, conflicts, and droughts, Chad has been rated the country most in peril from climate change. 

 

A stunning illustration of this looming threat is the story of Lake Chad, a huge area that has spanned several nations in the area. Since 1963 Lake Chad has continuously shrunk to where it has lost 90 of its original size. This loss directly affects subsistence livelihood in its many forms.

 

Conflicts and Refugees. Since its independence in 1960 Chad has had no less than 35 years of internal conflict. Additionally, conflicts in northern Nigeria, Darfur in Sudan, and the continuing war in the Central African Republic have driven millions of refugees into Chad. From its own warfare and these external conflicts, Chad has over 500 thousand refugees and displaced persons. 

 

Many refugees are in camps, as in the picture above. But for the “displaced persons,” their situation is different. These are Chadian families and individuals who have been uprooted from their property, villages, and communities. They do not disappear but wander often in droves hoping to find food and shelter in unfamiliar places.

 

Corruption. Not unlike many other countries, Chad has an interlocking labyrinth of corrupt people and procedures.  These bring to a halt efforts to help the hungry. Corruption appears in the judiciary, the police, the commerce, and the media. The police often are complicit in crimes and protect themselves. The judiciary and the executive are tightly connected. The media serves the system through secrecy and censorship.  The business procedures are laced with bribes and lengthy efforts defending contracts. Prosecutions in recent years have declined and in one recent year there were no convictions.

 

These are the channels through which outside aid needs to travel, food be distributed, businesses established, and justice delivered for the ones whose rights and needs are regularly trodden upon.

 

Behind the terms used for hunger are consequences in families and society. Though these are indirectly related to hunger, the devastation they cause exacerbates the crisis.

 

Especially is this true for women. Women can be forced into marriages beginning around age 8. The physical harm to them from pre-puberty pregnancies is neglected or unknown. Over 65% of women have undergone the barbaric operation of Female Genital Mutilation. Over 80% of those who undergo this were between the ages of 5 and 14. 

 

In Islam men have the right to marry up to four wives, so many women find themselves in families where they are treated as slightly above slaves. When a young wife has a child, she is forced to quit school, leaving her without the opportunity to find how to live a better life in a better society.

 

Sadly grim solutions to hunger bring grim circumstances for the young and the vulnerable. Often, to raise money for food many deals are made with “friends” and “relatives.” The deals result in selling children and other family members to slavery, prostitution, and trafficking. Hunger has dire consequences beyond the food table. 

 

Several of the reports on Chad mention progress in some areas. There are laws of anti-corruption on the books and projects for increasing the yield of crops. Progress will take time since many obstacles remain in place. Nevertheless, compassionate, patient, wise, and determined people want to enlarge the paths to better living conditions. May God sustain them with hope and small steps of success!

 

 

Yes, it is naughty of me to inject into Thanksgiving this bleak profile of hunger in Chad. But God’s world joins us at the table. That leads to our two questions: 

 

What can we do that will make a difference? That begins with caring about these people tucked away under the Sahara. Learn about them. Get inside their lives. See them as our brothers and sisters. That should make prayer easier. And donate, of course. The options are many. 

 

What can they give us? Remembering these children of God can balance the appreciation of what we have by a remembrance of what they have. With that in place, our grace at Thanksgiving and afterward will include these brothers and sisters. 

IX Children in God's Family

 We now turn to another group in God’s family—his children. As with the church in North Korea and the hungry in Chad, the criteria for these are the same. The children we will look at do not make the news, are not familiar to us, and are deemed unimportant. The standard measure of them tells us they are not worthy of any attention and have nothing to offer. But we will see God’s measure of children, how he values them and gives them a laureate position. 

 
Here are the primary features we learn of God’s love for his children:

1. Children are created in his image, each and every one. We share in the divine image. Yes, some come with disabilities, deformities, and other evidence of our fallen world; yet each child is created in the image of our Creator. We are, each one of us, sacred and inhabited by God. That truth assures us that worth, dignity, and value are indelibly stamped in us. As God’s creations, “he shows us the path of life, his presence fills us with joy, and he brings pleasures into our lives” (Psalm 16: 11). These gifts come to us by our Creator.
2. They are called “children.” They are not identified by age or by race or by territory. They do not live as autonomous beings. By definition, the term “children” tells them they are in relationship with others, specifically with mothers and fathers. Children have parents, and parents have children. God has put us in families, the first and most secure social institution on earth. 
3. God is their Father. He deliberately makes that statement for them. “Our Father, who are in heaven…” He is their true father. We do have earthly fathers, but they are imperfect. We must be careful not to let our image of Father build upon our earthly fathers.  It must be the other way round. God defines fatherhood. If we are affected by our earthly fathers, how much more shall we grow under the influence of our heavenly Father. As we consciously absorb the ways our wise and loving Father, we grow toward “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:23). 
4. God watches over his children. His eye is on them, and he fiercely protects each one. Knowing that his children are vulnerable, he knows that predators will inflict all forms of evil to destroy and dehumanize them. None of this goes on without God’s knowledge. He defends them, hears their cries, promises to be their father, sends angels to protect them, and does not want to lose one of them (Matthew 18:3, 10, 12, 14). His is the sweet and intense love of a shepherd for his sheep. “He will carry them gently in his arms (Isaiah 40:11). 
5. Children demonstrate the characteristics of life in the Kingdom of God. Jesus says so: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:26). “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). What does he have in mind? Certainly, a child’s trusting attitude towards parents, willingness to do what they say, obeying because that is best for the child. A child takes on the personality of father and mother. So a child watching the Father in heaven will grow in conformity to the image of the king of the kingdom, Jesus Christ.
6. God honors those who care for his children. We know how to notch up our worldly reputation, wealth, and security. Truth be told, for many grownups seeing the needs of children, they will pass by on the other side. After all, what item on a CV highlights time and funds given to children? How many offices encourage time to hear a child’s tearful complaint, to tie a kid’s shoes, to wait for the bus together? The behavior God wants is counter-intuitive to the ways of the world. In the economy of God’s kingdom, his honor descends on those who take this path: “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).
7. Lastly, Jesus punishes their enemies. He addresses those who lead children astray, who enslave them, who sell them for perverse use. He will punish these predators. Using one of his strongest images, one that leaves nothing to the imagination, he invokes the scene of tying a millstone around their necks, throwing them into a deep lake, and drowning them (Matthew 18:6).

These are glances into God’s heart for his children, the apple of his eye. But in this imperfect world, grisly fates await many children. They end up on the street, fending for themselves; the very young end up in orphanages or institutions; the unborn die without a plea; the mentally impaired are discarded or pushed to the side; the impoverished sell children for food. 
 
But their protector neither slumbers nor sleeps. Next week I will highlight some of the countermeasures to poverty, abandonment, and the sinister ways of predators. It is a long trip back for these children, they and their friends know it. Through all their toil and discouragement and successes, the Father of the fatherless is caring for them (Psalm 68:5).  

VIII Messages Children Live By

 

Children thrive on positive reinforcement, strokes that lift, encourage, sustain, and feed their development. After all, they are sacred to God, created in his image, and dearly loved and protected by him, their heavenly Father. This certainty establishes their identity in secure places.    This article is about children who do not know positive reinforcement. They have lived in the absence of such love and esteem. They have been denied the nurture that affirms their dignity and worth.    These children are found in places that are out of the way to most of us, but the number sequestered in these habitations are in the millions. Because they are deprived of many basic needs, they hover in dark and remote places, unseen or unnoticed by the larger public.    Some live on the streets, displaying a resiliency and inventiveness beyond what most of us utilize. They know how to live, eat, and sleep, but amid shabby floors and shaky walls.  Others are disabled, either physically or mentally. They can be found in institutions or parked in front of the TV in their homes. Still others are by-products of wars. Their families have been killed or displaced, so they find whatever and whoever will take them in.  They may be in refugee camps or places of temporary refuge or just looking for shelter.    What gets reinforced is rejection. Sadly, they learn to accept the verdict that is passed down:  they don’t count. For some it brings a crushed will, for others anger, for most fear—fear of exploitation, of violence, and of abuse.   Their most significant deprivation is their childhood. They have no sense of belonging, of games and fun, of an identity in a healthy community. With the absence of socialization, they also miss education. I remember meeting a family of refugees in Athens who had left their homeland three years earlier. The children of the family were normal, healthy, bright kids, but they had not seen a classroom, a playground, a cafeteria in those three years. How do they make that up?    All of them live in a stinking environment. Evil seeds sprout and take over. The threat of exploitation looms large. And no wonder. Where is the protection, the law officials, the watchful eyes of neighbors who can deter and warn? Nowhere. The situations play out ominously in the forms of sexual abuse, trafficking, slavery, and child labor. Each of these has evil predators cruising the streets and habitations to lure the susceptible.   Thankfully, oases of hope and God’s mercy abound. A famous episode from a children’s show carries the foundational reinforcement: “I am somebody”:   https://www.youtube.com/?v=tu0lNcrZjG8   When this conviction fills the vision of the world, things change. Here is a sampling of these oases, ones that my wife and I have been privileged to know of or know well.   The ministry of Street Children United (https://www.streetchildunited.org) centers around sport to build their awareness of worth and value. Some of these street kids in India rose to challenge the official neglect of them. The laws there had denied registration for all street children. This denial prevented them from access to health, from recognized marriage and burial, and from opportunities for education. Street children leaders forced the upheaval of this injustice and brought about laws that affirmed their state identity.  They knew they were somebody.   Children with disabilities can face rejection at birth by being abandoned to die. Those who live face abject refusal in families and in society to grant them respect and worth. Asha Kiran is a Christian school for disabled children in Bangalore. (http://ashakiran.net) In fact, it is recognized as one of the best special needs schools in all of India. Happiness and excitement exude as soon as the kids get off the bus. Whatever love they miss at their homes is abundantly replaced by the staff and friends who greet them. They gather for worship with a short lesson and the Lord’s Prayer, which is said with gusto. Through games and exercises, with patience and understanding of the staff, the children laugh and play as they learn skills and enjoy friendships.   Some children are actually forced out of their homes. This can be by poverty or just because they are unwanted. Incredible but true. Help comes to them one at a time, and best with a network of various kinds of aid. The orphanage of New Hope for Peru (https://newhopeperu.org) has open doors for the abandoned, the abused, and the disabled. It is intended to be a temporary home in transition to permanent homes for the children. Relying on the support and prayers of friends, and the favor of the government agencies, New Hope speaks love, worth, and comfort to their children.    An innate characteristic of children is unconditional acceptance. Color, race, tribe, politics and all other segments of the world mean nothing to them—until, that is, they are taught to differentiate. That is why a school situated in the war zone in the Middle East has children of Kurds as well as children of those who fight against Kurds. Together, they are getting an education not available in their villages, while also developing friendships some would say ought not to happen. But they are learning to know the God and Father of Jesus Christ, himself a child born in that area.      In closing, our two questions: What can we offer them? Pushing beyond the news reports to bring into our vision the implications for children. That would be in Tigray, the streets of Beirut, the disabled of Delhi.   What can we learn from them? The foundation of our worth and value. The children of New Hope and Asha Kiran have nothing materially, but they do have a core at their center that keeps bubbling up hope and a smile.