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ChristianDisciplesChurch

A Christian Evangelism and Discipling Ministry

Faith in Mankind, is it Possible?

by Lew Ai Su, 14 July, 2000

Life begins very early here. Though it may only be 9.00 in the morning but a few people would have knocked on our door. The vegetable and fruit lady usually comes at 6.50 am. A few days ago I got a bunch of banana for Rp 3000. I gave her Rp10,000 and she has no small change so I told her to return me some other day. (A naïve move! I was not to see her again. She absconded with my Rp7000!)

The widow next door, Ibu Thine knocked at 7.00 to deliver home baked Malay cakes. To help her we ordered some cakes from her to serve after the training sessions. This morning she baked extra so she gave me a big loaf of bread and a tray of doughnuts. 

Around 8.00, when I was finishing my household chores Anwar, our newly converted Moslem friend came. We first met him five days ago when Gerry, a full time trainee brought him to our place. He was converted from Gerry's ministry in the prison and was recently baptized by a pastor while in prison. He asked to be trained to equip himself to preach the gospel to his Moslem family and friends in Solo, a Moslem-dominated area in another island. 

Five days ago, he was freed from prison on compassionate ground because his parent died. The first thing he did was to look for Gerry. Anwar wanted to attend the funeral but has no money. He was hoping that Gerry would help him but Gerry only has Rp 5000. He needs at least Rp 40,000 for a one-way trip. So Gerry brought him to us hoping that we can help him. After a brief discussion we decided to give him Rp 100,000. Though it was a big sum but we felt he may need the money to help out with the funeral expenses. I packed a bagful of doughnuts from Ibu Thine for him to eat on the journey and Gerry sent him to the pier to catch the 11 o'clock boat. Before he left he said he would rush back after the funeral to attend our Training.

So now, five days later he is back with his sister who is suffering from typhus. The sister is now in hospital. The doctor has prescribed some medicines but Anwar has no money to pay for it so he is asking for our financial help again. We asked for the prescription but he told us he left it at the hospital. We gave him Rp 20,000 intending to verify his story before we gave him more. 

He looked very disappointed with the sum. From his facial expressions Soo Chuang was quite disturbed, he was worried that he might have turned away someone with a genuine need. To ease our conscience we immediately sent for Gerry. Gerry told us that Anwar stayed at his house and spent the whole of yesterday with them and he never once mentioned about his sister. After some further checking we realized that he has lied to us.

This isn't the first time we have been conned. There were at least two other incidences. When people come to us for help we make it a point to be opened and to try our best to help them. Our guiding principle is Matthew 25:34-40.

"Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 'for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 'I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 'When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 'Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? "And the King will answer and said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to Me." 

After all these incidences of being conned I am getting a bit disillusioned and thought maybe it is time to change policy!

Presently we are helping an East Timorese refugee, Anthonio. He was sent to prison by his uncle for trying to commit suicide - life is tough for the refugees here. He was remanded for two weeks. While in prison he heard Gerry's preaching and was touched. It so happened that he bumped into us near our home. We do not view this as merely a coincidence. Seeing that he is always depressed and we fear that he might still be suicidal we encourage him to drop by whenever he wants. Now he comes to our place quite often. 

Recently to get his mind off his problems we asked him to paint our motorbike. It doesn't really need a new coat of paint but we thought instead of just giving him money we give him something to do. He claimed to be a racer and a motor-mechanic in East Timor before he escaped into the jungle to join the guerillas fighting for the integration of East Timor into Indonesia. 

We could see that he was very happy working on our bike. He was so keen on fixing up the bike that he dismantled it and cleaned everything thoroughly. Out of his eagerness to be useful, he made many mechanical changes to it without informing us. The bike was in good running condition before but now it is giving us all kinds of problems! 

One good thing that came out of this episode is his friend (who doesn't know that he made a big mess out of our bike) is paying for him to paint his bike too. So Anthonio is very happy that he finally has something to do. However in order to paint his friend's bike he needs some money to buy paint for he claimed that the friend would only pay him after the job is done. 

By this time I am having a major crisis in my faith in the people here and being philosophical, in mankind too. Thus far the good we have done seem to backfire on us. I am at the verge of concluding that most of the people here is not reliable and cannot be trusted. 

The vegetable lady ran away with my Rp 7,000, two supposedly full time church workers took advantage of us, Anwar managed to get Rp120,000 from us by weaving two sad tales and now Anthonio wants to borrow Rp 100,000! Oftentimes during training, the trainees who forget to bring pen will ask to borrow my pens and will conveniently forget to return it! (I have lost three pilot pens and some other cheaper pens!!) When I lend someone anything oftentimes that will be the last I see of it!

The question now is how can I continue to trust people? My trust in people is sorely tested. What should my stand be? Do I continue to give even though oftentimes these people aren't honest with us? Should we lend the money to Anthonio? I don't think he will return the money and I am not even sure if the money is for the paint job or it is for something else, so do I still give? (A Chinese old lady used to tell me that it is better to throw money into a pond rather than to lend it for at least one will get to hear the sound it makes!) 

What is the right thing to do? According to Ben Kingsley in the movie, Confession, the difficult part is to know what is the right thing to do, once it is known, it is difficult not to do it!   

To know what is the right thing to do I turned to the occasionally wise Soo Chuang. He says I need to have faith in mankind, to trust people or else I would look at everyone with suspicion and I may unknowingly turn away people with genuine needs. The sheep in Mattew 25 didn't know that they have done kindness to the Lord for they just do good indiscriminately. It is just in their nature to do good to others. As a Christian especially a servant of the Lord this should be my nature too. 

However I still need further convincing! My argument is should we then let ourselves be taken advantage of? How should we be good steward of God's money? On the other hand I am also aware that these can just be excuses to cover the real reason - the unwillingness to give and to let go.  

I wonder how would God look at this?

As I thought about it I realized that God continue to trust us even though some time I am not very honest with Him. Christians as a whole continue to fail Him but He still has faith in His people. He doesn't look at us with suspicion and distrust even though our hearts are full of deceit (Jeremiah 17:9). We oftentimes take advantage of Him too. We prayed that He will help us pass exams or grant us a good job and we pray for healings and safety. Yet oftentimes after He granted us what we prayed for we forgot to even thank Him or live in such a way that expressed our gratitude to Him. We make vows and promises but it is not rare that we failed to keep them. So if I were to be in God's shoes my faith in mankind would be totally non-existent by now!

Yet He has enough faith to send us His one and only Son; even though He knows His ultimate sacrifice will not be appreciated by all! Most not only ignore, but continue to reject and despise Him. But it seems to me, God still has faith - He has faith that a remnant will appreciate it and that a remnant will make it through the narrow gate into life ever lasting.

I guess I know now what is the right thing to do. Unlike Ben Kingsley, for me after knowing the truth, not that it is difficult not to do it, but it is extremely fatal not to do it! Matthew 25:41-46 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 'I was a stranger and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." So Anthonio will get the Rp 100,000 he asked to borrow though I am certain it will not be returned. Soo Chuang on the other hand is confident that Anthonio will honour his commitment. We shall see who's right!

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Missions List:

- Faith in Mankind, is it Possible?

- First Day in Kupang

- Is There Anything More Important than to Know Christ Jesus and to Make Him Known in this Life?

- Opportunity Amidst Adversity

- Preparing for the Great Work ahead

- Reaching out to our Neighborhood

- The Service would Start at 1:00am!

- Unity in Co-working
 

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