If someone asks you for a definition of compassion in 10 words or less, throw this at them: Making love for the needy a verb. A lot of people in the West think of India as a stinking hole, a place to get out of as soon after arriving as possible. After spending a week there, I have no idea what they're talking about. In India I saw poverty rivaling that of any squatter village in Manila, any hill village in rural Guatemala, any barrio in Lima. But in the slums of Delhi, I got to see hope, too -- real live hope born of a relationship with Jesus and the compassion for the hurting that goes with it.
I've attached two photos -- one of two children from the slums of Delhi, the second of a child from the slums of Delhi who belongs to a Compassion Intl. project.
Take a look at their faces, especially their eyes. Granted, I saw happy faces in the slums and glum faces at the church that runs the Compassion project. But what you see here exemplifies the air around those kids. The girls walking around the slums had that faint ambivalence that just leaked out. The girl on the right? She's helping lay out mats for her classmates to sit on for lunch. She has purpose. She has hope.
The lives of the girls in the first photo are the living result of a world that kicks the poor aside while talking of peace and personal fulfillment. The life of the girl below is the result of living faith -- the kind of faith that is accompanied by action (see James 2:14-17). She has the benefit of being cared for by people who, when they say they believe in Jesus, show it by showing Jesus to the poor.
That's why I could go back to India tomorrow. I saw faith alive and growing and walking around the slums of Delhi and the villages of West Bengal. I love that. I want that. I am honored to have seen it with my own eyes.
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