Filed under: life
Well it’s been quite a while, but I’m planning on writing again soon.
Filed under: life | Tags: A Thousand Questions, answers, culture shock, evil, God, life, pain, suffering, Willow Creek
I’ve had some difficulties coming back from India. It’s more than culture shock. When a person has so much meaning in their life like serving the poorest, most destitute people on earth, then returns to their affluent community with seemingly very little meaning, things can be very difficult. I’ve been wrestling with the questions this video brings up. Ultimately, the end of the video answers the hopelessness I feel right now. Please spend the ten minutes to watch this video. I promise it will be worth it. Enjoy.
Filed under: India
Volunteers at work washing dishes at Kalighat.
Momma T's Tomb
David, the director of the orphanage I stayed at.
Now that I’m back from India, I’m wondering what to do next in life. I plan on continuing my education. I plan on living sort of near home. And I have this burning desire to be involved in missions overseas. I’m wondering how this will all work out.
This wondering applies to my blog, as well. What do I do? Delete it, let it stagnate, or continue it? I have a few more posts to write on my experiences in India, but I’m running out of things to write on. As my life goes on and I change there are other things I’m burning to write about.
I don’t know. What do you think I should do? Please leave a comment or use this nifty poll here to help me decide.
Filed under: Bangladesh, India, Nepal | Tags: Bangladesh, Home for the Sick and Dying Destitutes, India, Kalighat, life, microcredit, Nepal, Nirmal Hriday, Orphanage, schools
Now that I’m back in the States with access to a decent internet connection, here’s a short picture documentary of my trip to India, Nepal, and Bangladesh:
The kids from the orphanage walking to get ice cream.
A couple of the kids posing for the picture at the orphanage.
David, the man who runs the happy home, holding up some goat entrails--what we had for dinner. It was good, too.
Me and my buddy Samradh hanging out at the park with the rest of the kids.
Some of the kids at the happy home excited to see themselves in a picture.
Nirmal Hriday - Kalighat Home for the Sick and Dying Destitutes. Inside the Male Ward. This is where I worked daily.
A dying man being fed by a volunteer.
Lunch time at Kalighat.
In the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal.
On top of the mountain. If it was a little clearer you would be able to see Mt. Everest behind me.
A microcredit beneficiary I met in a very rural village in Bangladesh.
Benhati School, one of the two schools that Bethany School supports.
Pastor Don, director of Youth Ministries at Talitha Koumi Bhavan, the organization that runs the schools and microcredit programs I visited in Bangladesh.
A beautiful view of one of the many, many lakes in Bangladesh.
THE END (for now.)
Filed under: Bangladesh, India | Tags: Bangladesh, Christianity, India, life, microcredit, microfinance
Jesus definitely blessed my time in Bangladesh. The trip was an incredible time of learning and growing. My first day I spent in Dhaka, the sprawling capital of Bangladesh, and visited several beneficiaries of microfinance and learned their stories. Afterwards, I talked with a man who is a professional when it comes to Christian microfinance, probably the best in the country. We talked for several hours and I learned a lot about how a MFI (microfinance institution, that is) works and what it takes to run one successfully. The next three days I spent traveling from rural villages to even more rural villages meeting microfinance beneficiaries and directors of field projects that serve rural areas. In addition, Bethany School (the elementary and Junior High School that I went to) support two schools with their chapel money, one in Bagbonga and one in Benhati, and I got to visit both of them. I remember Jerry Hogshead coming to chapel and talking about them, but I never dreamed that I’d be able to see them myself. God was really at work during this time and made everything work out perfectly. I had so many new experiences such as going down muddy roads on a cart drawn by two cows, going on small river ghats, eating food that was completely natural and organic, and spending time in small very rural villages. I just got back from this trip this morning.
If you’re interested, some things I learned about microfinance and MFIs is listed below.
-Microfinance is defined by the community and community’s needs, not the other way around. Defined by the demand of the community.
-Rules, regulations, checks and balances, reliability, accountability, and an experienced executive are essential to a sustainable MFI.
-In an MFI, administration costs must be low to keep the company sustainable.
-Sociality comes first; if you can’t communicate it’s not sustainable.
-One must look at impact over the long term instead of the short term. It takes five to ten years to make money and create a real impact on the community. Also, a bank/MFI must build up trust and be reliable.
-Microfinance creates jobs on several levels.
-In microfinance, there are two types of approaches. First is the corporate approach, which targets individuals and works best in urban areas. Secondly, there’s the group approach that divides people into groups, or chapters. This approach works best in rural areas.
-In rural areas, weekly meeting are key.
-Loans are only given to women. In addition, training in hygiene and use of money are also provided, which helps fight sexual inequality and teach basics of health and household efficiency and safety.
Well, this is my last post from India; I’m leaving Kolkata tonight for Seattle. I will continue to post in the future about India (including pictures) as well as on other things that I think about.
Filed under: Bangladesh | Tags: Bangladesh, Christianity, Kiva, microcredit, microfinance, microloans, Microplace, Poverty
I have an incredible opportunity this week. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving Kolkata to spend five days in Bangladesh to study microcredit–something I’m very passionate about.
For those of you who don’t know about or aren’t clear on microcredit, here’s a quick intro. Poverty is rampant in most stagnant economies so, in order to attack poverty at its roots, one must stir up the stagnant economies, so to speak, by adding new life through the creation of businesses and markets that will get money flowing. The problem is that none of the poor people in these stagnant economies have the capital (money/resources) to start one of these businesses. The answer in this case: microfinance. Microfinancing corporations loan money to the poor, often in small amounts around 40USD, to start businesses that will gain enough money to pay the loan bak plus excess for the family to live on. Examples of these businesses could be to give $60 to a man to buy enough chickens for a chicken farm. He gets the money, buys the chickens, sells the eggs, and over a long period of time (often six months to a year) pays back the loan with only a small amount of interest and afterwards still makes money of the chicken farm to feed the kids and get them an education. With the opening of the business, a new market is open as well and the stagnant economy is slightly less stagnant. A few more businesses opening gives the community a chance at a thriving economy. In addition, one of the beauties of the system is that the money loaned is returned and can be “invested” again. A great book on this subject is called Creating a World Without Poverty by Mahommed Yunus, the creater of microfinance. I highly recommend it.
I’ve invested in microcredit and have been able to help three people with one deposit after it was repaid by the first two people. The next repayment is due in four months and then I’ll be able to reinvest for a fourth person. That’s four families that will have all the necessities and hopefully a little more. Kiva (a not-for-profit organization) and MicroPlace (run by ebay) are two online microcredit institutions that make investing in microcredit easy and accessible. You should look into them.
Anyways, my incredible opportunity is to go to Bangladesh, where microfinance was born, to do some research on the topic with a microfinance institution. I leave tomorrow and will spend five days there to finish up my trip. I’ll definitely share what I learn.
Please post a comment if you have any questions or comments on microcredit; I’d be glad to discuss it.
My time in Nepal has been very fruitful. I went on a three day trek in the Himalayas that was simply amazing. The sights and smells and sounds of the mountains are truly awe-inpiring. I felt like God was walking right beside me sometimes–not something that happens often–just because of the exquisite beauty of the place. My final destination was in a small town called Nagarkot with an elevation of 7200ft. Needless to say, the view it offered was incredible and it was even possible to see the peak of Mt. Everest. I’m spending the rest of my week here in a valley town called Pokhara which is right next to a lake and has a beatiful view of the snow-capped Anapurna Himalayas. I’m spending my time reading and meditating and just having fun. It’s been a very restful time and a growing experience for me.
Sadly, there is a lot of brokenness in Nepal. Drug problems, prostitution, and political instability are rampant and are chewing away at Nepali society. Several people I talked to in depth have complained about increase in crime and poverty over the last decade. It’s true that Nepal is a poor country with high unemployment rates and increasing social problems like prostitution and drugs born of a lack of opportunity.
Some things you can be praying for are:
-Nepal and it’s people
-That the rest of my time would continue to be fruitful
Well, my time in India is coming to a close. I have two weeks left, one of which I’m spending in Nepal as a time of reflection and meditation for this trip. I’m leaving today and over the next week I hope to write a lot to process what I’ve experienced here and so I’ll remember what I’ve seen and experienced on this trip. I’m not ready to leave. The reality is, though, that I could spend the next ten years here and still not be ready to leave. There’s so much work to do, so many problems to fix, so many broken people to make whole. I have to remember that God is the one that does this and just because I leave doesn’t mean that his work for me to do is done. This next week I’m also going to be praying about what my ministry is going to be when I return home.
Some things you can be praying for me are:
–That I will have the strength to finish out my work in India.
–That my time of reflection and meditation in Nepal will be fruitful.
–That I’ll feel God’s calling to my ministry when I return home.
Also, please pray for India:
–For the myriad of social injustices, just a few of which I’ve talked about here in this blog.
–For Lichu Bagan orphanage: That the money would come for the children to continue in school and grow up healthy. For David, the director, to remain wise and strong in his faith. And that the children would grow up to be mighty warriors of Jesus.
–For the Missionaries of Charity Sisters and the many ministries that they’re running in Kolkata and across the world.
After having been alerted to the problem of glue huffing children in Kolkata, I’m just beginning to realize–and hopefully understand–the extent and severity of the problem.
The number of street kids I’ve seen sniffing glue is literally in the hundreds. Kids do it while their parents watch. I’ve seen kids from around five to older than I am do it. I saw one guy around my age sniffing glue and it was clear that he had some serious brain damage very likely because of the glue. I’ve seen kids with a rag to their nose with dazed looks and very young children showing signs of brain damage inhaling bags with glue in them. Once when I was walking down a railway platform, I saw an emaciated child nearly passed out and hallucinating badly with a rag and a bottle of glue under him.
I’ve seen all of this since I wrote my last blog. It really breaks my heart, especially because of the low success rate of rehabilitation programs and the lack of attention and help that this monstrous problem gets.
