Poor Yet Rich.... Rich... Yet Became Poor

One of the requirements in the module class I am enrolled in now, 'The Church, an Agent for Transformation in the Context of Poverty', is to visit a poor community in Metro Manila. We did visit one. It was two rides away from where our school is located.

Before going to the place, I would have said that I won't be surprise to see how a poor community would look like because I have lived for four years in one one of the well-known slum area in Metro Manila- The Smokey Mountain (this place has been featured internationally for being a big dumping site that eventually became a mountain). What surprised me was to know that the community is occupying 7 hectars of land. There were approximately 7,000 people living in the congested area. Common things to see in a slum area such as where I used to stay before when I was in Tondo (where the Smokey Mountain is)are: many people playing cards or sitting doing nothing, many children playing in the streets but...... many small stores (sari-sari as called in the Philippines. You can see a store in almost every corner. For those of you who do not have enough knowledge about retail business in the Philippines, many of the products are in sachets, packed in small plastic bags to cater the need of every buyer who can't afford to buy in volume because of the lack of resources.

I can talk about what I saw and observe, but how are we as Christians to become affected and effected by the poor? It is simply easy to give help to the poor and forget them!

We had the chance to meet a German couple and a single guy from Switzerland who are living in that community. One of my classmates asked why they have to live with them when they could just visit them from time to time while living in a better place? They simply said, "When Christ came to earth, he lived with the people." They also stressed that it is because of the love of God that they are able to leave their families in their country and stay and live in a community that's not well-to-do,one that people who have enough would not dare to live in.

How does knowing and seeing the poor change me, my perspectives and priorities in life? Has being a Christian made me comfortable and contented as if I am no longer in the world? Am I poor yet rich? Or am I rich yet poor? Do I see God to these hungry and poor people? Do they see God in me?