Emmanuel: God with us

This post will be short, but my message is of great importance. We may at times ask ourselves the question: What is Christianity? Or where is Christianity? Or where is the God we confess in and pray to? But this I tell you. God has not abandoned the people of Calcutta. He is here. Though it may be hard for you at home to comprehend, He is truly present here. He lives here among the poorest of the poor. He has moved the hearts of people to come to Calcutta, to be carrier of His Love. He has risen believes from all over the world to go out in the name of Jesus to serve the unloved, unwanted and the uncared for.

As I share with you the stories of the brokenness and suffering I witness here, it’s my hope they create in you a heart that cries out to God. In Matthew 9:36, God’s Word tells us that when Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion on them. As you meet the suffering people of India through me, I pray for God to move in your heart and to fill you with the compassion of Jesus. It’s difficult to be a voice for these people, but I hope my witness will call you to pray for these people and to look at them with compassion. God may not look like what we expect, but He is truly present. When we make God present to each other, He steps out of Scripture and becomes Emmanuel. He becomes God with us. When we are present, available, to one another, God becomes present too.

Getting closer to people helps us to see and hear them more clearly. The last six weeks I have seen and heard things, I would normally not see or hear, because I was close and not far. I have seen the faces of the poorest of the poor, I have touched their broken and fragile bodies, I have held their hands, I have heard their cries, and I watched them die. They are no longer the people I have read about, they are now people I have walked among. I don’t think I will ever be the same again.

I know some of you would like to read about my volunteering experience, and I promise to write a blog about it, when I have allowed all to sink in. I am off to the Philippines tonight. I hope I will be returning to Calcutta to serve the poorest of the poor again, hopefully in near future. In the meantime, I will look for Jesus in His distressing disguise in my own community.

Regardless of how, who or what have led you to my blog, I want to thank you for stopping by. I hope and pray that what I have written so far has encouraged, convinced, inspired or challenged you in some way to go beyond yourself – to do more than you have ever done for God and His purposes.

I dedicate this post to everyone, who makes Jesus present to me. Thanks for your time, love, support and encouragement. Thank you for being available. Thank you for your witness. I love you all dearly.

Wherever you are in life, be all there. Find Jesus where you are and serve Him.

Love one another!

With love, Mette

Jesus in disguise

We tend to think that poverty is merely about being hungry, naked and homeless, but poverty is also to be unwanted, unloved and uncared for. The streets of Calcutta are packed with these people, unfortunate individuals, living a desperate existence. Their faces and bodies reflect hardship, neglect and sickness. Their belongings are rolled up into a pile, in the place they will be spending the night. The faces of these people are etched in my mind. Each one of them is unique in what she/he handles and represents. They are real. They are alive, some barely, but they are breathing.

You walk the streets of Calcutta hesitantly, at every turn a new harsh reality comes alive. Poverty in its rawest form is nothing to smile about, but I walk the streets of Calcutta with a smile on my face. I greet the people in the streets. Occasionally we shake hands. I see them. I hear them. I think of them before I go to sleep and they even come to me in my dreams. I wonder what these people are all about. What they dream of. What their hope in life is?

In one sense or another we are all like these people: We are poor. We all have a place deep inside ourselves, where poverty lives. A cross to carry. A place of pain and suffering, but yet also a place of hope.  I encourage you to travel to that place deep within. Feel this place, this poverty deep inside yourself and sit for a moment.

My goal with this post is to get us thinking beyond ourselves and try to stir in our hearts a deep love and passion for loving our neighbors as ourselves. We are to look at each other and see sacred beings, who are worthy of love and acceptance. Appearance can deceive. We must not let the poverty of one another blind us. We are not called to judge or disapprove. We are called to love, even those hard to love. We must look at each other with compassion and patience and remember that God is represented in each one of us. We are all created in His image, in His beauty and in His goodness. Each one of us carries His Love inside of us. We are all worthy.

Mother Teresa, when speaking of the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, said that, "Each one of them is Jesus in disguise”. We don’t have to go to Calcutta to find “Jesus in disguise” though. He is living in our own communities among the sick, the hurting, the despised, the overlooked, the lonely, the hungry, the abused, the neglected, the imprisoned and so on. Jesus could be the unfriendly man next door or the old lady driving 60 km/h on the highway. Mother Teresa saw the beauty of God in the faces of the poorest of the poor. She regarded no one as an outcaste but as a unique being of worth, created in the image of God.

Let me draw a biblical parallel to this heartfelt message of mine by referring Matthew 25:31-40: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by 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 something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me”.

Let me repeat: We are all Jesus in disguise. What a revelation of truth!  Now, we must remember that when He comes to us in disguise, we will not be able to see Him. He will be masked. Our challenge is to learn to look into each other’s eyes, into the eyes of anyone in need of us, and recognize Jesus. “Love one another as I have loved you”, Jesus commands us. Eight words to summarize the Bible. The message is quite simple. Jesus wants us to love each other with a love that wishes the deepest joy for one another and that is willing to make sacrifices for each other. He wants us to bring one another before God in prayer. This message should sink completely into our hearts, minds and souls. This is the way God’s love can be spread throughout the world. The love of God can transform us, if we allow it.

Loving and serving the unloved, unwanted and the uncared for is not extra credit for followers of Jesus. It is the core of what it means to follow Him. It’s the core of what it means to love. Love is not something that needs to be earned or only felt. Love can be a decision as well. We are worthy of love by the fact of our presence, so I urge you all: choose to love! Be Love! Today, on Good Friday, we are reminded of Christ’s love for us. His willingness to die FOR US is the ultimate evidence of His love. What more can we ask for?

Let’s stand together and work together to build each other up. Let’s encourage one another and defend one another, so that the world may be filled with love, thanksgiving and goodness. Remember there is no one without fault and that appearance can deceive. Be Love!

If you spot me, smiling, in the streets one day, it’s because I just saw Jesus in disguise.

With love, Mette

Missionaries of Charity

I visited the tomb of Mother Teresa the other day. Every day I pass the tiny room where she lived, worked and died. Suddenly it’s all very real and overwhelming. Mother Teresa is no longer just a cool quote from a book. This woman is real. She is not only of the past; she is alive here and now.

Jesus words “I thirst”, spoken on the cross, explain the mission of Mother Teresa and her missionaries. They exist to quench the thirst of Jesus. They serve the unwanted, the unloved and the uncared for in the midst of the poorest of the poor.

Five days ago we had our orientation at the Mother House and we have been assigned to work at Shishu Bhavan, a home for abandoned handicapped children. So far the work has been challenging, tiring and intense. There is so much I want to share with each one of you, but I am struggling with what to share and what not to share. I won’t only be able to share positive things about this place, so maybe it’s better not to share my thoughts with you. My fear however is that I by not sharing will not allow it all to sink in, and when I leave, it will be as if it never happened - as if the reality of these children’s lives is not actually something that I’ve seen or entered into. 

When we first started working at Shishu Bhavan my biggest concern was my non-existing skills of working with children with special needs, but after five days I have learned, that you don’t need super hero strength or super hero skills to work with these children. I might not know if they are in the right position or how to stimulate them in the best possibly way, but I can assist them, care for them and love them. In return I get a lot of smiles and hugs. They keep me going.

I promise to post again soon. Next time I’ll try to be more inspiring also.

Love Mette