Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” – Voltaire

About a decade ago, Richard Sterns left his prestigious CEO position at Lennox and became the CEO of World Vision, U.S.A. Clearly, this required a bit of a worldview shift and a new prerogative on life. He chronicles his journey in The Hole In Our Gospel: The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World.

Besides personal experiences and his own theology woven throughout the book, Sterns provides mature and accurate analysis about the state of the world and how the institutional Church refuses to interact with those realities. After spending the first half of the book explaining the crippling problems facing most of the world – poverty, hunger, disease and all the trappings that go with those – he launches into a scathing but gracious (believe me, it’s possible) attack of the Western Church’s behavior towards those things thus far. He eventually concludes that the problem stems from a lack of attention: the hole in our gospel is that we don’t expect it to interact with others. We’ve construed it as an entirely personal faith instead of a deeply communal one and that has allowed us to ignore 2/3 of the world.

Providing tangible steps towards involvement – both corporate and individual – this book is FANTASTIC for people looking to engage their faith with the world. Informative without being overwhelming, it’s a great place to start. Clearly, World Vision is a fairly evangelistic organization and Thomas Nelson is a conservative publishing house, so take both of those things into account – but if you swim in those waters, this book is excellent.

*Disclaimer: Sometimes, I read books for Thomas Nelson publishers. They don’t care how I review the book, they just ask that I read and review it and post it for all the world to see. They don’t pay me to do it, but they do provide the book. If you think you’d like to do the same – check out their website and sign up.

“Mother’s First Love”, Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying and Destitute

Kolkata is a mess of contradictions. For instance – Kalighat. Kalighat is the temple to the goddess Kali, who is the manifestation of the destructive power of the god Shiva. Shiva is the creator of the universe, but his dark side and the side that can destroy all things is called Kali. I find it interesting that the destructive force is feminine – but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, the Kalighat temple is insanity. It’s the only temple that still accepts human sacrifice as a way to appease the diety and the best way I can describe the temple is that it’s a circus of color and prayer and insense. However, right next to it – literally sharing a wall – is Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying. Talk about juxtapositions. The home is a sanctuary for people. There is only limited medical care – if you are a patient there, you are terminal and there is no hope. And yet, as I stood in front of it that day, I felt nothing but hope. In the midst of the worship place to the goddess of destruction, a small woman stood up and said ‘no’. She said ‘no’ to the idea that humanity is simply playthings of the gods and that people who are dying are worth being discarded. She said no to the cycle of understanding that if you are poor, you deserve it.

She chose yes to hope and to grace and to dignity. She chose yes to believing that loving one person may not change the known universe, but that it makes a difference to that person. In the midst of overwhelming sadness, chaos and destruction, she choose yes to love. I cannot fathom that and yet know I must make the same decision. I must chose yes to hope and to love. I must.

everywhere a misionaries of charity house is, this statue will be too. mother saw her job as quenching the thirst of Jesus and her sisters do as well.

rickshaw rides in kolkata as we walk to mother house

Clearly, there are elements of our time in Calcutta that defy words. At a later date, I plan on highlighting some of those elements in their own post. To give you an overview, however, is appropriate for this post.

Kolkata, as Calcutta is now called, is the capital of West Bengal. The commercial capital of East India, the metropolitan area has a population of around 15 million. During the time of the Raj, it served as the capital and was regarded as a second London of sorts. There were times I felt like I was in a British Victorian city – the same architecture, similar street names. But at the same time, it’s distinctly Indian. Life happening on the street and rickshaws being pulled amidst the rest of the culture. One of the best ways I can describe it is this: Imagine Times Square in the 80s and 90s – life happening everywhere and stepping over people to get into restaurants. That’s Kolkata. The slums, of course, are a different ballgame. 25% of the city’s 6 million live in slums. I walked through some of them today to get to the home I’m working at and they were every bit as bad as your imagination tells you they are. Children – naked or partially clothed – running everywhere, women doing laundry on the side of the road, men dealing glue to huff so people forget how hungry they are … these are all realities of life in a slum.

We spent our time living at the Fairlawn Hotel on Sudder Street, working at one of Mother’s houses and eating at the Blue Sky Cafe. We spent five days in this fascinating, bustling city and I loved it. I loved that we were there long enough to have a routine and long enough to know people in the neighborhood. I love that we bought water at the same place every morning and that we could walk to the coffee shop on Park Ave. I know several of my teammates who hated Kolkata and it’s frenzy and they were not sad to leave. I was. I feel unfinished with Kolkata – hoping to go back and spend more time collecting stories of natives and expats alike.

We’ll do our brief photo tour and then stay tuned for next time when we’ll talk about Missionaries of Charity, Mother Theresa and how those things have intersected in my story.

The view from our hotel gate. The white building contains the Blue Sky Cafe, easily Michael’s favorite eating establishment. Anywhere. We probably ate 70% of our meals in Kolkata here. Our waiter there was Chico and he is amazing and we miss him.

We stayed at a British hotel. Complete with tea time each afternoon. Here, Stroope proves to us that he did live in the U.K.

Laundry : one of those things that happens in the street and happens in droves when it rains.

The entrance to Mother House, which serves as the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity. The room where Mother spent her life and last moments is preserved for posterity. It’s a surreal and holy experience

Mother’s tomb

We ended our time in Kolkata by spending about eight hours in the train station as we waited on our delayed train to Varanassi