On our recent World Impact Short Term Trip to South Asia,
we participated in homeless outreach and drug rehabilitation ministry for the
homeless people who were willing to go through the program. In that particular
part of the world, we were told the local people have a strong honour-shame
culture such that they wouldn’t allow family members to become homeless as it
would otherwise be a great shame upon the family. Thus, the homeless people
were either outsiders (i.e. people who migrated from other states or countries
into that state) or drug-addicted “insiders” (i.e. local people who were part
of the culture) such that they were pretty much disowned from their families.
This was reflected in the languages the homeless people and people at the drug
rehabilitation centre spoke (the local language as well as the national
language rather than just the local language alone). This really reinforced to
me the importance of both the homeless outreach and the drug rehabilitation
ministries, and I’m so grateful that I was able to participate in it. The
Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament emphasise the importance of
how we treat those on the outside (e.g. Matthew 25:43), and I am challenged as
to how I think about the homeless people I walk past as I get to work every day
in the CBD as well as how I feel about those who are different to me.