I had never heard of Tear Fund before today. A representative spoke in our service this morning at Whitehouse about the Tuberculosis epdidemic in Pakistan and how Tear Fund works to provide medicine for people infected with the disease. Their goal is to irradicate TB from Pakistan. They also provide spiritual support in conjunction with the physical support. So in the words of Andrew, "It can't just be a soul kitchen, you have to have the soup." Well, Tear Fund has the soup going on, we had that for lunch too and the proceeds benefitted Tear Fund.
Tonight, the former youth coordinator for Tear Fund came and spoke to the Contact Club. She started by doing an activity called "Lift the Label" which I've done with third graders before to demonstrate interdependence in economics. You look at the label on your clothing and think about where it came from. The activity can be found on the Tear Fund website www.tearfund.org. Then we watched a video about the garment factories in Bangladesh, where youth were working for 16-20 hours to earn minimal wages. Wages that would be ludicrous to us for an hour were their weekly wage.
The leader went on to read from Exodus, when God first speaks to Moses (Exodus 3:7-8) "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey..." She said that this passage shows our God as a God of compassion, moved to respond as He heard and saw the sufferings of His children. God hears the sufferings of the people working in the garment factories for unfair wages. God sees the struggles of the people who live in slums and cannot afford to imagine a better life. "How would you feel to be that person?" We were asked. Jesus tells us to clothe the poor, yet it is the poor who are clothing us.
We watched an excerpt from Prince of Egypt where Moses is before the burning bush and hears this message from God. The speaker asked us what would have happened if Moses had not responded. One of youth responded that something like what happened to Jonah probably would have happened. God would have chosen someone else, or gotten His way eventually. We have a choice to respond. If we don't respond to what we feel God nudging us to do, the challenge He suggests, we are in fact the only loser. God will accomplish His purpose anyway. God will get the job done, but our life will not have been enhanced by the power of God through it.
But how do we respond? Is this another speech about the growing atrocities of free trade and globalization where I will just end up feeling helpless as I watch the socioeconomic gaps widen? Where to begin? When you're shopping, stop to think if you really need that item. Where did it come from and do you think the workers were treated equitably? If not, Tear Fund has cards you can mail to the manufacturer to request a report on how workers are treated. Now, I know if you're like me it's all well and good, but you may not do it every time because you're nervous about looking like a radical or you really think that top is perfect, but I think that's the beauty. It may not be a big gesture, but it's a thought, an effort at all, however occasionally. Also, there are cards to give to supermarkets requesting Fair Trade items. The stores in Belfast are fairly good about stocking items such as tea, coffee, chocolates, and flowers that are Fair Trade, but it's also about being aware yourself. I was so impressed that someone didn't just educate me about Fair Trade and equitable working conditions, they gave me concrete activities to include in my life. She gave us manageable ways to start affecting change. If you visit the Tear Fund website you'll also see where youth can register for free text messages with ideas of how to be more aware and concious of their buying power. I felt empowered and validated for small efforts.
As I prepared to leave for Belfast I was desperately trying to read up on my "Brief History of Northern Ireland." After reading the same pages 3-4 times I felt like I was going to be an insult to the people I wanted to serve because I wouldn't know the history. When we arrived Doug gave us an overview, that I understood, and told us that our lack of knowledge was fine, because we should hear it from the people who experienced it anyway. Since I've been living here the signs are constantly there of the history of Northern Ireland. The streets I walk to pick up the children for afterschools are marked by flags and painted with murals commemorating the fallen volunteers or neighborhood heroes. Street signs are written in Irish and English and there are children's names I cannot pronounce or spell correctly. There is rubbish littering the streets because bins were once used as bomb hideaways and now no one is used to putting trash in a bin. There are people around me who, in casual conversation, I find have experienced the loss of a loved one or life change because of the lingering conflict. Sports, words, colors, names, foods, hobbies, are all divided. I do not understand the politics of it all. I do understand compassion though. I remember sitting in the Northern Ireland site meeting in April and being filled with the pain of years of suffering I could never fully comprehend. Listening to "Angus Dei" in the background where images of war passed the screen I felt like there was a way to show compassion even when I didn't understand. Even if all I can do is laugh with a child, hear a personal story, play a game with the youth, or sit at lunch with a senior church member then in some small way I feel I've spread the love that overflows in my heart because of what God has done for me.
The speaker from Tear Fund closed with a well known story about a young boy on a beach. Millions of starfish had washed up on the shore when a tidal wave hit. He was walking along, tossing them back in one by one, even as some were drying up on the sand. An old man came along and said, "Why are doing that? Don't you see that it doesn't matter?" The boy paid him no attention and picked another starfish up, tossing it to the water. "It mattered to that one."
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