CHASING THE DRAGON

CHASING THE DRAGON [jackie pullinger]

started a new book and it's pretty intense. it's written by jackie pullinger - famous missionary to the Walled City (Kowloon Walled City) in China.

the walled city is a no-man's land. about 80 years ago, Hong Kong and the Kowloon peninsula all belonged to Britain, except for the walled city. it was the exception. China ruled the Walled City with Chinese law. Britain kept fighting for control because it was on the peninsula (it could be good for trade), but eventually gave up. When the magistrate for Kowloon died, there was no successor (neither chinese nor british), and the city was run by gangs. Since there was so much confusion as to who owned the city, none of the police could enforce law. six acres sheltered 30,000-60,000 people (hard to know without a census). they stole electricity from outside the city, stole water from outside the city. there were two toilets for all 30,000+. It was the slum of slums.

everyone was dirt poor, most men were addicted to drugs, most women were prostitutes, almost everyone was illiterate, and everyone just barely made it by.

one day, the school kids were talking to jackie and asking for money. one kid says, "Poon Siu Jeh, I haven't got a job and i ran out of money." Jackie says, "i'm sorry, i dont have any money either" (which was true). the kid: "sure you do. you have a rich church in america just like the rest of them." Jackie: "no, i don't. all i have is this." they hear a plane fly overhead. kid: "one day, you'll just hop onto one of those and leave". Jackie: "that would never happen b/c i'll never have enough money to get on one of those." kid: "well your parents have money. they can send it to you." Jackie: "my parents don't have any money either."

that was the end of the conversation with the first kid. then, the next kid speaks to back him up. his name is Ah Ping.

Ah Ping: "Maybe you haven't got money now, but you could always get away from here if you wanted to. we're stuck right on the say, all we can do is go into it. but you westerners can fly away whenever you want to and forget all about us."

Jackie: "i would never leave you or forget you."

Ah Ping: "you westerners - you come here and tell us about Jesus. you can stay for a year or two, and your conscience will feel good, and then you can go away. your jesus will call you to other work back home.

you guys can raise a lot of money on behalf of us underprivileged, but you'll still end up living in your nice houses and we'll still end up living here."

Ah Ping: "fine for them, fine for us. they can sing about love very nicely, but what do they know about us? they don't touch us - they know nothing."

__

this kills me inside. i feel like this is SO true of christians. Ah Ping reads us so well. we just go, do some charity work - love them for a little and then go back to our nice homes and eventually forget them.

we go in hardly making an effort - we just sing and talk about Jesus and this new life he can give us. they pretend to understand, but only to make us stop talking. they don't know who jesus is. they don't know what love feels like. 

how can we plan to spend a matter of weeks somewhere and expect to see something change?? i know it can happen, it's just... i can't stand the thought that I might produce this response in a kid a meet on missions.

if i am called to love people, and i am, then i must give every single ounce of energy in love to the ones that I go to. It must matter more than anything to me.

i really dont know what to say... this just touched me and stirred up something