{"id":132,"date":"2008-04-11T05:06:31","date_gmt":"2008-04-11T11:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/?p=132"},"modified":"2008-04-11T05:06:31","modified_gmt":"2008-04-11T11:06:31","slug":"gretchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"Gretchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 25: 35,40: “…I was a stranger and you invited me in…””…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me.”<\/font>Mother Teresa believed these words from the gospel of Matthew and made them real in the city where she worked,\u00a0Calcutta.\u00a0\u00a0 She sought to treat each person she served, no matter how poor, dirty, or diseased, not only with the love of Christ but as if that person were Christ himself; not just love flowing from pity, but love flowing with respect and dignity.\u00a0\u00a0 Love in action.<\/font>When we arrived in Kolkata (Calcutta), Nakia introduced us to the people she had met while staying at the Salvation Army Guesthouse and volunteering with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity as well as a girls’ school.\u00a0 It seemed like every foreigner we met was involved in some type of volunteering or service.\u00a0 People from Australia, Uganda, America, France, Japan\u00a0were spending time with school kids, helping to clean nursing homes, or change bandages and serve meals to the poor, destitute, dying.\u00a0 Is it the legacy of Mother Teresa in this city?\u00a0 Is it the clear poverty and obvious need?\u00a0 Whatever the reason, people are serving others, striking a contrast with the idea we got in Bangkok.<\/p>\n

In Bangkok you’re told you can get “anything you want… anything.”\u00a0 I’ve heard it several times from different people in almost the same words.\u00a0 There are Western malls full of Dunkin’ Donuts, I-max theatres, brand-name clothing, jewellry, and Mexican food.\u00a0 There are tuk-tuk (took-took) drivers offering you a ride, marijuana, or a lady.\u00a0 In the mall we walked (and gawked) past a Lambourghini sports car display and saw a ticket on a Porsche for 15 million Baht (about $500,000).\u00a0 Of course real people live in a more average Bangkok all over the city, but the foreign section was teeming with opulence and options–for you, whatever you want.<\/p>\n

Gretchen was different.\u00a0 From the moment she\u00a0welcomed us outside her studio apartment it was clear she didn’t fit the self-indulging\u00a0stereotype.\u00a0 Gretchen was the friend of a friend who opened her home to us, until then strangers.\u00a0 She graduated from CSB (our connection) and pursued a Masters in Social Work from Augsburg in St. Paul, Minnesota.\u00a0 After an initial\u00a0volunteering opportunity in Thailand, she decided she wanted to come back, and found a job teaching developmentally disabled children with an organization that could use some organization.\u00a0 She often finds herself working long hours teaching, as well as counseling ex-patriates on the side.\u00a0 But, despite her busy and draining work schedule, she showed no reservations in hosting four stinky bikers and their gear in her one-room apartment for a week.\u00a0 Our stuff took up the space along the wall and most of her narrow balcony, while our bodies took up the remaining space on the floor where we slept.\u00a0 She was gracious and welcoming, even offering to give up her bed because if she slept on the floor, two of us could fit in the bed.\u00a0 Jim assured her he preferred the floor, which he does.\u00a0 Besides, we weren’t about to take away her apartment and her bed!\u00a0 Still, her generosity showed through.<\/p>\n

We spent several evenings with two of her Thai friends — Nu and Gium — who spoke English well and laughed often.\u00a0 I asked her if she has any foreign friends or mostly Thai friends.\u00a0 She said she doesn’t connect with many ex-patriates in Bangkok–she doesn’t appreciate their attitudes toward the local people–and she’s friends with the people with whom she works and lives, which are the Thai people.<\/p>\n

Our last day together was Saturday, so after working the morning Gretchen treated us to swimming at the public pool.\u00a0\u00a0 In her words she wanted to “do something for us while we were in Bangkok.”\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n

“Whatever you do for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do for me.”\u00a0 I don’t know if Gretchen does it because of Christ, but she certainly showed us Christ-like love as strangers to a big city.\u00a0 She emptied herself of her privacy for a week in order to acommodate four people she did not know.\u00a0 I am challenged to think that in the midst of\u00a0materialism, perhaps the most important question is not What do I want? but rather What can I give?\u00a0 May her reward be great, however God chooses to give the blessing.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 25: 35,40: “…I was a stranger and you invited me in…””…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me.”Mother Teresa believed these words from the gospel of Matthew and made them real in the city where she worked,\u00a0Calcutta.\u00a0\u00a0 She sought to treat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drews-posts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}