Lost in Translation

Yesterday I went with another missionary to "los Guido," a marginalized barrio on the outskirts of San Jose. We walked down an embankment littered with garbage. We saw houses (shacks) built with scrap metal and wood. Little kids playing in the garbage. A little stream of filth. You get the idea. The majority of these homes don't have a father or husband. The missionary introduced me to a young girl of probably nine years old who acts as the mother to her four younger siblings while her mom works. This is life in los Guido.

This leads me to ponder something. What is the relationship between a person's physical and spiritual needs? Or another question: Can we minister to someone's spiritual needs without caring about their physical needs?

Now, I know that many organizations have gone the way of the "social gospel," in other words they forget about the spiritual needs of people to focus only on the physical needs. Obviously, God's Word teaches that is wrong. The need for salvation is infinitely more important than any physical need.

But what about Jesus? In my Bible it says: "And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick" (Mt. 14:14). In the next chapter Jesus says, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way" (15:32). Jesus was not indifferent to the physical needs of the people. How can we see the needs and not be moved to compassion?

This missionary does not speak Spanish very well at this point. But as we walked everyone greeted him with smiles and kisses. Why? Because he has shown love to them. Many children had fallen down the side of the embankment when it would rain. Keith knows how to build, so he built over 300 steps going up and down the steep hill. He had a missionary team come and help him build a bridge over the stream because young children had drowned there before. Hundreds of people use these projects every day, reading the letters in the concrete "Un regalo de Dios" (a gift from God). Has this missionary sold out to the social gospel? Hardly! With every project, more people have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. This missionary works under the umbrella of a church in San Jose, and they have started a church in los Guido. When we went, there were about 200 people at the service, the majority of whom have been touched by this missionary's ministry.