Mercy

Tuesday night, April 1st, we considered the topic of mercy as we continued our study on relationships. I just finished reading & wanted to recommend a book to you that I think exemplifies true mercy.

When Invisible Children Sing is a true story of Dr. Chi Huang & his short time with the street children of Bolivia. After four years of Harvard Med School, Chi - a Christian - only needed a few classes to graduate. Instead, he asked & was granted a one year sabbatical. For the first half of that year, he studied the Old & New Testaments. Then, he wanted to serve - anywhere - as long as it was in a poor & pitiful place. The street children in Bolivia were a perfect fit for Chi's desires. Ninety percent of street children in Bolivia are drug addicts and the sexual activity among them leads to disease, abortion and further poverty.

Chi walked - literally - among these children for months treating their diseases, bandaging their wounds, medicating their illnesses - but most importantly - he was there to be there, for the kids. Kids who daily solicit for drugs, sex or money simply wanted from Chi his attention. And he gave it.

Telling the stories of five individual children and mentioning many more, Chi Huang presents his life experiences in manageable bits of story, written cleverly and jumping steadily from one night on the street to another days later. At times he takes the reader back to his own childhood and his experiences being a smart and unpopular student, a highly talented tennis player, and a typical bratty brother to his younger sister until her untimely death from Leukemia when he was a teenager.

Chi's mission of mercy is one to be admired. Serving the poorest of the poor - the weakest of the weak - in the streets and sewers of a poverty stricken city, should give us all a renewed desire to show mercy to all. This is an easy yet compelling read & I highly recommend securing a copy for yourself. Or, you can borrow mine!

You can buy the book at amazon and read more about the ongoing ministry started by Dr. Chi here.

Last night's message will be available as a podcast soon - but in the meantime, you can download the 21.5 MB file by clicking here.