Eric's Beijing Diary

This evening, I went to the Bookworm to get a glimpse of the austere forbidden kingdom of North Korea by way of a screening of a movie by Nick Banner on the training of young performers for the Mass Games. Nick Bonner has put together a tour company, leading tours to North Korea. Not sure when I will see that country. Americans are generally not welcome (although there are brief periods when American citizens are allowed), and it is very expensive. Some day, but I don't know when.

As I was returning to the subway stop, a couple young ladies walked up beside me. One of them spoke pretty good English. They were hustling for money. She told me that they had come from the countryside to get work, but couldn't because they didn't have proper ID. They wanted money because they were hungry. Well, I will generally let any beggar bum a meal off me--I did enough of it myself when I was hitchhiking across the country as a kid. So I took them to McDonald's and bought them each a hamburger meal. The young lady who spoke English told me they had never been to McDonald's. While we were eating, she told me that they wanted to go home, but did not have enough money to buy a ticket. I've heard that line before.

Several years ago, John and I were on the way to church in Tempe, Arizona, when we came upon a lady standing by the freeway exit with a sign that said, "Will Work For Food." Problem with most of those people is that they don't really want to work, they want money. I stopped and told the lady that we were going to church, and invited her to come along. I put her bike (a very nice one, I might add) in the trunk of my car, and we went to church. When we got to the church, I put her bicycle in the church store room until after the service. It turned out that the church was having a potluck dinner that day, so I invited her to eat with us. As it happened, there was a guy in the church who did quite a bit of work with drifters. I told him of her request for money to go back home to California. He talked to the church leadership, and they authorized a check for the ticket price. He told me that he was going to take her to the bus stop and put her on the bus, which I told him was a good idea. I informed the lady that we had arranged her travel expenses. Well, she waited until I turned my head, then she disappeared. Was I surprised? No. Not at all.

Back to the two young ladies. Of course there is always the possibility that they were telling the simple truth--came to the city, couldn't find work, and became homesick. But I doubt it. They didn't look or act homesick, and they were both pretty well dressed and seemed to be feeling good. So would they use the money I gave them to buy drugs or something? I don't think so. I am pretty sure they would use it to buy food and a place to stay. But getting along in life by playing an endless con game with sympathetic foreigners is not a responsible way to live. There are beggars in Beijing who make more money begging in the streets of Beijing than they can working all day in the fields back in the countryside. In a way, I can't blame them for wanting to have an easier life, but as Christians, we should not be encouraging begging. But we can't just sit and do nothing. I really believe that part of the solution is to encourage the development of NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) in China. If there were a Christian homeless shelter in the Chaoyang district, I could have taken those two young ladies there, and they could be given the kind of help that would guide them into responsible employment, without encouraging dependency. I am thinking out loud, now--we will not solve all the problems of poverty in a day. But we should spend some time thinking and praying about these things. We must believe that God cares more about these problems as we do--that, in fact, our concern comes from God, and that He will help us to develop the kinds of ministries that will reach out to needy people in a way that encourages them to be responsible citizens.