A Positive Attitude Makes Everything Beautiful

A kerosene lamp stood in the corner of the room on a small table; it’s faint light dispelling only a fraction of the darkness that enshrouded the tiny room.  But I could see everything.  I took it all in.

  A one room home, barely bigger than my bedroom in America.  No kitchen; just a stove top.  No bathroom.  No living room.  No closet.  Just one room.  And a growing family calls this home.

 Linoleum covers the cement floor.  A hard bed lies in the corner.  Handmade curtains cover the windows.  Plastic roses sit poised in an orange vase next to the lantern, giving what cheer they can muster.  The ceiling looks like someone painted it… maybe a blue sky with white clouds… I can’t really tell.  If it is what I imagine, I find it rather fitting since these people hardly see the sky this time of year.

  I take this all in.  I see the husband and pregnant wife.  Sadness is in their expressions.  You see, they left to go to the hospital when they though she was having labor pains.  While they were gone, a thief broke into their small one-room home and stole their money.

  My heart nearly breaks.  These people have hardly anything.  They live in one room.  The wife doesn’t even have a proper kitchen to cook from.  They don’t have a fridge, a washer and dryer, or a microwave.  And yet, someone thinks it profitable to rob these dear people of the little they have.

  Then I think of myself.  Just the day before I spent nearly 5000 rupees on souvenirs in Darjeeling.  5000 rupees could buy this family food for probably over 4 weeks.  And I spent it all in one day.

  Suddenly, I want to jump up from this home and run back to my room.  I feel like grabbing my souvenirs and rushing to the market.  I feel like selling every bit of my goods and stuffing the cash I earn it into the couple’s hands and running off before they can object.

  Why am I so privileged?  Why am I so spoiled?  What does it matter if I don’t have enough money for all the souvenirs I want to buy for my friends and family?  If only I could help this dear family.

  And then, I’m struck with the realization, that most families in these 3^rd world countries live like this… or worse.  Some children don’t know what it’s like to have a loving mother or father.  Some people have never felt a pillow.  Some think one meal a day is luxury.  Girls and boys get excited about getting a pen.  Still others think they’ve seen the world when they travel a few miles away from home.

  As I think of all this, my heart aches.  I agree with Katie Davis who described the need like “trying to empty the ocean with a dropper.”  It seems like we try so hard to help some, just to realize that there’s millions still who need help.  It makes you feel helpless, like using a dropper to empty the ocean.

  As I continued looking around the tiny room, a poster on the wall caught my attention.  It showed majestic mountains, red flowers and some butterflies… a good description of Mungpoo (minus the butterflies).  There were some words in English on it.  They said, “A positive attitude makes everything beautiful.”

  Looking at this family here living in this small domicile, one can’t imagine anything beautiful about it.  Not when we have our homes in America to compare it with.  Yet, the saying is true.  Having a positive attitude can transform this tiny dwelling into the grandest of palaces.  Having a positive attitude can make the trials here pale into insignificance.  A positive attitude can make emptying the ocean with a dropper possible… as long as God is overseeing.

  I found that I left that home, not with a feeling of discouragement and disheartenment, but with a renewed purpose…with a purpose to do what I can to empty the ocean, one dropper-full at a time.  It may take me a lifetime, yet if I keep a positive attitude, everything will be beautiful.

Behind Closed Teeth

I will never ever brush my teeth the same again.

Ever.

  I take my hat off to the dentists and hygienists who work tirelessly to provide oral health to their patients.  It’s hard stuff (quite literally!).  I’m impressed now at how well my hygienist works on my teeth.  I should tell them that.

  After finishing my 6^th victim’s… I mean, patient’s teeth, I’m moved to cry out for people to take better care of their teeth!  At least brush them twice a day, floss, never use tobacco, don’t drink soda pop or eat lots of sweets, don’t chew beetle nut… and don’t expect your hygienist to fix all your oral problems, for crying out loud!  Ok, enough said.

  I have now passed the line from an overly cautious, too gentle, not-doing-such-a-good-job amateur to a more confident and persistent amateur.  How do I know?  Sandra Miss isn’t looking over my shoulder gasping and grabbing at the tools.  At least all she has to do now is check my work after I’m done.  And she usually finds a few things I’ve missed, but overall, I’d say I’m starting to get the hang of this.  I’m always thrilled to look at the teeth after I’m done and see the work I did.  What a great feeling!

  One thing that’s been really nice is how I’ve been able to connect with each girl as I clean her teeth.  I’m not able to communicate with them except through hand gestures and vocal sounds, yet I am communicating to them so strongly when I’m probing in their mouth.  I’m showing them I care… that their oral health is important to me and that I care about their wellbeing.  I’m starting to remember their names too… Phul Kamari, Mina, Bipana, Ramisha... now they stand apart.  They aren’t just a part of the blob of Nepali girls I see everyday.  They are individual people with individual needs.  And now, I can minister to them more effectively. 

  One girl in particular stands out.  It’s Mina.  She’s super quiet, always carrying around a very serious expression on her face.  She doesn’t smile too easy and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard her laugh.  She’s seems like an impenetrable fortress, carrying heavy secrets that threaten to burst out in the open, leaving her bare and vulnerable.  I can’t speak her language.  I didn’t know that she bore a dark secret.

  Mina was married.  Or maybe I should say, she was kind of married.  She ran off with a guy, and in Nepali culture, you’re then considered married.  I guess his family didn’t like what had happened and they convinced the love of her life to leave her.  Talk about wounded.  She reaches out to grasp hold of what she thought was love, only to be burned for trying.  Her response then, was to draw back inside herself.  She felt that life wasn’t worth living, so she took a millstone of great weight and let it fall on her head.  Fortunately, it didn’t kill her, but she was left in a state of unconsciousness for 3 weeks.  She awoke, but had chronic neck pain all the time.  Somehow she ended up here at the Center.  She’s only 19.

  So I’m working on Mina’s teeth, oblivious to her hidden pain and trauma.  I notice her eyes… they scream for help since she’s sealed her lips.  When I fumble trying to tell her to spit, she smiles weakly.  If I weren’t working on her teeth I probably wouldn’t ever see them.

  Krystle tells me later of Mina and her past.  I guess Krystle was able to help relieve some of Mina’s neck pain, which proved to be a wrench in opening her heart just a crack.  Mina’s heart has starting warming since being here at the Center.  She’s finding that true love is still worth reaching for.  Her painful past may never be fully erased, but as we love Mina with a tender heartfelt love, her barriers will start breaking and she’ll soon find that she’s been set free.

That’s worth everything in the world.

  Yes, cleaning teeth is helping people with their physical needs… yet, I see more then that.  I see a tool that can potentially be another wrench in opening a young woman’s heart.  I can see her open it just a crack maybe, but even a crack will flood the heart with warmth and love.  Then, the winter that held onto her for so long can start to melt away into spring.

  And I can do that!  On one condition, though… I have to let Christ do the same in my heart.  As my heart overflows with His love, it will spill over onto one of these cold hearts and start the process of spring.