my mumble jumble

My mom and I just watched a Chinese travel film on Cambodia called On The Road-向世界出發. Thinking that it would only talk about the Khmer Rouge, Killing Fields, Angkor Wat, my jaw dropped yet again when they showed little kids as young as five years old drifting around in the ocean in a big bowl begging tourists for money. They were literally paddling in bowls that were just large enough to hold them. With fishing boats and waves slamming into their vulnerable "rafts," what are five to eight year olds doing out there? The camera crew followed two sisters home where there were eight other siblings living w/ their parents. The father is a fisherman, but his income cannot afford a family of twelve... about to be thirteen. (The wife is pregnant again. O_o) Thus, he told the two sisters to beg for money when he heard that other families were doing the same. As the crew filmed the two sisters during the day, they noticed that the girls only spoke in simple phrases. They probably never had an education.

Do we encourage this by giving them money? If we do, it'll encourage them that this is the most efficient and fastest way to make money. If we don't, they suffer. Same goes to the kids who are kidnapped in China and other countries. Depraved ppl kidnap them and cut off their limbs and throw them out on the streets as beggars. If we give them money, we're actually giving money to the wicked ppl. If we don't, the children suffer. What do we do? How can we stop these acts? Let's put aside how we can help make a change for now. Then how are we supposed to show our emotions when we see these acts? Do we ignore the tugging of our hearts to give them money and walk by without looking? Do we look them in the eye and embrace them and try to show them some love? Do we get our cameras out to take pictures so we could show ppl back home what's going on in other parts of the world and advocate for the children? Do we save their dignity or perhaps not make a monkey show out of them by pointing our cameras at them?

Hopping back onto dry land, we go to a tourist area where kids walk around selling postcards and books. We see their hard work. We see they hope to make money to pay for an education. We also see how well they know how to speak to get business. (Was that an excessive use of prepositions?) The crew followed a fourteen year old boy named Koo who looked like an eight year old. He makes a living by selling postcards and books in tourist areas. Nicholas Tse, the Hong Kong singer who went w/ the crew (who also used to be one of my favorite HK singers), got to chat with Koo. His wish was to save enough money ($200 USD) to buy a vendor cart. That way, he wouldn't have to walk so much to sell his postcards. How many of us wish to save money for business and educational purposes? This brings back the issue of wasting money. Although I am very fortunate to be in a well to do family and never knew what being poor meant, my perspective on money has certainly changed. Not that I'm a stingy person, but it frustrates me to see money being unwisely used now. Did I really need that blue light stick in my car to make it look cool? Do I really think over how I use my money before I buy things that I probably won't use after the first or second time? Was it really necessary to buy this for the heck of it or get that for fun?

@_@ It pains me to see how street smart the kids are at the age of 5. Is it a good thing that they're forced to grow up so fast, but if they're not, they wouldn't have money for food and education.
Koo: You want to buy postcard?
Nic: A postcard?
Koo: Yeah, buy one for your girlfriend.
Nic: *laughs* I dont have a girlfriend.
Koo: Do you know why you don't have a girlfriend?
Nic: Well, that's because I'm married
.....
Nic: Do you have a girlfriend?
Koo: No. No money, no honey.

Later in the day-
Koo asking some foreigners: You want to buy postcard?
Foreigners: *avoid eye contact*
Koo: No postcard? How about book?
Foreigners: *shake head*
Koo: You buy one, I leave you alone. Book?
Foreigners: No, sorry.
koo: Why you sorry? Just buy a postcard.

No money, no honey?! You buy one, I leave you alone?! Sure, we can laugh and joke around and say wow what a boy! But knowing why he's saying things like this really makes me ponder on how circumstances can shape a person.

Another point I want to mention is our good deeds as Christians. A monk by the name of Sieneng founded the Life and Hope Organization in Cambodia. He contacts organizations overseas to raise funds to build houses and provide bags of rice for the kids' families so they dont have to go out and beg for money. (Was that a run on sentence???) Now that the financial problem is taken care of, the children have less of an hindrance in getting an education. What I'm trying to get at is this- we Christians do good deeds because we are grateful for God's grace to us and everything we do points back to His love and goodness, not ours. No disrespect to the monk and bless him for his kind heart, but sadly, we know these good deeds arent the way to eternal life in heaven. And certainly, we shouldn't be doing good deeds because of heaven or heavenly awards. Our good deeds as Christians don't earn us a way into heaven either. It's only through putting our faith in Jesus and what He has done on the cross for us. Sometimes, we tend to do something good to cover our flaws, and we forget about the original problem- our sins- that have blocked our relationship w/ God. Only Jesus can take our sins away.