October 7, 2002  

A LESSON IN GENEROSITY

On October 1, the Los Angeles Times began an amazing series of articles entitled "Enrique's Journey." Accompanied by striking color photographs, the author, Zonia Nazario follows the harrowing experiences of one teenaged boy who sets out from his poverty-stricken home area in Honduras to find his mother, who had left many months earlier to seek new opportunities in the United States. He doesn't have any idea where she is, nothing but the phone number of a distant relative scribbled on a piece of paper.

This story is worth reading from beginning to end. You can find it on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/news/specials/enrique/. Evidently, Enrique is only one of many children as young as ten, who are traveling totally alone by rail, bus, truck and foot in hopes of finding their families. We think of these migrants as "undocumented" or "illegal," but every individual represents a family drama, often emotionally wrenching.

What I want to share with you is one incident from Chapter Four (October 4). Enrique has hopped a freight train, along with scores of other people trying to make their way north. Once they have entered Mexico, they are already "illegal," and they're beyond the protection citizens would have. Gangs of thugs beat them for the few coins they may have; corrupt police extort anything that's left. Survival takes every ounce of energy and maximum full-time alertness.

As the train travels through the poor rural areas of Oaxaca and Veracruz, Enrique and his friends are surprised by an unexpected blessing. In each tiny village, people come running alongside the train throwing care packages. Enrique misses a couple, because he needs to be sure to hang on. Finally, he catches a bag, when he opens it, he finds a half dozen bread rolls. Others catch packages of tortillas, oranges, sweaters, plastic bottles of lemonade. Similar blessed train chases happen at every little town, ending only when the train nears the harsher realities of Mexico City.

The author points out: "These are unlikely places for people to be giving food to strangers. A World Bank study in 2000 found that 42.% of Mexico's 100 million people live on $2 or less a day. Here, in rural areas 30% of children 5 and younger eat so little that their growth is stunted, and the people who live in humble houses along the rails are often the poorest."

And yet, they chase after the hungry young people on the train to meet their needs. They don't wait to be asked; they insist on helping in any way they can.

One of the food-throwers said: "If I have one tortilla, I give half away. I know God will bring me more." Another said, "I don't like to feel that I have eaten and they haven't." Still another: "God says, when I saw you naked, I clothed you. When I saw you hungry, I gave you food. That is what God teaches."

The Scripture quote is a little crooked, but the loving heart, touched by God, is straight on.

Why is it that generosity is seen so often among the poorest people, while it's an endangered species among the rest of us? Why is it that these poor Mexican families run after the train, when we so often run away from the human need around us?

–Pastor George VanAlstine