Items of Interest May 30, 2011 Issue

Willing to serve

Paul Borthwick

I was in India introducing a course titled “Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity” to a class of Nepali Christian leaders. Tanka Subedi was one of several World Vision staff in the class. He is a community development worker promoting health and hygiene in Nepali villages. One day, he wore a jersey featuring the image of a toilet. It celebrated the success of a sanitation project in one particular village. The caption read: “We are proud of having toilets in our homes.”

Two days later, I was summarizing a point about identity to the class, and I said, “When we are ‘in Christ,’ there is no longer high-caste Brahmin or low-caste Dalit, superior tribe or inferior tribe, Jew or Gentile, poor or rich. In Christ, we are all equal members of the same family.”. . .

Afterward, I talked with Tanka about the irony of being born a high-caste Hindu and now serving the poor in sanitation work. He told me that in ninth grade, he met a young Christian woman. “Her behavior challenged me to rethink my beliefs.” He said, “It was obvious that she was a humble, caring, straightforward person.”

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