Three years ago we asked a metal-worker to fix some gutters on
our house and commissioned him to build a slide for Sam. He did both jobs very well, but the slide was
very much delayed because the worker had ‘gone to the village’ and hadn’t come
back. We were quite annoyed at the
delay, however, we soon learned that the worker had become paralysed in the
village because he had suffered a major stroke. We soon became very guilty as we were
thinking him lazy and maybe even that he had stolen the metal we already paid
for and run off to the village.
This man was Fred.
We received our slide from one of Fred’s apprentices and
thought no more about him until one day, two years later, Fred appeared on our
doorstep. Literally on our doorstep: I
went out to take the boys to school at 8am and actually tripped over him. “Hello?” I enquired, “Can I help you, sir?” He explained that he was Fred who had built
the slide and he wanted to talk to Gareth so I let him in and Gareth listened
to him. Apparently Fred had come because
since his stroke he had struggled to get work, considering he could now no
longer use one side of his body (although he could walk) and his family had to
move to Jinja (8 hours away by bus) and he had run out of money. He needed work but before that he needed
money to buy metal in order to make something to sell. Gareth sent him with 20,000 shillings (£5) to
make a school boarder’s tin trunk which he would hope to sell at 30,000
shillings. Problem solved. Or so we thought.
The next week Fred was back … with the trunk! Fred explained that he hadn’t found anyone
to buy the trunk and that he didn’t want to be in debt so if we just gave him
10,000 shillings we could, in effect, absolve his debt and have a tin trunk in
with the deal! Win-win! (Over the next months we would come to find
Fred full of win-wins that somehow didn’t add up!) So Sam is now the proud owner of a tin-trunk
in which to pack his toys to come home.
At least he thinks he has won!
Fred came back a week later at 7.30am. He asked to speak to Gareth. Gareth came and Fred told him that he needed
more work. Gareth told him of our
colleague who needed a lock fixed on his own tin trunk (everyone must have
one!) We arranged to deliver the trunk
to his ‘workshop’ (under a tree off the main road) and although we believe he over-charged
us for the business but we figured we were helping him at the same time. We said thank you and good bye.
Fred came back a week later.
At 7.30am. I tripped over him at
the gate on my way to school. I inwardly
groaned and then immediately thought “I wonder if Jesus ever groaned at seeing
someone in need?” and felt guilty. I
smiled at Fred. “Good morning Fred! How can I help you?” He wanted to see Gareth. “Gareth’s a little busy right now, preparing
for work in a village. Can I help you?” No.
Fred just wanted to see Gareth. I’m
used to this now: Gareth is the boss and any word from me, even if I say “Gareth
said this” is irrelevant and probably untrue.
I went to get Gareth who also groaned.
Fred wanted more work. We seriously
didn’t need any more trunks by this point so we sent him over the road to Sam’s
school to ask the director if he needed a slide for the kids’ playground, which
we had heard him mention before. Fred didn’t
want to go alone so Gareth went with him and became late for the whole day of
busy work making a water tank in a village.
The director didn’t have an answer straight away but promised to phone Fred
back.
Fred came back a week later.
I tripped over him at the gate. “Morning
Fred!” I groaned inwardly thinking ‘Now I
understand why Jesus used to go up a mountain or in a boat to get away from
people!’ “What can I do for you this
morning?” Fred wanted to know why the
director hadn’t phoned him yet. I took
Fred to see the director but he wasn’t there.
He then wanted to see Gareth to say good bye. “It’s fine, Fred, don’t worry about it, I’ll
tell him you said ‘bye.” No, Fred was
adamant he was going to see Gareth and anything I said wouldn’t change his
mind. I told him he may as well wait at
the gate to save him the walk up to our veranda which, as a semi-paralysed man,
is a steep walk. He waited at the
gate. I went in to get Gareth. Gareth groaned and we had a little rant about
how Fred was really annoying. Then we had
a little rant about how annoying it is that we could never do the right thing:
if we kept on giving him things he would keep coming back. If we didn’t give him anything we were
ignoring one of Jesus’ own children who was in need. Gareth went to see Fred but Fred had
gone.
The next time he came he chastised me for being rude and
leaving the gate locked with him outside.
I tried indignantly to explain myself but Fred always talks through my
explanation and continues with his helpless expression and nothing can be said
that he would listen to. Of course he
wanted to see Gareth so I went to get Gareth before I exploded in Fred’s
face. Fred told Gareth about how he was
going to see his family in Jinja and try to stay with them and get work. The upshot was that Gareth gave him 60,000
(£15) for bus fares to Jinja and sighed an inward sigh of relief thinking we
wouldn’t be tripping over Fred on our doorstep again.
Three weeks later I tripped over Fred on the doorstep at
8am. ‘Oooooooh no.’ I sighed under my breath. “Morning Fred!” I said.
“I’m surprised to see you here, I thought you went to Jinja!” Fred had gone to Jinja and found that
everyone there was using machines to make metal objects so there was no work
for someone who still used their hands.
He came back to find work instead.
But alas, there was no work to be had.
Could we possibly give him some money to help him buy metal to
work? Of course he didn’t say this to
me, I’m just the secretary. He asked
Gareth. Gareth said that he wouldn’t be
getting any more money and advised him what he should do in terms of looking
around and asking around for work. He
offered Fred the opportunity to figure out how to make metal cases for some new
stoves that Isaiah and he were making.
Fred went away to figure it out.
Two weeks later Fred was our early morning wake up
call. “Just be aware, Bethan, I think
Fred’s at the gate,” warned Gareth. I
took the boys to school and when I came back Fred had let himself in the gate
and was sitting on our veranda. “Gareth,
he’s here” I told Gareth. Gareth didn’t
have time to talk to Fred and we both muttered to each other in operatic
hushed-tones how we were thoroughly fed up with this man coming to us asking
for our help. Gareth was in a hurry,
already late for a long day of burning agricultural waste and making charcoal –
a long business that needs a whole day to be done in a village two hours’ drive
up a mountain – and seeing Fred was the last thing on his mind. “Yes, Fred.”
He said bluntly. Fred explained
how he didn’t have any work or hadn’t eaten breakfast and was generally in
tough times. Gareth tried to sympathise
but in the end had to shout and use a tough voice to get through to Fred
because everything he started saying was interrupted with an excuse as to why
Fred’s idea of a hand-out was right and Gareth’ idea of trying to help in other
ways was wrong. Gareth said that he
would not give him any more money whilst not seeing anything for it (understand
Gareth is a development worker so handing out money is not the way they work:
first you implement an idea, work out how much it will cost, make sure it is
going to work and then find funding – in effect, us.) He eventually had to shout to Fred “please
go, Fred, I’m not giving you any money and I have to go to work!” Gareth was about to get into the car and
drive off when the usual tug of his conscience made him stop (the Holy Spirit loves
to keep tugging and making us better people despite our best efforts!) He ran down the drive, along the road and offered
Fred some baked bin tins and the like for him to recycle into useful things for
him to sell. Fred went away with the
tins looking most dejected.
A week later Fred was back.
As I fell over him at the gate at 8am I said “Fred, there’s nothing for
you here, please, you have to stop coming to us. We can’t solve all your problems plus the
rest of the town whose people are also poor.”
Fred explained that he was particularly unlucky. “But the whole of Kasese is unlucky! So many people are sick, paralysed, deaf,
poor and generally very badly off! Why
should I only keep on giving you money and help when the whole town would start
coming and then where would we be? [It
is unlikely that the whole town would start coming but I was off on a tirade by
this point.] We are not a bank where you
can just come and withdraw money!” Fred
asked me what is a bank. I sighed. “A bank is where you walk in and withdraw
money and then go. We are not a
bank! You cannot just come here, ask for
money every week and then go!” Fred kept
on explaining that he was a special case, that his mum was dying in Jinja and he
had to go there to be with her and therefore needed to talk to Gareth. “Fine!”
I replied, exasperated. “I’ll go
and get Gareth.”
With one movement I went in the gate and shut it before he
could follow me in, leaving him sitting on the grass outside our gate. I went to tell Gareth that his best friend
was here and we both said to each other “Seriously, what are we supposed to
do? I’m pretty sure we are supposed to
just keep giving and giving without complaining because we have far more than
he does and to us it really doesn’t matter if we give him £5 because we have
it. But if he keeps on coming every
Monday for the rest of our time here he is not only going to drive us insane
but he will keep asking for more and more until we feel thoroughly taken for
granted and then his friends will start coming too!” We really didn’t know what to do. Eventually we decided that we should give him
20,000 shillings (£5) and a bottle of water to go to Jinja and we should advise
him to stay there with his family because he clearly isn’t getting any work
here in Kasese so he may as well be there in Jinja not getting any work where
his family can look after him. Maybe one
of his children needs to leave school to find work to look after him (we
usually would not advise children leaving school but since any education beyond
year 6 is out of the ordinary it is not unusual for people to do that here.) Isn’t that why people have so many children?!
By the time we had discussed all this Gareth went to the
gate and found that Fred had gone. The
next bit is rather ironic, considering that we had been trying to get rid of
Fred: Gareth ran down the road looking for Fred in order to give him the money
and give him the advice to stay in Jinja!
He found him a few hundred metres down the road and hopefully, saw Fred
go on his way for the last time.
Fred has really made us think but we are really and truly
not sure what Jesus is trying to teach us through Fred’s visits. Or are we making excuses and it is really
perfectly obvious: We are not seeing
Jesus in everyone we meet. What does the
Bible say about Fred?
Matthew 25:35 –
Jesus was talking to people: “For I was hungry and you gave
me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in. I needed
clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison
and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? When did we see you a stranger
and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go
to visit you? The King will reply “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Proverbs 14:31
Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
Matthew 10:42
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward."
And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward."
