A new meaning for "manual labor"...

There are no wheelbarrows in India.

Ok, that might be a bit of hyperbole... but in all honesty, I've never seen one here. Nor have I seen any backhoes or jackhammers or earth movers. Nearly everything in India, from construction to landscaping to demolition, is done by hand. And when I say "by hand," I mean by hand.

When workers have to move a huge pile of gravel, they carry it on their heads. When builders are pouring cement for a roof, they lug it up on their backs. When a crew has to demolish a driveway, they use pickaxes.

This guy has to move a mountain of gravel using nothing
more than a shovel and a metal plate.

Many of these workers face rather treacherous conditions, too. I've seen men resting on the edge of a four story building without any harnesses. Several times I've noticed guys climbing rickety scaffolding in flip-flops. It's not uncommon to see entire construction sites without a single hardhat.

And at the end of a backbreaking 11 hour day, these unbelievably hard-working people head home with maybe 40 rupees ($1) in wages. 80 if they're lucky. Barely enough to feed themselves, much less their families.

These three guys were hired to demolish this driveway.
They're holding all the tools they'll get to finish the job.

So what is the cause of all of this unjust labor? Why are so many people willing to work so hard for so little? Why don't they do something about it?

Well, it all comes down to this... India is absolutely swarming with people willing to work for pennies just to have a job. Even if laborers were to walk off a job site in protest, hundreds of able-bodied men and women would be eager to take their place.

Every single day, thousands of rural Indians pour into the city to make a new life for themselves. What they find, however, is a cruel and unfeeling metropolis that devours the weak and the non-compliant. So they stay. They sweat. They toil. And the rich sit back and relax.

If you look in just about every park or garden in Delhi, you'll see
groups of unemployed men and women waiting for work.

Now, before we start condemning exploitative Indian employers, we need remember that unjust labor is a problem all over the world. Even in our own lives! Look around the room. Look at what you're wearing. How much do you think someone earned for making your shirt? What about the computer you're using? Were the workers who built it treated fairly?

You see, the truth is, even though we can't see it, our lives are intimately connected to those of poor laborers all over the world! Sure, we're not forcing people to mow our grass by hand, but you can't deny that to make our lives easy, many other people must work extra hard. It's an awful injustice, made ever worse by the fact that we are so distant from it.

Now, I'm really sorry if I'm coming off like Debbie Downer about this. I'm not trying to send you on a guilt trip. I'm not trying to make you feel frustrated and helpless. I promise.

I am simply hoping to make us all more aware. Aware of the fact that our shoes didn't just appear one day on the store shelf. Aware that our cell phone had to be assembled by someone. Aware that our coffee beans were actually picked by a person's hand.

It's taken me two trips half-way around the world to grasp this vital truth: My life is connected to theirs.

Hopefully I can remember that the next time I pick out a pair of jeans...

A few updates...

Hello all! I have a few quick prayer requests, updates and miscellaneous things to share.

First of all, over the last few days a lot of violence has broken out against Christians in the poor eastern Indian state of Orissa. It began with the burning of several churches and the murder of a nun on Monday. Now, the death toll has risen to 9, and the violence shows no signs of abating.

Truthseekers is doing what it can to support these fellow Christians in their time of need. Sunil and Nitin have been on the phone for two days trying to organize a delegation to Orissa as well as prayer and fasting meetings and a rally outside of Parliament to get the government's attention.

The whole situation could really use your prayer. It might very well blow over with no further harm done, or it could exacerbate religious tensions across the country and lead to further violence. So, pray.

Also, in much more uplifting news, Sunil Sardar is headed back to the U.S. today! There he will be reunited with his family, whom he hasn't seen in months. Pray that their reunion is sweet and filled with joy.

Sunil (right) will be back at Grace Community Church in just

a few days. If you've been reading here about Truthseekers,
be sure to go up and introduce yourself!

On a more personal note, I've reached the half-way point in my time here. Obviously if you've read any of my blog you know that it has been a fantastic time of learning, growing and doing crazy things that I could not have imagined doing just 5 years ago... :)

All that said, I still have a month and a half to go. Please pray that I would continue to grow in my hunger to learn, my willingness to try new things and my openness to what God has in store.

Finally, something that has almost nothing to do with anything above...

I wanted to share a really awesome website with you. It's being developed by my good friend Curtis Honeycutt, and no, he didn't ask me to promote it! I really do think it's that cool.

The website is called Just Wallpaper. It's a collection of desktop backgrounds that Curtis has designed. Each one is focused on a different theme related to social justice. Facts, scripture and thought provoking art... With a quick click you can replace that boring desktop of trees or cats or whatever with something truly meaningful!

Oh, and the best part of all is that Curtis takes suggestions! Don't miss it!!!

Everything is connected...

For centuries, scholars have viewed the world as a machine… a series of interlocking parts that can be disassembled and reassembled without changing the nature of the whole. But with the advent of quantum physics, scientists and philosophers are beginning to see that all things are actually quite deeply connected. On the surface, separate entities may seem unrelated, but upon a deeper examination, it becomes apparent that they exist only in relationship to each other. Like the parts of a body, no part can exist without the rest.

So what does this have to do with social justice? Just this: everything you do has some connection to the rest of humanity. While that may seem like new-age nonsense, I believe it to be true. Even though we may never come in direct contact with the poor, marginalized and destitute of this world, our day to day lives touch theirs all the time.

For example, imagine taking a trip to the grocery store. You get into your car and drive there, emitting exhaust that is contributing (albeit minutely) to the destruction of the ozone layer, which is, in turn, contributing to more severe weather patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. With drought setting in, families in those regions are having a harder and harder time finding food.

So you get to the grocery store and buy a pound of coffee. Now, unless the label says “Fair Trade,” you have no guarantee that the workers who picked the coffee were treated well or even paid enough to survive. You may have inadvertently supported a company that makes a profit by oppressing its workers.

Next, you pick up a few bananas. But did you know that the huge demand for bananas in America is leading to vast deforestation and pollution (twice as much waste is left behind for every banana produced)? Or that buying bananas out of season requires transportation that pumps greenhouse gases into our atmosphere? Again, the poorest of the poor are the ones that pay the price.

Finally, you pick up a bottle of water on the way to the register. There’s nothing inherently harmful in that, except that a single bottle of water takes more than 6 liters of water to produce. In a world with rapidly disappearing fresh water supplies and where 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, that’s quite an indulgence, don’t you think?

Now, this isn’t intended to make you feel guilty. I only want you to be more aware. To think as you go about your day about how your life is connected with the lives of people all over the world. Awareness is the first step in living your life differently. Sure, changing your lifestyle may not end world hunger or fix the environment… but it’s a start.