Jackie Pulinger
Hodder & Stoughton, 2006
One of the most inspiring book I’ve ever read. Jackie Pulinger’s stories made us believe God is so real. I’ve never known one of the ways to overcome withdrawal pains from drugs is by praying in tongues. Try it, you never know it works ^^
Some excerpts that challenges me:
Chapter 4: The Youth Club
Some remarks from the boys Jackie tried to reach out to:
“You westerners”, he continued, “you come here and tell us about Jesus. You can stay for a year or two, and your conscience will feel good, and then you can go away. Your Jesus will call you to other work back home. It’s true some of you can raise a lot of money on behalf of us underprivileged people. But you’ll still be living in your nice houses with your refrigerators and servants and we’ll still be living here. What you are doing really has nothing to do with us. You’ll go home anyhow, sooner or later”
“Fine”, said Ah Ping to me savagely one day, “fine for them, find for us too, we wouldn’t mind believing in Jesus too if we could get into a plane and fly away around the world like them. The can sing about love very nicely, but what do they know about us? They don’t touch us – they know nothing.”
Chapter 16: Old Men’s Dreams
Over the years we have had hundreds of short-termers who want to get the picture immediately – if possible on video – so they can show it to their home church and have an inspired evening. I have begged them to love the people and stay…
The disadvantage of short term is a wrong perspective based on this generations’ need for instant results. Sometimes everything goes well and there are real conversions, healings and glorious glimpses of changed lives. The visitors leave and wonder why it does not work at home. They wonder why everything seems so easy in Hong Kong. At other times nothing goes right even here. The man who prophesied last night beats up a helper the next morning or the whole house runs away. Then the visitors leave disillusioned.
We love our people whether they turn out well or not and the successes do not vindicate our ministry not the disappointments nullify it. … If God meant a child to grow slowly and safely in a loving family for up to 18 years why should we be angry at those who do not change at our pace for the sake of our statistics, furlough, or sadly for some, funding?
People I had spent time with so long before never forgot even though we lost each other for a while. Our summer missionaries did not stay to see this though we hoped they might yearn for it somehow. Stay for the party. The fleeing volunteer sometimes catches a course – sweet and sour – but no one savours the whole menu like me.
Something we (would be missionaries, or people with heart for mission, or summer missionaries - as Jackie put it) should consider, and put in our hearts.
The rest of the books are filled with stories after stories of how God has worked through Jackie miraculously to help drug addicts and prostitutes.
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