surely this is not THE Jericho Road

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

-Luke 10:25-37

At the end of the street where I lived in Madrid, the same man sits on this corner of concrete that forms the entrance to a metro station. He has folded cardboard on this little corner to form a seat. When I started my walk around 8 am, he wasn't there, but by the time I came back in the afternoon, he was there. He had the same quick little remarks as I walked by, "hello pretty" or "good afternoon!" and a smile on his face with his metal cup in his hand hoping I would put in some change.

In my twenty minute walk, I made only three turns. On the main road, after passing this first man, I also passed another woman who sat in the same spot every morning. She never spoke, she just had her little dish sitting there waiting to be filled. As people walked by, she would make eye contact and follow them with her eyes as they approached and as they passed her.

By the time I walked home, she was still there but she switched to the opposite side of the road. An accordion player, who always started conversations with me at the stop light where he sat, joined the commute. A few times there was a man in a very ragged suit who had a cardboard sign that just said "I am hungry." He stood about two blocks after the accordion player. Yet another man, also sitting with a cup in front of him, sat in between them.

Several mornings, I walked just inches away from a man's "home" where he kept his suitcase of belongings and was wrapped in a blanket on the same step of a car dealership. He was always gone by the afternoon. I never saw his face. Sometimes in the afternoons, a man would be on one of the street benches, barefoot, with beer cans under the bench, sleeping. I wondered if it was the same man or two different men.

Surely, this road, this road that I walked everyday isn't THE Jericho Road. Oh no, it's not possible because its Calle Isaac Peral. Its not called Calle Jericho. Surely this is not where I am called to stop and ask how am I to help? Surely, I am not the Priest or the Levite who walked by heartlessly, who walked by without caring or noticing. I noticed!

I don't have any change.
I don't have coins, nor the ability to bring about change. 

Is the parable about giving each of them money everyday as I walk past them? Is it asking me to make them all breakfast or lunch, or provide them with groceries? Is it merely telling me that I cannot be hard-hearted and ignore? The one that had mercy inherits eternal life- I have mercy on them! Is the parable about teaching me that these people are PEOPLE, they are humans with stories and struggles, who deserve someone who advocates for them, someone in their corner, someone to help them? Is the parable only about guarding them from my judgment or ensuring I do not turn up my nose thinking I am greater than them?

I want to believe that the parable has real, rich requirements for me. Its just so much easier to think that the only Jericho Road I've been on were on "mission trips" or when I've actually tossed out a few coins or offered whatever food I had in my purse. 

Today, I write to admit that I realize I take the Jericho Road everywhere. I want to be the Good Samaritian, I just don't always know exactly what that means. Thus, I am, in fact, the lawyer who asks Jesus for some clarification. Who says, yes, Teacher, but tell me, where is the line? What must I do to inherit eternal life?

So, what Jericho Road takes you to work every morning? To the gym? To school?
What does that mean to you?

"On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope.

Do you remember the client that had the greatest impact on my summer in Rwanda? 
Well, hold on tight because this post holds little back. 

She was kidnapped, raped repeatedly and locked in a home where a candle caught on fire and burned her so badly her legs had to be amputated. Through counseling with her mother, we learned that she barely survived the genocide in 1994 and was staying in a shelter when a Ugandan man started "caring" for the women and giving them money. In exchange, he raped them. Jaime's mother was basically a sex slave for this man. When she got pregnant with Jaime, she stayed but hated suffering the man's abuse. When she got pregnant again, she finally left and left Jaime behind with her father.

When you watch the video, you see Jaime tell her story. She doesn't talk about the case, or about the intricate details of just how horrible her childhood was. She speaks of God's ability to instill hope when it seems it is lost forever.

I met her mother and father, who both abandoned her. Baraka, who speaks in the video, counseled with both of them and her father has actually been to visit Jaime and has helped financially support her. An incredible feat! I worked on her legal case against the two perpetrators. I met the principle one who kidnapped and raped her in court, and have never felt such a strange and disgusting feeling. The first guy claimed that he was under the age of criminal liability and caused us to go find his birth certificate. He was actually around 40 years old. As a legal strategy, we ended up asking the court to join the two men's cases together so that they would point fingers saying, "the other one did it" and that the Judge would see they both should go to jail for a long, long time. I do not know the outcome of the legal case, and it isn't relevant. I share this video with you because you prayed for her, because you prayed for me and my heartbreak after we met, and you pray for the incredible work that IJM does. The people and places in the video are REAL to me. I share it with you so that for four minutes, you have insight into IJM, into the emotionally charged nature of this kind of work, and into Rwanda.

Her smile is real, her hope is palpable, and her courage is astounding. I think its very possible no other client for the rest of my legal career will touch me like she did.

Please share her story, I know that I always will.

My original blog post when I first met Jaime: http://defineyourdestination.blogspot.com/2013/06/from-field-into-field.html

To read more from IJM and to donate to IJM's incredible life changing work: http://ijm.org/jamies-story

You are very TALL

There is an intriguing cautious line that has been taunting me at work. I try not to be overly reflective, but it's been difficult for me to ignore where I was this time last year. This time last year I was in Rwanda, a country that taught me so many things, challenged and stretched me. I suppose this is the value of a true experience - a gift that keeps giving, keeps teaching.

Working for IJM, I learned to be bold. I learned how skilled I actually am. I learned to appreciate that I am a valued asset to an office. I learned that I did not need to be told what to do; I needed to seek out things to do. I observed a group of people that worked tirelessly toward improving anything and everything around them despite the odds and challenges fighting against all their efforts.

Our clients at Christian Legal Aid have no other resource or other option.

On one hand, I am a stupid law student with mediocre grades at a run-of-the-mill law school. I have little experience, and I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. I am not bar certified, I have not taken several key required courses. I have little experience with the California court system. I have never been in poverty or in the awful situations my clients are in. I am impatient and get frustrated when speaking with a mentally ill client who cannot express herself very well. I am not an attorney! I have a long ways to go.

On the other hand, I am an American law student with a lot of experience. I survived Rwanda for Pete's sake! I know how to Google. I have a computer and a working printer with ink and paper. I can read a court document and begin to fill it out. I can encourage a client. I have a smile to offer. I can ask questions that lead me to answers as I continue to research for a solution. I can learn. I am more of an attorney than I am not an attorney. I have no straightjacket on.

Our clients have no other resource or other option. If I can't do it, nobody can. And so I am a can-do almost- attorney. There is no other choice. Thus, you also are a can-do person. You are a person of great assets, of great resources, who can be of great assistance. Get out there and give someone whatever you have to offer. Don't say 'oh well.'  Further, we believe in someone who is the great I AM. And so, when you are feeling crippled by all the things you are not, hold fast to your believe in the I AM. And through Him, you can do ANYTHING. This is how law school teaches you- by throwing you into the deep end and watching you struggle to doggy paddle until you wake up to realize you're actually swimming just fine in an olympic race.

So this is a plea for you to fight the line between feeling like you "can't" and just standing up and getting it done. A few travel friends and mine always say, "Figure it out!" when we are traveling. Whatever challenge, obstacle or bridge you have to cross, you CAN DO IT.

And for those out there who you think you cannot help, the smallest thing you have to give could be the greatest thing they've ever received.
It is a powerfully humbling thing to be a part of.
Join in.