Who is my neighbor?

Sunjeet Tamoung

My friend recently told me about this sermon:
http://www.2pc.org/resources/audio/




So I started praying.  God, how can I be a neighbor to the neighborless?  Please give me that opportunity and show me what to do.

Well, God never disappoints, and He does things in the least expected ways and times.

I was in Gangtok, Sikkim this weekend (hill station in northeast India) with some friends for a mini-vacation.  On Sunday, my friend Brittany and I and a Nepali teenager (Priyanka) went to the market to roam around.  We stopped for ice cream and sat down, when a homeless man came up to us to ask for money.  Brittany and I both had the same thought, "He's just asking us b/c we're white."  I told Priyanka to ask him if we could buy him medicine (he said he'd been to the hospital) or food, but he said no.  Then he said he wanted some ginger tea.

So we went to a nice coffee shop and bought the man a cup of tea.  We started asking him questions like, "Did you grow up in Sikkim?"  "Where is your family?"  "How were you injured?"  "What do you believe in?"

And we found out (thanks to our 16-year-old Nepali translator) that Sunjit Tamoung has lived in Gangtok all his life and was in a car accident last year, when his wife and son died.  His daughter and son-in-law (a pastor) live in Gangtok but ran him out of their house (admittedly, I don't know the whole story...a lot can get lost in translation, but it definitely made me question what had happened for them not to take care of him).

We were shocked when he told us he believes in Jesus and wanted to find a church.  He basically told us the gospel, including John 3:16 (he's read a lot of the Bible, given to him by a man in Darjeeling) and how much God loves him.  He said that Jesus spoke to him in a dream when he was still a Buddhist, telling him to follow Him.  So he's been praying for a church to go to.

He didn't realize we were believers until I said, "Jay-ma-see" (Hindi for "Praise the LORD"...Christian greeting) and his eyes got wide and he started crying.  It was like we were God's messengers.  He couldn't stop looking up and thanking God.  When we asked if was a believer, he pounded his chest and raised his hand to the sky and said, "I would die for Jesus."  Wow!  Well, there ya go!

Another sweet moment in that coffee shop (while waiting for a Nepali pastor) was when he started singing a Christian Nepali worship song.  He didn't know all the words, so Priyanka started singing it with him.  He was SO HAPPY!  It was such a jolly time of praise, thanksgiving, and laughter with God's family.

People with no neighbors.

Jesus saw those with no neighbors, like sheep without a shepherd.  So the God of the universe came to the earth to be a neighbor to the neighborless.  As Christians (little Christs), we're called to do the same.  Be neighbors to people with no neighbors. (see Luke 10 and Proverbs 19...the word "friend" is literally "neighbor")

I didn't mention this at the beginning, but the day we met Sunjeet I was having a horrible attitude b/c my "vacation" was not going as I had pictured.  I wished Priyanka was not with Brittany and I because she was getting on my nerves.  But we wouldn't have been able to speak to Sunjeet, find out about his life, connect him with a Nepali pastor, and help with a few days of his hotel and food if she hadn't been with us to translate.

I say that because God doesn't use perfect people.  He uses sinners, screw-ups, the least likely.  It's crazy.  It's ridiculous.  It's kinda dumb...to us humans.  But you see, God gets more glory like that.  If we were perfect, it would all be attributed to us.  When we love our neighbor as ourself, we reflect our Savior Jesus, who was merciful and compassionate and gave His life for the neighborless.

Who's your neighbor?  I encourage you to just start praying for God to show you and lead you to act when He does show you.