FINALE

Reference: Grigg, V. (2005). Cry of the Urban Poor. GA, USA: Authentic Media in partnership with World Vision.

I DREAMT OF THE DARK MURKY WATERS that swirled down the river past the squatter settlement of Tatalon. Plastic bags and broken wood bobbed up and down beneath the oily surface. Each year the flood would sweep through the houses by the river, washing some away, causing havoc.

And in my dream I saw another river, crystal clear, flowing through the slum, and from here into the favelas and bustees and barrios of city after city. As it came it brought life and refreshment—and joy. Its stream kept tumbling and tumbling until it filled all of the slums and squatter areas of the earth with its gentle gurgling.
    In the midst of the dust and carrion calls of the crows of India’s bustees, and in the desert of Lima’s pueblos jovenes, trees began to sprout along that stream, bringing a new green into the drabness. The leaves covered the garbage strewn around Bangkok’s slums. The half-naked on Calcutta’s streets found them good covering for their wrinkled, unwashed skin, as they cleansed themselves in the sparkling water. “The leaves of this tree were for the healing of the nations.”
    I saw the children, with their large eyes and protruding bellies, their limp hair colored red through vitamin deficiency, begin to reach up from their play and take the fruit of the trees. And as they ate, new fruit emerged—a new variety each month. The sores on their heads began to disappear. Their spindly arms began to fill out. New happiness took over from their old hunger. The curses on the nations and on the poor were no more, and oppression dissolved before the beauty of a righteous throne.
    Looking up at that throne were some servants—humble men and women in the sandals of the poor, still dusty, unknown. And suddenly his name was on their foreheads in all its glory. And they began to reign, along with their cho­sen companions from among the poor, and to rectify the in­justices they had chosen to suffer.
    The Lord was with them forever. In one caress he wiped away their tears. Suddenly before them, their squatter shacks turned into mansions of delight, for he will make all things new. And the poor cry out, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come!”

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010