This evening my wife and I went to a movie.

The theater was located in a U.S.-style mall with big department
stores, a giant food court and lots of boutique shops. In addition to many local restaurants, this mall has a Starbucks, a Chili's, a TGI
Friday's, Pizza Hut and Tony Roma's. There are auto dealerships there and a Home Depot-like home improvement
store.

Lima is a city of about 8.4 million souls-close to a
third of the nation's population lives here. There are, of course, some areas where affluent Peruvians live, but there are many
more areas where

poor people live. There
are also some middle-class neighborhoods, but the middle class is much smaller
in Peru than it is in the U.S. Poverty
runs from extreme to moderate.

This particular mall, Jockey Plaza, is in Surco, one of the more
affluent parts of Lima. On our way from
the theater to where we catch a micro-bus back to our apartment, my wife and I
walked past seven or eight beggars.

There was a man-a little younger than I am-without legs
sitting on the sidewalk. I gave him some
pocket change.  He seemed genuinely appreciative. There were two women from the highlands with
nursing babies. One was sitting on the
stairs to an over pass for pedestrians and the other was up on the overpass
itself. They had bulky skirts, wore
multiple sweaters and had hats that resemble the hat worn by the scarecrow in the Wizard
of Oz. Their hands were coarse from work. From my perspective, their utter passiveness evoked a sense of hopelessness. There was also a man with long white hair and a long white beard who was very
skinny and frail. His cane was in his lap as he was sitting on the steps on the far side of the
overpass.  I've seen him there
before. And then there were a couple of
older women who I took to be from the highlands also. One was making quiet pleading sounds.  It was really sad.

Beggars are a fact of everyday life here. More often than not, if you're eating in a
restaurant some beggars-mostly scruffy, not-very-clean children or a young mother
with her baby-will make their way in and ask for some money or ask you to buy some wrapped candy from them. If the staff
sees them, they generally ask them to leave. And honestly, I'm generally relieved when they do.

It's different in the states. Maybe once in a while you'll come across a
panhandler, or you'll deal with someone trying to wash your windshield at an intersection. I've seen disabled people asking for help
from time to time also.

I have never seen poverty in the U.S. like
the poverty here. The U.S. and South
America are two different worlds. Here,
millions live in temporary shelters built on land that doesn't belong to
them. Millions have dirt floors and plastic roofs and may
very well not have electricity or running water. Hot showers are pretty much a given in the
states. Here, (if there are shower
facilities at all) the majority take showers with cold water. I guess you get the picture.

 It really bothers
me to witness how, for many, it's like these individuals don't even exist. They're not just dehumanized, they aren't
even present or worthy of a response. I
understand the turning of a blind eye. I'm tempted to do that every day. It's
easier to become desensitized than it is to come face-to-face, day in and day
out, with the depressing reality represented by the actual lives of these flesh and
bone human beings.

Thank
you, God, for the beggars. I pray you'll
give me your heart for them. I pray you'll
give me divine wisdom to know how to relate to them in a way that can turn
their hearts toward you. I hope you'll
help me make a real difference for some of them. Help me to always remember that there is a
sense in which we all are beggars, needy for someone to treat us with
compassion and generosity. Please keep my heart soft, Lord.