What has poverty done to me...
By Avichail
@Avichail (694)
Indonesia
April 8, 2007 3:13am CST
I grew up with many issues about money although I didn't have to work hard to earn it. But my dad's gambling habit took its toll right when I turned 17. We moved from a big beatiful house into a gloomy 20-year-old one. We lost our cars, had to pay huge debts, often barely managed to pay for the monthly bills. Some friends left for fear of having to help us. But there was only so much poverty could do to discourage me. Here are some more of what it did to me...
A couple of months after moving into the new house, a big riot broke targeting the Chinese in my city. The location of our new house was safe, the old one was the main target. We were spared.
I went to work as a private teacher to kids who hated studying and consequently hated me and gave me hard times. It turned out to be valuable lessons on how to connect to kids. I can speak their language more now.
Two guys considered me unqualified because I was not rich. One of them was my college sweetheart for 5 years. One of them ruined his reputation in his quest for money, I was almost got dragged down, but spared due to my so called poverty.
When my dad got suddenly sick and we only have meager saving to pay for hospital bills, we took him home. I spent some critical nights at his bedside taking care of him. It turned out to be one valuable moment where we connected deeper. He looked up on me and I knew he loved me despite what he did to the family.
Today, as I was driving in a 14-year-old car which I prefer than the newer one, I felt such a joy for not being ashamed of what I don't have. Poverty was allowed to enter my life so that I will be freed from being ashamed of it. That is what poverty has done to me. What has poverty done to you my friends?
3 people like this
8 responses
@forestguard (59)
• Philippines
22 Apr 07
looking at your posted picture, i cant believe youre in poverty back then.youre so healty and well groomed.that is not an opinion to your subject.
your story is very inspirational. it inspired me in fact. there was one author who quoted, if we want to change a circumstances in our life, it not in other time but NOW.
GOD has put our head (where our brain is)on top of whole body. so smart because it stirred all our direction.
i love the fighting spirit you have. but the fact that how kept your tight hold with GOD is something else that kept you through. that is one of the things a lot of people failed to do.
maybe, you add SHARING TO OTHERS another tool in fighting poverty. dont you know THE SECRET OF RECIEVING IS GIVING?
its my experience. LET NOT YOUR POCKET BE THE BAROMETER OF OUR GIVING. LET IT BE OUR HEARTS.
@forestguard (59)
• Philippines
22 Apr 07
of course, level of poverty is incompable to those whose in it.its level is in different perspective and different location and situation in life as well.
i admire your positive outlook. keep it up.
1 person likes this
@forestguard (59)
• Philippines
24 Apr 07
thank you. in fact i do it but not as i wanted to. they might misinterpret that im doing it because i am evangelizing a sect or religion for that matter. often, things like that were strategies of different sect to evangelize in hinterlands. most shy away. people like them are very sensitive. they want respect. they are frank and expects all commitments coming from your mouth.
so far, living and dealing with them for more than a year is very fruitful. they positively responded to the program and scheme i introduce. i hope you too advocate on this issue too. you know, sometimes i hate to expedite matters which concerns thing i see in the field. more when statistics are broadcasted over the radios or tv that poverty level are little bit resolved. they are liars. they are just facing survey. they dont see the reality in the field.
im sorry. i dont suppose to say these to you. this is not your concern. anyway, thank you for being there.
2 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
11 Apr 07
this was a touching read avichail, i have tears in my eyes. you sound so composed and cool, i would have never dealt with such plight so boldly and beautifully. you just portrayed something which makes me feel the seetnes in poverty. i know its as tough as it gets and words are mere comforters, but still you have withstood all odds with such a grace, i really appreciate.
as for me, i haven't experienced such poverty but that doesn't make me less poor. i am mentally in poor health, my emotional poverty kills me. having lost all that was my get going source, having lost my love and after going through umatchable bitterness in life i think i am more poor than anyone else at this point in time.
God bless.
2 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
11 Apr 07
Pls read SWEETNESS instead of SEETNESS in line 3.
2 people like this
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
13 Apr 07
Dear Mimpi,
I wasn't composed nor cool when it happened to me back then. I was outraged and discouraged for quite some times. I too failed to see the good poverty brought to me until one day when I looked back in retrospect...=) It was truly God who kept me going from day to day. I just failed to see the works of His hands behind those events in my life. But I know now through those hard times, God lovingly molded me, just like a smelter purifying his silver. If you see the way I am today, it isn't my effort nor power. It is God's works in me...=)
I agree that being emotionally empty is truly devastating. It cuts right to the core of who you think you are. But take heart, Mimpi, at this stage of your life, you may be viewing it incorrectly. I hope one day God will allow you to see it from His view. It will be so very much different!
1 person likes this
@craftwave (1338)
• United States
23 Apr 07
I am so glad you shared this with us. I now understand better some of your comments to my discussions and private messages. Growing up my family never had much money. Not due to anything in particluar just not much money. And the early years of my marriage we only made it by the grace of God. My husband kept getting laid off work. Jobs were far and few in between. It is good that you can see how God has turn bad situations into good. All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Blessings in disguise. In scripture Jesus told His disciples that the poor would always be with us. Those that have lots of money tend to be less dependant on God then themselves. And those of us who have gone through trials either have no faith or have a strong faith in God. It makes us better prepared to handle whatever life throws at us.
2 people like this
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
23 Apr 07
Grace, you have quoted wonderful verses that I would want other myLotters to see and understand, thank you!
This world has so much been turned upside down that truth is taken as lies and lies are taken as truth. Material things are put over the eternal values. No wonder we keep getting it wrong when something happen to us. We often catch up on our current circumstances and fail to look beyond it, where God is there. Always take courage Grace, Jesus has overcome the world for us....=)
1 person likes this
@smilingurvashi (1151)
• India
16 Jun 07
Hey, seems like destiny has been cruel to you but on the other hand it also seems that you have, like a hero, taken all these positively. I have also gone through really tough times in my life but time is a great healer. my parents had split when I was a 11 year old kid leaving me to struggle for my education in a good school along with my 3 sisters. My mother did not work and my dad didn't show his face for 3-4 years! But we somehow coped with it. My dad later returned to provide financial aid. now all the four of us are well-settled in life. But those hard times really made all of us very very strong.
1 person likes this
@thefuture (1749)
• Nigeria
17 Jun 07
What an experience you have friend. For me, My dad was a textile worker, until when he had an accident in the company. The company couldn't keep paying for his treatments and they retired him. That was when life started afresh. I had to start working in a bakery in order to earn money and pay for my fees. I met different people and learnt from them. It took me 5 years working in a bakery and the worse part of it was, I was sleeping there from sundays-fridays. I learnt about struggles and the hardships one would encounter. Until when I completed my high school. Though am yet to be in the university, cos of fund, but I do know that I'l definitely make it in life. Thanks and have a nice day.
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
19 Jun 07
Thank you for sharing your wonderful story, TheFuture. I hope it will help strengthening anyone reading this discussion and are dealing helplessly with poverty...=) Wish you all the best in your journey in this life and just remember that God is in control no matter what happens to you...=)
@skbadhan (879)
• India
24 Apr 07
hi ur story is realy panic as iam a very emotional person i am feeling very sad . i don't know why does such happens to good persons i belong to a middle class family my father is a teacher . its really greatness of my father that being a teacher he decided to make his son engineer. i don't kown how he has managed for expences for my study perhaps they want his son to be a rich person with handsome income but even after doing such higher studies i can't make much money i can't help my parents they are still travelling in buses sometimes i think if they might not had spended his hard earned money on my studies he might have owned his own car. but i am too help less i am not getting good job. moreover my mindsetup has becomes such i don't want to do job at any cost i dont want towork as slave. i am having my own office i can only earn just to survive.
@tigertang (1749)
• Singapore
17 Jun 07
I think the main lesson is that in life its not a question of the situation that we are born into but what we learn from it and what we do. Out of poverty has come ressillience and out of lack, we have ingenuity. It's funny but when you look at places where they have everything, there is very little innovation, very little creativity. On the other hand, people who want and need things find ways to inspire the human heart.
1 person likes this
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
19 Jun 07
Dear Tiger, to leave God out of this understanding is not acceptable to me...=) Without admitting that God is behind everything including the not favorable ones would only result in one devastating events after another for me.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts...=)
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
30 Apr 07
Hi skbadhan,
Your story is a bit similar to my sister's. My Dad spent a lot of money for her tuition abroad and somehow it created a guilty feeling when she had not earned more money than she expected it to be. However, she came to her senses when she realized that more often than not parents appreciate their kids' love and attention more than they appreciate the money given to them. We'd be trapped in trying to satisfy our parent with material things that can never truly satisfy...=)
As for living in not enough money, actually if we think about it deeply, we're still in better condition than most people. A thankful heart will replace a grieving heart...=)
@haedescanes (592)
• Philippines
11 Apr 07
There's alot of topic you touched aside from poverty. One is Gambling gambling won't lead you nowhere. It will just suck everything you have until you don't have anything to sell or money to gamble with. second, Your experiences being tight with money and the consequences it brought with to your family. WI also grew up in a family of not well off, we were always tight when it comes to meoney, we almost stopped from studying but my parents borrowed money from my relatives and friend just t finish our studies. I wouldn't be here to where I am sitting if it wasn't for poverty. I have learned alot and struggled very hard just to surpass all the challenges of being poor. Now, i can say that being poor led me to where I can rest peacefully and enjoy the money i get for the hard work i have done. Thanks to poverty, determination and prayers! Goodluck! your story is inspirational.
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
13 Apr 07
Hi Haedescanes,
It is my Lord Christ Jesus who is the inspirational One! He had guided my each moment in those hard times eventhough I didn't know what He did and kept mistaken His interference in my life as His cruelty for letting me be in such situations...=)
Thank you for sharing your story, too. I'm glad to read that you can finally see what we think as bad is often the good thing we need to make us better. Now let's use what we have gone through to help others going it through, too...=)
@SoliDeoGloria (2)
• United States
10 May 07
Hi Grace,
This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing your honest, candor thoughts. It's a good reminder for me. As you may remember, the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs once said, "A great many godly men have been worse for their prosperity." We are the most blessed and richest because we have the greatest PRICELESS gift that can never bought with money for eternity: God's saving grace. :)
1 person likes this
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
16 Jun 07
Hello again Jessica,
Thank you for sharing the wonderful quote above and forgive me for not able to respond sooner...=) It really is funny once your eyes are set by the Truth to see things through His perpectives. Some things that used to be the joy and essence of our life are now lose their holds against us for they do not matter in eyes of the Lord. I can never thank the Lord enough for allowing me to see more things through His views...=)
