A girl is surrounded by trash at the dump nicknamed Smokey Mountain in Manila, Philippines. UMNS file photos by Kathy L. Gilbert.

A UMNS Commentary
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Feb. 3, 2009

The movie, about children growing up in the slums of India, made me remember the little faces I have seen up close and "in real life."

I left the theater wondering how I could live my everyday comfortable life knowing such misery exists in the world. What kind of person am I that I can forget about that even for a short while?

I have not been to India, but I have been to the Philippines. In 2007, I was with a group from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries making a tour of ministries in Manila. We visited centers that provide residential and daily shelter for street children, a cemetery where many of the poor make their homes among the tombs and Smokey Mountain, a garbage dump where people live on piles of trash.

I have walked in the filth of Smokey Mountain, breathed in the horrible smell, and seen the thick, ugly curtain of flies hanging over everything. I have witnessed children running and playing in the garbage heap, where they spend every long, boring day. I have seen a beautiful little girl ripping open a bag of what other people deemed worthless waste, looking for something to sell or eat. I have looked into those lost eyes.

The movie is about a boy born in the slums of Mumbai, India, who becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" He is arrested and accused of cheating because the show’s star thinks no "slumdog" would know what he knows. While he is being interrogated, he re-lives events from his life that explain how he knows the right answers.

Winning a million dollars – or 48,732,944 India Rupees or 60,152,884 Philippine Pesos- on a television game show is extremely unlikely for a child born into such poverty.

But God has put other people in those dark places who do offer a different path for the children.

I met Sun Sook Kim, a United Methodist missionary who wasn’t living a comfortable, unburdened life. For 20 years, she had walked into the dirty, stinking world of the residents of Smokey Mountain, and pointed the way to a better life through Smokey Mountain United Methodist Church and Shalom Kindergarten. No gentle church lady, she would not let the rest of the world forget about the people she loved so deeply.

There are many others like Kim all over the world, and I thank God for them because God has truly put them in those places.

As a United Methodist I have a wonderful resource in the United Methodist Committee on Relief and other agencies of the church that care for the lost, the least and the marginalized. I can contribute to the denomination’s Advance program, knowing 100 percent of what I send goes to the ministries I want to support. There are many other churches and organizations also working in hard places, and every dollar truly does help.

"Slumdog Millionaire" has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including best motion picture of the year, and is playing in many theaters now. Go see it. I hope it rips a hole in your heart too.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

Slumdog Millionaire

Philippines: Mercy and Mission

Slideshow: “Whoever welcomes one such child”

United Methodist Committee on Relief

Support United Methodist Missionaries

The Advance

Philippines Episcopal Areas