‘Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’ - Psalm 82v3-4 (NIV)

My medical elective found me spending time with the ‘family’ of dedicated staff at the Navajeevana health centre. They always seemed to be smiling as they welcomed people through the doors of the small clinic. The poor who live on the beach were especially welcome.

It was on a one-week break to South India that I met a similar community, but with few people to help it function. It had been two years since I had last met Tony. His broad smile had not been tarnished by time. I soon found myself on the back of a motorbike ‘put-putting’ along the dusty tarmacked road out of the village to his house. We stopped only for milk, which would form part of a strong sweet cup of ‘chi’, with which I would be greeted. On arrival I was met by his family plus eight other bright-eyed children happily playing in the courtyard of the adjoining orphanage.

The kids clubs happen most afternoons in the surrounding villages. It has been difficult for Tony to keep up the momentum of enthusiasm and material for this work, and poor health has been an ongoing problem for him.

There had been a club at the Gypsy village for some months now. The Gypsies gather each week for the kids to play games and to hear the stories of the King of Kings who humbled himself to live with the poor. There is silence. The adults watching from the sidelines listen intently and learn of the Saviour who loves and accepts the outcast and oppressed.

The poor are often oppressed, and these people are no exception. The Gypsies were a nomadic tribe from the North. They have a lovely appearance with rounded northern faces and wild bohemian hair. One Indian postcard reads, ‘Joyous and carefree these migrants from Rajasthan lend their ethnic colour to the... landscapes’. I do not believe that the postcard has got it right!

These people struggle to make a living by threading and selling beaded necklaces. They have no land of their own, and live in makeshift huts on the common land. Sometimes their shelters are torn down because people are not permitted to live on the Common. Land is often promised but never given. These wearied people long for a place to call their own. Some of the Gypsies get enough to eat, others go hungry, all have health problems. Accessing healthcare is costly both in terms of time and money. After paying in order to be written a prescription there is little chance of having enough money left for the drug itself. Most have visited the more readily available spiritual healers and some suffer from strange nightmares following experimentation with occult spiritual practises.

One man, whose family had died, was starving. I felt indignant when I saw that this man lived without shelter on the doorstep of a lady who was getting enough to eat. I wanted to shout ‘Why don’t you look after your neighbour.’ (in a land of fate and destiny, there is no view of a loving God, so there is little obligation to love one’s neighbour). Then I realised that this lady was not the man’s only neighbour; and that for the time being at least, I was his neighbour too. Moreover, if we are both descended from Adam I am also his brother, and I am supposed to know the love of God.

Jesus tells a parable about separating the sheep from the goats at the end of time, people will be commended for their treatment of their neighbour: ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25v 34 - 40 (NIV)

Some in this village now know the joy of living for Jesus, and are looking forward to being with Him forever. But what can be done for this community physically? Genesis 2 and 3 show that we all need good relationships, work, food, somewhere nice to live and peace with God.

The gypsies suggested that they might benefit from keeping goats. Perhaps there is some land of greenery that could be planted on the sandy common by the sea for grazing animals. It seems that organisations in the past have offered help, raised money, and promptly absconded. The struggle persists to find ways of giving lasting help to this and other similar communities.