Back to school implies that you have a school to which to return. Unfortunately  at least half of all school age children in the world are either unschooled or under-schooled.  

Roughly a third of the world’s children are educated in a Muslim dominated area, many of which are satisfied with a madrasa to indoctrinated them in the Koran with just a smattering of the sciences thrown in for good measure. In many cases girls are prohibited from attending school either by a mullah’s edict or in some cases proscribed by law.

The bottom-line is, as a matter of fact, that in any eventuality, in most cases girls don’t count.

Similar attitudes are also prevalent in many non-Muslim countries, also. Take for instance, rural India or the slums of such metropolitans as Mumbai (Bombay) or Kolkata (Calcutta), or even relatively modern Chennai (Madras), most of the school age children are left unattended to wander the streets or work in sweat shops to help put food on the table for the family. Little or no education is available, and when it is, it is simply out of reach financially.

This is a small part of the problem, however.

The major fault, as I see it, is that many in the West have become immune to the plight of these children. Kind of like snake venom, if you get bitten enough and don’t die during the process, you eventually will become immune to even a cobra bite.

Flash a picture of a malnourished kid on the television screen often enough, and before you know it you are immune, void of sympathy  or any empathy at all.

It’s not that we are calloused ~ at least, we didn’t start out that way ~ it’s that we’ve grown immune, dull, dead to these pitiful circumstances.

Interestingly, Jesus never grew calloused or desensitized. While on the Cross, he cried, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) He was still sensitive to the plight of the poor victims of circumstances and culture.

No doubt the Master had seen many dead bodies, or passed hundreds of beggars; yet, in each and every case on record, he reached out in sympathy, and as necessary, mercy. Think of the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark 7:25-30 and Matthew 15:21-28. Her persistence, annoying as it was, still did not irritate him beyond doing something for her daughter—whom, he had not even met.

A busy schedule never kept Jesus away from his purpose in life—that’s for sure.

Once while a missionary in India, I was asked by Mark Buntain to evaluate the hospital ministry there and come up with some suggestion, if I had any.

I did a careful evaluation, but outside of a few minor recommendation, I could not offer any constructive criticism. Just before I left to go back to Nepal, I spoke with the then administrator of the mission and he said, “Jim, Mark needs to get organized by setting a proper system of priorities.”

I said, “Give me some examples, if you have any on hand.”

He said, “Well, like last night. We were asked to sing several courses to fill in the time before he was to preach.” He went on to explain that they had three ambulance drivers sitting in the congregation when the service started, but some desperate mother caught Mark on the way into church and pleaded with him to take her daughter to the hospital. So, Mark jumped into the ambulance and drove her and the daughter to the hospital in a mad rush, and stayed with her until the emergency room physician diagnosed her with a classical case of appendicitis.

I stopped for a moment, thought about the incident, and then replied, “No, I am sorry. Mark has his priorities straight. Others come first, and he is not willing to delegate his involvement or responsibility to see that those that suffer come first.

Now, dotted across all of North India are little schools with boys and girls carrying a satchel of books and entering class rooms each day, just because one man and those around him got their priorities straight.

I closing, I admonish you with the words of Scripture, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal. 6:9)

There is a harvest of youngsters out there; let us, therefore, not grow weary in well doing.

Nations by percentage of urban population living in slums.^[21]

0-10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% 40-50% 50-60%

60-70% 70-80% 80-90% 90-100% No data

Recent years have seen a dramatic growth in the number of slums as urban populations have increased in the Third World.