It takes a few hours to drive up muddy tracks to get to one of the leprosy villages that our team works with. These villagers have been living in isolation for many years as people are so afraid (and wrongly so) that leprosy will spread to them. Up in these remote hamlets, the leprosy affected villagers live in stark conditions – homes with no heating (five degrees Celsius in winter), blankets that are worn and threadbare, and they get by with two meals a day.

My friends who labor among the leprosy affected came up with the idea to help these poverty affected elderly villagers start a small pig and poultry farm. The work gives dignity as well as helps them to be a bit more financially self sustaining. Much fanfare surrounded the sale of their first pig.

A Heart that is Blind

Alas, the poor villager, blinded because of corneal ulcers, and cut off from society for many years, was easy bait for a heartless merchant who came by the village in a truck to buy pigs. This cruel person paid the villager with counterfeit money – and the villager, cheated of his labor and his pig, was devastated that someone would cheat a man who was already so poor.

Is the marketplace basically a ruthless “dog eat dog” society? Do we consciously or subconsciously give credence to the popular notion that whoever makes the biggest buck is the most successful one? Actually, it is not the marketplace that causes cheating. It is the human heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21).

The human heart that treasures possessions above all else may end up having no qualms about dispossessing someone else of his or her rightful goods and services. That merchant cheated a blind man of his precious pig because his own heart was blinded by greed.

How then do we bring Christ-likeness into the marketplace? It all begins in our hearts. Martin Luther put it more strongly, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”

The best thing about being a witness for Jesus in the marketplace is that we can do it well without too many words. The toughest thing about being a witness in the marketplace is that our words need to match our action. Yes – we want to buy and sell that precious pig at a good profit – but we want to show by our words and deeds that the best profit is for a man to know the love of God. And it all starts in our hearts.

A Heart to Listen

In another incident at another leprosy village, our team learnt about heartfelt priorities. Arriving in a windswept cluster of wooden and mud walled homes, the medical team visited the residents and basically asked what they could do for them. Just picture this in your mind – foreign doctors and nurses with a jeep full of medicine and supplies asking the elderly villagers what they needed. The contents and equipment in that one jeep may be worth more than all the possessions in the whole village.

A half blind hunchbacked old man came up, listened to the offer of help and then asked the visiting team to sit down. Puzzled, the team sat on the wooden stools in the barren courtyard. The man then shuffled back to his wooden shack. There from amongst his store of shrunken potatoes and firewood, he brought out an old “Er Hu” – a stringed instrument. He played the Er Hu for the team. The screechy music from the archaic strings and disabled hands was not exactly symphonic. After a few minutes, he broke down in tears. He said, “For many years, no one listened to my music. You are the first… thank you very much.”

Marketplace or meadows – our witness starts when we bring a heart which is ready to listen. Instead of just doing business or being too ready to tell others what to do, bring a readiness to listen to the music and the musings of clients, colleagues, customers, and complainers. I am not a counselor and indeed do not have the mindset or inclination to be one. But I do pray that the Holy Spirit reminds me to listen, and prompts me doubly hard when it is crucial to the heart and soul of my colleague. Looking at the past few years of my working life and much to my chagrin, I am learning that the moments of listening brought more spiritual fruit than my talking.

Hearts United

Realistically, none of us have the skills, gifting nor time to do all that is needed to bring the love of Christ into the marketplace alone. Our nurses could clean the odorous wounds of the villagers with a smile but others may faint at the very sight of the infected ulcers. I could not confidently drive up the steep narrow tracks even if I had the latest model of a Land Rover or fancy four wheel drive. And in our lack of understanding of marketing and sales, we allowed the blind villager to sell his pig to the first dealer that came along the way. Someone with better retail experience would have arranged a better deal.

I am learning that witnessing in the workplace is best done as a team. Look for fellow Christians – and have an “iron sharpening iron” teamwork; each helping to point out personal blind spots, correct mistakes, and prevent misunderstandings. We do well to help each other make the most of every opportunity with conversation that is always full of grace, seasoned with salt (Col 4:6). Above all – pray together.

We do well to bear in mind the words of Jesus – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13: 34-35).

My Heart as an Extension of God’s Love

One wintry day while I was about to leave a leprosy rehab village, a man waved me into his home. Seated on a low bamboo stool, he gave me a toothless smile and asked me for a favor. He pulled out a photo of a student dressed in a high school uniform. He said that he thinks much of his daughter but could not visit her as he did not want people to know that her father was from the leprosy village. He asked if I could visit her and tell her that her father thinks of her.

I never thought that being a doctor to the leprosy affected included going to schools to visit their relatives. But I knew right away that the visit would mean more to my friend than all the medication and bandages that I could give to him.

Witnessing in our workplace is a wonderful place to start being God’s channel of love and truth to our colleagues. Marketplace ministry demands integrity – our lives and values are scrutinized closely. At the workplace, we need to speak wisely and listen with empathy. We cannot and should not put on a façade of Christianity.

When we do it right – the workplace witness is often called to extend his heart to care for the colleague beyond the office – to care for the family and to pray for the whole. Pray that God will let us be found in the same situation as with the Philippi jailer who was ready to hear and receive the words that Paul declared, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

However we must remember that to get to this position of being able to proclaim these words, Paul and Silas had to endure imprisonment and they were able to be in the situation to tell the jailer, “ …we are all here!” (Acts 16:28).

Let our hearts be present in our workplace that God’s love and truth can be proclaimed. Place the marketplace in God’s hands and your heart under His Lordship – He will use both for the building of His Kingdom.

Dr Tan Lai Yong is a medical doctor who left Singapore with his wife from 1996-2010 to serve in Yunnan, China, as a community development aid worker, carrying out rural healthcare projects. He also lectured at Kunming Medical College, training farmers to be doctors. In 2005, he received the Singapore MILK Fund Award for Outstanding Youth and Children’s Worker presented by President Nathan and the “Good Citizen” of Kunming Award from the Yunnan Provincial TV Station in 2007. His work has been featured on Channel News Asia’s “Asians of the Year” series. Dr Tan can be contacted at: tanlylc@pacific.net.sg.

Learn more about leprosy. Visit the homepage of The Leprosy Mission at www.leprosymission.org.

Dr Tan’s book recommendation: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (1980).