Bedbugs: A Modern-Day Leprosy. Seriously.

by Bart Campolo 11-30-2009

Stanley is a dirty old man, and by that I don’t just mean he talks about younger women in inappropriate ways. He smells bad, too. Really bad. On the other hand, Stanley is about as gentle a fellow as you are likely to meet here in Walnut Hills, which is why the rest of us put up with his stink, even at the dinner table. He’s our friend, after all.

After dinner the other night, we held our annual show-and-tell talent show, which is kind of a homey cross between American Idol and The Jerry Springer Show. Just after one of our teenagers proudly modeled her pregnant belly (her talents, unfortunately, do not include good judgment), I was getting ready for “Cincinnati’s loudest burp” when Karen tapped me on the shoulder. “Della says Stanley has bedbugs all over his jacket,” she whispered urgently. “What do we do now?”

I quietly moved next to Della, who sadly shook her head. Sure enough, Stanley ’s back was literally crawling with bedbugs. How did I know they were bedbugs, you ask? Around here we learn to spot our bedbugs the way an endangered horror movie hero learns to spot her zombies. Della knew too. “You gotta get him out of here, or my family’s leaving,” she told me. “I love y’all, Bart, but we can’t be getting no bedbugs.” And just that quickly, everything changed between Stanley and the rest of us.

I called him outside, but there was no way to avoid embarrassing him. He didn’t argue or minimize the problem. He just shook his head and told me he didn’t know what to do. I shook my head too. Three weeks later, I still don’t know what to do.

If all this seems overly dramatic, then you must be unaware that bedbugs, which were largely wiped out in this country by DDT in the 1950s, are in the midst of a major resurgence, most especially among the poor people in inner-city neighborhoods who are least equipped to fight them. It only takes one hitching a ride on your clothes to infest your house, and after that they are incredibly difficult to get rid of, even with the help of an exterminator, and even if you can afford to throw away your bed and most of your furniture. They feed on your blood every three nights, but you can’t just leave and starve them out, because they can survive without feeding for more than a year.

Spiritually speaking, bedbugs are a kind of modern-day leprosy. Della and her family aren’t the only ones afraid to touch Stanley these days; all of us keep our distance. Until we can find a way to shower and dress him in clean clothes each week, we don’t even let him come to dinner anymore. He’s a gentle old crackhead who needs our love, but we shun him.

We’re still not safe, of course. Every day we hug people who might be carriers, or invite their kids into our homes, or go to visit theirs. A few months ago, when Marty and I had a false alarm in our house, our whole ministry here flashed before our eyes. Bullets in the backyard we can handle, I think. Bedbugs … I don’t know. How can you love anybody if you can’t sleep anymore?

Then again, how well can you sleep when you know your old friend Stanley is just a few blocks away, filthy and bug-bitten and alone? Not so well, it turns out, when you think about it.

I used to judge all those Bible people who shunned the lepers to protect themselves and their families. I thought I was different because I was willing to spend my life in a ghetto. Now I know better … and wish I had some DDT.

Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks, writes, and blogs about grace, faith, loving relationships, and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship in inner-city Cincinnati. He is also founder of Mission Year, which recruits committed young adults to live and work among the poor in inner-city neighborhoods across the U.S., and executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world.

Categories: Ministry, Poverty

Tags: bedbugs, bug, dinner table, dirty old man, exterminator, Family, friend, ghetto, infestation, Ministry, neighbor, neighborhood, pest, Poor, Poverty, relationship, stink, Urban

Bedding Set Deals

I also need some good information and reference about this.

marywally

I loved your post! I had bedbugs once when I was on my mission in Mesa Arizona, it was awful!

There is this new television series called The Generations Project. Tonight they are showing an episode about a Hawaiian woman who learns about her great grandmother who was exiled to a leprosy colony.

You can watch in online http://www.byu.tv/ or on BYU Television
It airs on Monday night at 8pm MST

Here's the show's website. http://www.byub.org/thegenerationsproject/

I just thought you might be interested. It's a really great show about family history, and the important things you can discover by doing your family history.

Jedidiah Abdul Muhib Palosaari

I'm about to out myself here. For the last two weeks I've been dealing with bedbugs- almost to the day when this article came out.

I live in Morocco, and it's a 2/3rds World Country, so that might have something to do with it. Since discovering the menace, I've done a bunch of research online. I have no idea how I got them. I'm not sleeping on the street. But bedbugs aren't a problem of the poorest of the poor- not anymore. I could have gotten them from a hotel I stayed at recently. Even 5-star hotels are now reporting problems. I could have gotten them from a Couch Surfer who stayed with my roommate. I could have gotten them from a child I teach. I could have gotten them from simply walking down the street.

It turns out that some people are really sensitive to them, and some are not. My roommate could be fed on them every night, and he'd never know. That is sadly not true for me. I know I've never had them before because of how very painful and itching they were. I know I have them now not because I found them- I looked and looked, but am told online that they are very hard to spot- but because the symptoms exactly fit what I found online.

So I bought some BeGone and was given some very noxious chemicals by some friends who run a restaurant down the street. I have no idea what they were; they might be giving me cancer for all I know. Our maid who comes in once a week then sprayed my room down with these chemicals, which remained for a week. She does this regularly in her home, so she knows how to do it far better than I do. I slept in the front room for four nights, and then moved back into my room three nights ago. And so far, insha'allah, praise God, I have no more bites. Just possible growing cancer.

But I think I can handle that trade-off, because the suffering was so intense. I had to leave school early one day to go home and relax and sit there, with the 100 dirhams of drugs and lotions I'd picked up (the equivalent of six restaurant meals). And I'm hoping and praying that the poisons did the trick and they are gone- because, as stated above, they can live for a year without my presence.

Here's my point to all of this. There's that old adage about the Nazis about how I did nothing when they came for everyone else, and then they came for me. Well, this leprosy of bedbugs is not the domain of the poorest of the poor any longer. If we don't do something, and treat with compassion those who are suffering with it- the bedbugs have already come for us.

letjusticerolldown

I will attempt to win the "Trite answer of the day award."

God's grace will sustain you in that which He assigns you.

I recall an image I am sure touched millions of hearts: On 9/11 thousands fled in terror--and columns of firefighters filed into the towers.

This is each of our call. But the specifics are different for each person; the answer you give is not one I can judge.

annabananaruth

I really appreciate this blog. I contracted bedbugs from a refugee family several months ago and began the internal debates of asking myself how it was going to change my relationship with them in terms of whether I would stay over at their house or invite them to stay at mine any more. Bedbugs are extremely uncomfortable, especially if you happen to be so sensitive that a single bite keeps you waking up for days on end throughout the night. Sleep deprivation and constant itching certainly affect one's quality of life in a big way. I am still not settled in my mind on the approach I will take with this issue in the future, but there is certainly a tension there. On the one hand, you want to reach across borders, including bedbug ones. On the other hand, it can be highly uncomfortable, plus you then risk passing the bedbugs on to family and friends. I think a good solution might be to work as a community to eradicate them. They are not a nuisance that anyone should have to live with. In terms of whether Stanley's needs were being met, I think it is important to understand the goals of a ministry. I'm not sure what the goals of the specific ministry in question are, but many ministries I am familiar with have goals of providing support, outreach, opportunities, and follow-through. In other words, ministries often provide tools for people to use and try to foster inter-personal connections that will aid people in taking advantage of whatever tools they have at their disposal (educational, occupational, discipleship, or whatever else the tools may be). However, it is generally the option of the "clients" to decide whether or not to take advantage of those opportunities. Stanley's still being dirty and lonely and a crackhead may mean nothing more than that he hasn't made the choice to pursue opportunities open to him. Or it may mean that sufficient inter-personal connections have not been made between him or the ministry. Or it may mean something entirely different. I think we cannot assume on that point. As far as DDT and malaria/bedbugs, I found that bedbug article mentioned interesting... and sad! DDT has worked much better on malaria. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4264374.stm This is a BBC article talking about South Africa's success with DDT in the battle against malaria. WHO also endorsed the use of it in 2006 (after backing down from its use for environmental reasons decades ago - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?st...). Hope this helps!

Chris "Jesdisciple"

nice catch ;)

squeaky

Thanks, NC77.

DebbieMS

Good question Bart! Bedbugs are not something you want to contend with but neither is excluding individuals. I'm not sure I would have handled the situation any differently that you did.

Have done some liberation theology reading and one of the theologians felt like we needed to the poor to teach us how to live a Christ-like life. Our treatment of them is reflective of our treatment of Christ but protecting my family should be Christ-like also. Difficult situation you find yourself in.

NC77

Thank you Squeaky. As you suggested in your first post I am looking into possibly helping the Walnut Hill Fellowship ministry that Bart is involved with.

Having been there, I do have a heart for the homeless and understand the hopelessness that can be so overwhelming to anyone in that situation.

I opened my heart to God in prayer this morning to have him show me if I was being too judgemental of Bart and will proceed as the Holy Spirit directs.

squeaky

Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it.

I got a tone from your earlier post that you were judging Bart on his failures in his ministry. There are probably many reasons that Stanley isn't being kept consistently clean, failure of ministry is one, but it may not be the only reason, so it seems you presumed much in your post. Without knowing the complexities of Stanley's situation, this judgment didn't seem fair.

I actually didn't see the post as humorous, at least not in the way you seem to have. I see undertones of humor, but not tones that make fun of Stanley or the situation. I see it more as the kind of humor that people turn to so that they laugh when they would rather cry. I certainly didn't see the post as Bart's attempt at giving us a light, funny story. Rather, I saw clearly he was trying to convey the tragedy of the situation. Maybe there is a tone of humor in it, but it is a tragic humor, not intended to truly be funny.

The story was rather poignant, actually. He was shining a light on his own heart and judgement that he has towards people like Stanley and how that helped him see how he (and many of us) have harshly judged New Testament people for shunning those with leprosy. We often look at events in the Bible and think "how can they be so stupid?" and turn around and act as stupidly, if not moreso, than they did.

God bless you in your ministry.

NC77

Hey Squeaky,

Today, I do not live in the community I work with. We (my fellowship) brings them into our community, and we also go into their community. Many years ago I brought them (homeless) into my home (when I lived in Ohio). Having been homeless myself for a time, I do have a heart for the homeless. I know what it is like. I was spurned, shuned and looked upon with disgust. And I was a vibrant young man at the time (albeit lost and without Christ or hope).

Whether or not I am judging Bart or not is up to God. Jesus told us to judge with rigtheousness not by appearances.
Letting someone use a shower and a bar of soap is not expensive. Washing their clothes for them is not expensive. I do not judge the ministry, I judge the blog post. The undertones of humor about Stanley I found offensive having been in Stanley's shoes.

When I fall short of my calling I postrate myself before God in humilty. I don't joke around about it. My spiritual discernment questions the sincerity of the blog post and what purpose it serves to build the church or further the plight of the homeless and drug addicted.

If Bart feels judged he will get over it, because obviously he has chosen a life of humility and voluntary poverty to serve people. My criticism means nothing to him because he is living for Christ.

I will indeed look into the ministry and consider supporting it if that is how the Holy Spirit leads. Having been born in Ohio and lived there most of my life, I do have a connection with there.

As for me suggesting how he might better serve I doubt I could hold a candle to Bart as he is the executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world. I don't doubt those qualifications.

squeaky

Good to hear! By "we", who do you mean? Have you yourself worked directly in those ministries, living in the community of people you are serving?

Have you met all the needs of those you are serving, or are there those whose needs still aren't met?

If the former is the case, perhaps you might suggest to Bart how his ministry might better serve those he is ministering to. I'm sure he would be very interested to know how he could better serve those in need.

If the latter is the case, might I suggest you don't judge another ministry that is undoubtedly trying to serve others as best they can with the limited resources they have?

NC77

We have several ministries for homeless and the poor. You can donate directly to our fellowship with it earmarked for a particular ministry.

We do a lot of work with Raleigh Rescue Mission, in Raleigh, NC, so you can contribute directly to them and it will support our efforts.

We also work with prisons and have have a program for refugees from Africa, people whose lives are in danger because of the political unrest and genocide going on there.

duhsciple

Where is the scientific evidence to support this claim so that I might investigate for myself?

duhsciple

Where is your effective inner city ministry that I might support it? And where is your non-shunning community that I might become a part of it?

droslovinia

Thanks, Squeaky. I will.

squeaky

"One has to wonder how effective an inner city ministry is when the people it seeks to help are dirty, lonely, and smelly. Where were Stanley's physical needs being met (besides a free meal) before he was infested with bedbugs?"

Unfortunately, many inner city ministries lack adequate support or resources. With limited resources, it is difficult to meet everyone's needs. Instead of criticizing Bart's ministry for not adequately meeting Stanley's needs, perhaps the correct response is to ask Bart what you can do to aid him in this ministry.

NC77

One has to wonder how effective an inner city ministry is when the people it seeks to help are dirty, lonely, and smelly. Where were Stanley's physical needs being met (besides a free meal) before he was infested with bedbugs?

"He’s a gentle old crackhead who needs our love, but we shun him."

That statement is telling. I realize that everyone must take responsibility for their actions and perhaps Stanley refused to be helped. But is seems that Stanley was just left to his own demise since he continues to be a crackhead who needs love. But he is shuned? At least Bart is honest about it.

Even if this article is meant to be humorous which I do not think it is, it is a very sad testimony to that urban ministry.

BTW, DDT got a bad rap. It should be brought back to wipe out malaria and othe disease carrying pestilence.

john316

Bart,

Please resist the temptation to get your hands on DDT. In addition to putting yourself and Stanley at risk, the treatment is not effective (see link below).

http://newyorkvsbedbugs.org/2008/05/15/ddt-resi...

MacArthur4

DDT seems like it was quite dangerous and caused envirnomental damage . But also have read the deaths it stopped in regards to Malaria, especially in Africa.