Warning! Can Community Development Offer Ease & Comfort at the Expense of Relationships?

"South African pastor Fourie Vandenberg tells of leading a mission trip to the north of Namibia. The first thing the team noticed in the local kraal (Village) in which they were staying was that the women had to walk every day to a well with a huge heavy bucket on their heads to fetch water..
`We immediately decided to do something about it.'
Within two weeks flashy new water pipes were delivering water to every little hut in the kraal.
Within a week after the installation of the plumbing the villagers removed all the pipes and piled them politely on the out skits of the kraal.
When Fourie asked why they had plundered the plumbing and undone all their hard work, the Namibians explained that it is customary for the women to walk to a well with other women sharing their experiences about life. Carrying heavy buckets on the head while chatting with friends:`It's not a bad thing: it's a good thing.'
When the walk to the well was taken away and life was made `never so good,' life was really made ever so difficult."

(So Beautiful. Leonard Sweet, David C. Cook Pub, 2009, pp 102)

Often times I feel we have things to save us time, just so that we can crazily run after other things, things that just don't matter much.

Relationally we end up cutting ourselves off from one another. For example; eating a meal together in many cultures, and throughout history, was/is a deep meaningful event. It communicates unity, acceptance, shared journey, relationship. Now we view eating as something to get out of the way quickly, so we can run off and do something "productive". We take both hands and shove a sandwich in, wash it down with some coffee, and run.

We have lost the spiritual importance of feeding our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and inviting others into proximity with this temple, by sharing a relaxed meal around a table in conversation.
Relationship always trumps stuff.
Relationship always trumps lists.
Relationship always trumps production.
Well at least in a dream world.

Oh How I miss the relational elements of Africa some days.