When involved in community development among the poor, one encounters the colossal unaddressed need surrounding the people we love. It is easy to slip into the mentality that we are the only people offering a solution. Eventually we can begin to feel that the future of these people rests on my shoulders, with the success or failure of this single program. That is an immense burden we are met meant to support.
We are not the only solution, but merely a small part. This place, these people are suffering from the affects of brokenness. Broken political, religious, social & economic structures & worldviews that impede family access to resources, or from seeing the opportunities before them.
My son Ted found this out while in Africa this past year. One day we were walking back from our 4th meeting with a poor family and he said on the way, "Dad, it should not be this difficult to help people". This was after four visits with an impoverished man & his family, each discussion consisted of the head of the family giving reasons why the irrigation would never work for them, even though it was free for the trying. What? Yep, broken systems not only prevent access to resources, but also prevent people from seeing, and seizing potential opportunities for advancement. We deal with both in Africa all the time.
We often come serving with the attitude that we are not broken and come from a place of “Fixed-ness”. This is the God complex that, in the end harms the people, and frustrates the aide or development servant, as well as the local people. It subtly communicates to the locals that they are incapable, debilitated, have little to offer themselves. With us, we also subtlety begin to think "They are lucky to have me! Where would they be without me?" Locals begin to believe that the only solutions are from outside – from those "fixed" people, from those “fixed” places.
We have truly lost sight of our place AMONG the people, and permitted them to place us OVER the people. The greatest resource is always the local people, first. Within and among we must work.
It is of critical importance that we remember that we too come to serve as a broken people. Our countries of origin are broken also. Places like Haiti & numerous African or Asian nations are indeed broken, but we Canadians & Americans are not broken….. right?
Haiti has voodoo, we have ramped materialism. The richest people on earth, with the greatest resources, yet, with the greatest debt to. We spend most of our money on things, entertainment junk, and sacrifice little for others in the world. We will not, no refuse to live simply. We deserve, demand, and expect our comfortable things, and in the end we give little to others. But our Canadian or American brokenness is, well……………………. less broken,……….. right? Isn’t it?
In Haiti, there has been some emphasis in Christian media about how the people of Haiti are steeped in Voodoo. I hear them speak of how their government officials, long ago, at some time, made a pact with the devil for their nation. Yes, that is it, they suffer because they are more broken. We don't because we are not. Do you see the problem with such Christian statements? Yes Haiti has problems, it is suffering from brokenness. But so are we. So is our Country. We DO serve from the same platform of brokenness, it is simply manifested differently in a different place, is all.
Hopefully, we are not trying to make these people and places into little (“broken”) Canada’s or little (broken) “America’s”. Oh, my, no! We are together (The local people & ourselves) seeking to manifest a higher ideal; a true manifestation of the kingdom of God. We can’t plant that, because we don’t have it or own that seed, only God can implant the kingdom. We are simply seeking him for it, in one small village, by letting God work on us together, as we love each other, and Him too!
(Note:.... Remember we are NOT writing about “emergency disaster relief”. That supply is needed immediately, by any and every method possible. Rather, we are writing to address the process of development that assists a community in such a way that we are out of a job in the future.)
We are not the only solution, but merely a small part. This place, these people are suffering from the affects of brokenness. Broken political, religious, social & economic structures & worldviews that impede family access to resources, or from seeing the opportunities before them.
My son Ted found this out while in Africa this past year. One day we were walking back from our 4th meeting with a poor family and he said on the way, "Dad, it should not be this difficult to help people". This was after four visits with an impoverished man & his family, each discussion consisted of the head of the family giving reasons why the irrigation would never work for them, even though it was free for the trying. What? Yep, broken systems not only prevent access to resources, but also prevent people from seeing, and seizing potential opportunities for advancement. We deal with both in Africa all the time.
We often come serving with the attitude that we are not broken and come from a place of “Fixed-ness”. This is the God complex that, in the end harms the people, and frustrates the aide or development servant, as well as the local people. It subtly communicates to the locals that they are incapable, debilitated, have little to offer themselves. With us, we also subtlety begin to think "They are lucky to have me! Where would they be without me?" Locals begin to believe that the only solutions are from outside – from those "fixed" people, from those “fixed” places.
We have truly lost sight of our place AMONG the people, and permitted them to place us OVER the people. The greatest resource is always the local people, first. Within and among we must work.
It is of critical importance that we remember that we too come to serve as a broken people. Our countries of origin are broken also. Places like Haiti & numerous African or Asian nations are indeed broken, but we Canadians & Americans are not broken….. right?
Haiti has voodoo, we have ramped materialism. The richest people on earth, with the greatest resources, yet, with the greatest debt to. We spend most of our money on things, entertainment junk, and sacrifice little for others in the world. We will not, no refuse to live simply. We deserve, demand, and expect our comfortable things, and in the end we give little to others. But our Canadian or American brokenness is, well……………………. less broken,……….. right? Isn’t it?
In Haiti, there has been some emphasis in Christian media about how the people of Haiti are steeped in Voodoo. I hear them speak of how their government officials, long ago, at some time, made a pact with the devil for their nation. Yes, that is it, they suffer because they are more broken. We don't because we are not. Do you see the problem with such Christian statements? Yes Haiti has problems, it is suffering from brokenness. But so are we. So is our Country. We DO serve from the same platform of brokenness, it is simply manifested differently in a different place, is all.
Hopefully, we are not trying to make these people and places into little (“broken”) Canada’s or little (broken) “America’s”. Oh, my, no! We are together (The local people & ourselves) seeking to manifest a higher ideal; a true manifestation of the kingdom of God. We can’t plant that, because we don’t have it or own that seed, only God can implant the kingdom. We are simply seeking him for it, in one small village, by letting God work on us together, as we love each other, and Him too!
(Note:.... Remember we are NOT writing about “emergency disaster relief”. That supply is needed immediately, by any and every method possible. Rather, we are writing to address the process of development that assists a community in such a way that we are out of a job in the future.)
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