Have you ever seen the 90's sitcom Boy Meets World? It's my all-time favorite show, not just because it's funny, but also because it comes with some great life lessons. In one particular episode Eric, one of the main characters, is playing Santa at the mall. When a bus load of children from the local orphanage show up, Eric and his friends pool their resources to provide each of them with a present for Christmas. They spend everything they have and then some to give these kids a little happiness during the holidays. They are intoxicated by the grateful faces and happy smiles they see when each kid receives his new toy. At the end of two whole successful days of helping the needy, Eric makes this bold proclamation:
"I want the world's happiness to be my responsibility."
That's a pretty lofty calling, huh? As the episode progresses you can see that this idea is quickly shattered when a little boy crawls onto his lap and asks "Santa" for something he just can't give: a mother and a father. Eric is devastated at his apparent failure of providing happiness to the world. As he sits alone and reflects on his experience, he asks God a couple of times, "Why would you send me this little boy?" As he processes the events of the day his attitude changes, and he ultimately declares his new goal:
"I can be responsible for the happiness of one little boy."
What a change. Eric goes from wanting to affect the whole world to just humbly trying to make a difference in one person's life. As the show continues Eric becomes the boy's "older brother" and spends time with him every weekend.
Which decision was more effective? Spending money he didn't have to provide a group of children one present each for one Christmas? Or sacrificing his time every weekend to become a mentor for one orphaned child?
There is nothing wrong with wanting to make a needy child happy. Believe me, it's very satisfying. But there will come a day when the money runs out, the toys are gone, and the child is still needy.
Do you know what needy children need the most? Call me cliche, but they need love. They need someone to believe in them, to believe that they can accomplish things with their life, that they are capable of doing something in this world. The kid that Eric connected with will probably not remember the fire truck he received that one Christmas, but he will never forget the time that Eric spent investing in him and showing him that he was a person worth treasuring. That's the first step to real change: not giving people worth, but showing them that they had it all along. As a creation of God, they are worth something.
I could give out all the money I have in my possession to people in my community, and their needs would be met for one day. What will they do the next day? Who will they turn to? And who will I turn to now that I have exhausted all of my resources? Just because I have the capacity to meet people's physical needs doesn't mean that is the best use of my time and money. My perspective needs to go beyond the pain of today and look more toward long-term effects and eternal consequences.
God used one "needy" kid to send me careening onto the path I am now on, and I haven't looked back (that's a long story I would like to share with you one day, if I haven't already). After meeting this girl I realized that it just wasn't enough for me to give all of my worldly wealth, because I didn't even have what she needed. I couldn't provide for her even if I wanted to, and that's when I realized that maybe there is more to helping people than just meeting their daily needs for them.
(*side note: It is my belief that there is a time and place for handing people money or buying toys for needy kids. I also feel, however, that that approach is used more often than it should be and in situations in which that approach is inappropriate. But that is a conversation for another time.)
I think you can see where I'm going here. Real change has to be deep, and deep change can almost never be as widespread as we want it to be. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that so many ministries and organizations have the resources to provide for many people's needs all at once. The ministry I work for sees an average of about 15,000 people in thirteen different villages on a weekly basis. But how many of their names do I know? How many of their stories have I really heard? Not nearly enough.
So maybe I can't be responsible for initiating Christ-centered change in thirteen villages. But maybe I can be responsible for one.
That's the announcement, ladies and gentlemen. It's time to go deep, and to do that I need to truly get to know the people I'm serving. And to do that I need to become a part of their community. And since I'm only one person, I'm starting with one community.
Beginning in August, 2015, I will be moving to Batey 7 to live, work, and begin a community development initiative. As many of you know, my parents and I currently live in Barahona, and each week we "commute" to the bateyes, a 20-45 minute drive depending on which batey we are going to. That makes it almost impossible to develop real relationships with the people, especially in this culture. For the past few months I have been feeling led to move out to a batey on my own (without my parents) and start to go deeper. God helped me decide on Batey 7, and I have started making preparations to move there in a few months.
This will be a big change to the life I am living now, but I couldn't be more excited. It's the kind of excitement you get when you feel confident that you are following God's plan for your life, even if it seems a little daunting (or unbelievably daunting) at first. Without a doubt it will be the hardest thing I have ever done, harder perhaps than even moving from the States to Barahona. But my heart and soul are almost bursting with anticipation at what God has in mind for this community. I have no idea what the next year will hold, but I know that through all the hardships, joys, failures, and triumphs, God is good, and he is weaving together a wonderful plan, even though I can just see the very tip of it right now.
This is the last blog I will have in this series about the truth behind poverty....for now :) Please join me in praying for my future move and for the community of Batey 7. And please let me know if you have any questions about the community or my upcoming plans. Thank you all so much for being a part of this next crazy step in my life!
Friday, February 20, 2015
Friday, February 13, 2015
Jessica: Pedal to the Meddlers
This one goes out to all the one-week mission trip-ers, all the long-term missionaries, and all the people involved in cross-cultural aid. This is my second of three blogs that I am writing about truth, and how truth relates to serving God in a cross-cultural setting (I think it can really relate to people doing ministry everywhere, but since I am talking from my own experience I will mostly be talking about "overseas" situations).
In my last blog, which you can read here, I talked about our perceptions of people in poverty and how we need to adjust our attitudes to see everybody as God's beautiful creation, not people to be pitied. Today I want to talk about actions, the part where we actually do something on behalf of another human being. As Western thinkers, our idea of "helping the poor" almost always consists of an action, a physical action that can be measured, such as building houses, fixing roofs, handing out clothes. Those things can be measured and clearly documented with pictures and reports, which makes us feel like progress is being made.
Now, please don't think I'm knocking measurable progress or that I'm saying building houses and fixing roofs isn't important. This is just me urging people to think long and carefully before beginning a project or initiative designed to help the poor, because there can be some unintended consequences.
You don't have to look hard for my main point in this blog because I'm going to tell it to you right now, and I'm going to make it red and bold. I learned in Psychology class once that the color red makes people feel bad about themselves, but I couldn't think of another color that would properly portray how serious I am about this subject, so forgive the attack on your self-esteem and read carefully:
If you are going to enter into someone else's world and begin to make decisions that will affect his or her life, you need to understand the true weight and responsibility of this task. Accordingly, constant prayer, a commitment to learning, and a time of listening must precede any action that will occur.
Too often I see people jump in with wonderful intentions, but without knowing the area in which they are working, and the result is not good. Let me give you a more light-hearted example. Our ministry has two signs that we hang on our truck that remind people to thank God for the things they receive. Both signs were in Spanish. However, I found out a few years after coming on mission trips that people in the bateyes also speak Creole, the language of the Haitians (that explained why I couldn't understand them sometimes-they were speaking Creole, not Spanish!). So when one of our signs needed to be fixed, we came up with a great idea: why not write the same message in Creole so that everyone can understand it? It was perfect! The sign was made and hung proudly. I heard people reading it out loud when they saw it; many times they would read it slowly and somewhat laboriously, but hey-maybe they were just surprised at seeing a sign in their language. I was so pleased with us and the smart decision we had made that I didn't realize the truth for many months:
People in the bateyes don't read Creole.
I'm sure some people can, and I'm sure most knew what the sign said once they sounded it out, but for the majority of people in the bateyes Creole is just a spoken language, a language passed down from their parents and grandparents and used to communicate verbally with one another. One person in a batey thought the sign was in English!
Here is the point I'm trying to make: it took me three years to realize that the people I was serving spoke Creole as well as Spanish, and it took me another three years to realize they weren't literate in Creole. Am I a slow learner? Most definitely. But the fact is it takes a long, long time to learn about another culture, another country. If I stay in the Dominican then I will be learning new things about this country for the rest of my life. But that's a good thing; how can we help people if we don't know anything about them?
And the example above was just a small blunder, one that probably didn't affect anyone negatively, if it even affected anyone at all. Think of the effect a blunder could have where more time, money, and people are involved. The results could be, and have been, disastrous.
So that's the first step then, the one that many of us miss: learn about people before you start meddling in their lives. Because serving without knowledge is just that-meddling. Study the culture, but also learn from the people. Be willing to listen to them, to hear their ideas of what should be done or what they see are the greatest needs in their own community. Who would know better than them? Shame on us if we enter a community with guns blazing and we didn't even ask if we were invited to the fight.
I may be coming across as more harsh than I had originally planned, but when it comes to this topic sometimes I can't help it. The Dominican was my first love, and I fell head over heels. It stole my heart with all its beauty and I just want what's best for its people. But in saying that I must also humbly admit that I don't always know what's best for them. Today I can honestly say that the honeymoon stage has long since ended; the rose-colored glasses are off and I see my home through the harsh light of reality. Even though I see all of the beauty, hardship, frustration, and joy that come with living here, I do realize that there is still so much for me to see. But with the knowledge and experience I have now, I want to protect these people as best as I can.
So I'm encouraging everyone, myself included, to put the brakes on our desire for results and to start looking before we leap. Let's devote ourselves to prayer and learning, so that our efforts will be led by God primarily, and the people we serve secondarily. Let's stop trying to see progress and start trying to see God where he is already at work. I guarantee you that our relationships will deepen, our faith will strengthen, and our world will change.
Next week will be my last post (for now) on this subject, in which I will be making a big announcement. I hope you all will tune in! In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about what I have been discussing feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. I would love to hear your thoughts.
In my last blog, which you can read here, I talked about our perceptions of people in poverty and how we need to adjust our attitudes to see everybody as God's beautiful creation, not people to be pitied. Today I want to talk about actions, the part where we actually do something on behalf of another human being. As Western thinkers, our idea of "helping the poor" almost always consists of an action, a physical action that can be measured, such as building houses, fixing roofs, handing out clothes. Those things can be measured and clearly documented with pictures and reports, which makes us feel like progress is being made.
Now, please don't think I'm knocking measurable progress or that I'm saying building houses and fixing roofs isn't important. This is just me urging people to think long and carefully before beginning a project or initiative designed to help the poor, because there can be some unintended consequences.
You don't have to look hard for my main point in this blog because I'm going to tell it to you right now, and I'm going to make it red and bold. I learned in Psychology class once that the color red makes people feel bad about themselves, but I couldn't think of another color that would properly portray how serious I am about this subject, so forgive the attack on your self-esteem and read carefully:
If you are going to enter into someone else's world and begin to make decisions that will affect his or her life, you need to understand the true weight and responsibility of this task. Accordingly, constant prayer, a commitment to learning, and a time of listening must precede any action that will occur.
Too often I see people jump in with wonderful intentions, but without knowing the area in which they are working, and the result is not good. Let me give you a more light-hearted example. Our ministry has two signs that we hang on our truck that remind people to thank God for the things they receive. Both signs were in Spanish. However, I found out a few years after coming on mission trips that people in the bateyes also speak Creole, the language of the Haitians (that explained why I couldn't understand them sometimes-they were speaking Creole, not Spanish!). So when one of our signs needed to be fixed, we came up with a great idea: why not write the same message in Creole so that everyone can understand it? It was perfect! The sign was made and hung proudly. I heard people reading it out loud when they saw it; many times they would read it slowly and somewhat laboriously, but hey-maybe they were just surprised at seeing a sign in their language. I was so pleased with us and the smart decision we had made that I didn't realize the truth for many months:
People in the bateyes don't read Creole.
I'm sure some people can, and I'm sure most knew what the sign said once they sounded it out, but for the majority of people in the bateyes Creole is just a spoken language, a language passed down from their parents and grandparents and used to communicate verbally with one another. One person in a batey thought the sign was in English!
Here is the point I'm trying to make: it took me three years to realize that the people I was serving spoke Creole as well as Spanish, and it took me another three years to realize they weren't literate in Creole. Am I a slow learner? Most definitely. But the fact is it takes a long, long time to learn about another culture, another country. If I stay in the Dominican then I will be learning new things about this country for the rest of my life. But that's a good thing; how can we help people if we don't know anything about them?
And the example above was just a small blunder, one that probably didn't affect anyone negatively, if it even affected anyone at all. Think of the effect a blunder could have where more time, money, and people are involved. The results could be, and have been, disastrous.
So that's the first step then, the one that many of us miss: learn about people before you start meddling in their lives. Because serving without knowledge is just that-meddling. Study the culture, but also learn from the people. Be willing to listen to them, to hear their ideas of what should be done or what they see are the greatest needs in their own community. Who would know better than them? Shame on us if we enter a community with guns blazing and we didn't even ask if we were invited to the fight.
I may be coming across as more harsh than I had originally planned, but when it comes to this topic sometimes I can't help it. The Dominican was my first love, and I fell head over heels. It stole my heart with all its beauty and I just want what's best for its people. But in saying that I must also humbly admit that I don't always know what's best for them. Today I can honestly say that the honeymoon stage has long since ended; the rose-colored glasses are off and I see my home through the harsh light of reality. Even though I see all of the beauty, hardship, frustration, and joy that come with living here, I do realize that there is still so much for me to see. But with the knowledge and experience I have now, I want to protect these people as best as I can.
So I'm encouraging everyone, myself included, to put the brakes on our desire for results and to start looking before we leap. Let's devote ourselves to prayer and learning, so that our efforts will be led by God primarily, and the people we serve secondarily. Let's stop trying to see progress and start trying to see God where he is already at work. I guarantee you that our relationships will deepen, our faith will strengthen, and our world will change.
Next week will be my last post (for now) on this subject, in which I will be making a big announcement. I hope you all will tune in! In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, questions, or comments about what I have been discussing feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Jessica: Smile, You're Poor
I see a problem here.
Not specifically with the people or poverty around me, but rather the way we see the people and poverty around us. The "we" I'm talking about is the outsiders, the compassionate Western poverty-fighters who are trying to help out in the world. In our crusade to aid the needy, clothe the naked, and civilize the non-Christian heathens, I think we sometimes give in to our dramatic sensations and miss what is really going on here. And that is a dangerous thing to do.
Yesterday I needed to get some pictures of people during the feeding distribution to promote our Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack event coming up in March (which is going to be a big event and really fun! Message me for more info!). I got some volunteers, organized them in a group, and raised my camera.
A young man from the community was standing behind me, giving my subjects some modeling advice.
"You're poor! Don't laugh. Be poor!" He suggested to them. Immediately every smile was wiped from their faces and they all stood there, waiting for me to capture their sudden melancholy.
For a kid who has never been to school for marketing, he sure knows what the people want, right? Don't ever tell me people in developing countries aren't intelligent.
We want to see dirty faces, ragged clothes, and sullen eyes. Only then will we open our wallets and send our contribution to the most desperate places on earth.
Why do we do that? Do we think that if a child is smiling they must not be truly in need? Do we think impoverished people sit around every day feeling sorry for themselves and practicing their camera-ready frown? The thing is, sad pictures invoke pity. Happy pictures are great, but I can take happy pictures of my cousins and get the same feeling inside, right? These people don't need or deserve your pity; they deserve respect.
Some people might be reading this and thinking, "This is crazy. I certainly don't feel this way." But clearly many people do, because even the people we are photographing understand that happy faces may get you into somebody's profile picture, but sad faces get you stuff.
I have a dear friend in another developing country who shared this story with me: When she and her siblings were kids, they heard about some people coming into their community and picking families to be a part of a new sponsorship program. Their oldest brother wanted to get them into the program, but he knew to have a better chance he would have to help them out a little bit. He told all of them to put on their worst clothes and make themselves look dirty (their mom was out of the house that day-she was furious with them when she discovered what they had done. Moms are so universal.). When the people came around with their cameras all the children put on their best "poor" face. Guess who was put into the sponsorship program? (And guess who got into big trouble when their mom received the photo a few months later of her children from that day?)
Don't get me wrong-my friend's family could have honestly used some help, and I'm sure this program did give them some great assistance. But why do we only respond to the pain of poverty, while we totally ignore the other side of it? The second we accept these images as the whole truth we deny people the dignity of being a whole human, capable of feeling joy as well as pain, capable of laughter as well as tears. Maybe this is a subconscious thing we do, but it's an attitude and idea that we need to destroy.
Poverty is hard but it shouldn't define people. If we turn our gaze to developing countries or impoverished areas and the people's poverty is the most remarkable thing about them, then we are sorely missing out on a group of people who have remarkable traits of God, just waiting to be recognized.
But that's just it-we don't see them because we aren't looking for them. We take one look at them and label them: POOR. HARD LIFE. HELPLESS. We think the best toy they will have is the one we give them. We think the time that we make them laugh and smile is the only time they will smile that day.
It's time to look beyond the camera lens and look at people in three-dimension. One of my sweet little neighbors has a favorite toy; I have seen him playing with it for literally hours every day, usually by himself, but contented as can be. We have played with jump ropes, hula-hoops, and soccer balls, but they are nothing compared to this. I have watched him outside, dressed in nothing but underwear covered in dirt from some serious playing, waving around a long stick with a ripped up grocery bag tied to it. Even this morning as I was thinking about this blog here comes my boy, whacking the tree in my front yard with his stick because the grocery bag got caught in the branches.
Now if I managed to snap a picture of this boy, stick in hand, when he happened to not be smiling, what would you think? "Oh, that poor dear boy doesn't even have clothes to wear or anything to play with but some trash." Is that truth? The truth is my neighbors don't have as many clothes as I do or as many toys as most kids in developed countries like the U.S. have. But the other truth, the more important truth, is that my neighbor doesn't wear clothes because he doesn't want to wear clothes, and he plays with a stick and a grocery bag because that's what he likes to play with. And you haven't seen true joy until you've seen a boy with his ripped up grocery bag.
Please don't think I'm condemning our society for wanting to help or for taking pictures of poor people. I just want us to start seeing these people as they are-beautiful, dignified creations of God. Let's stop helping people because we think their lives are pathetic, and start helping people because we are all broken people under one God who need a hand up every now and then.
After that young man behind me told everyone to "look poor" and to "stop laughing" I quickly jumped in and said "No, it's ok, smile!" Here are some of the faces I captured in my two-minute photo-shoot. Please take a minute to enjoy these pictures for what they show: real people who have many reasons to smile, just like you and me.
When we change how we see the world, that's when we can truly change it.
Not specifically with the people or poverty around me, but rather the way we see the people and poverty around us. The "we" I'm talking about is the outsiders, the compassionate Western poverty-fighters who are trying to help out in the world. In our crusade to aid the needy, clothe the naked, and civilize the non-Christian heathens, I think we sometimes give in to our dramatic sensations and miss what is really going on here. And that is a dangerous thing to do.
Yesterday I needed to get some pictures of people during the feeding distribution to promote our Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack event coming up in March (which is going to be a big event and really fun! Message me for more info!). I got some volunteers, organized them in a group, and raised my camera.
A young man from the community was standing behind me, giving my subjects some modeling advice.
"You're poor! Don't laugh. Be poor!" He suggested to them. Immediately every smile was wiped from their faces and they all stood there, waiting for me to capture their sudden melancholy.
For a kid who has never been to school for marketing, he sure knows what the people want, right? Don't ever tell me people in developing countries aren't intelligent.
We want to see dirty faces, ragged clothes, and sullen eyes. Only then will we open our wallets and send our contribution to the most desperate places on earth.
Why do we do that? Do we think that if a child is smiling they must not be truly in need? Do we think impoverished people sit around every day feeling sorry for themselves and practicing their camera-ready frown? The thing is, sad pictures invoke pity. Happy pictures are great, but I can take happy pictures of my cousins and get the same feeling inside, right? These people don't need or deserve your pity; they deserve respect.
Some people might be reading this and thinking, "This is crazy. I certainly don't feel this way." But clearly many people do, because even the people we are photographing understand that happy faces may get you into somebody's profile picture, but sad faces get you stuff.
I have a dear friend in another developing country who shared this story with me: When she and her siblings were kids, they heard about some people coming into their community and picking families to be a part of a new sponsorship program. Their oldest brother wanted to get them into the program, but he knew to have a better chance he would have to help them out a little bit. He told all of them to put on their worst clothes and make themselves look dirty (their mom was out of the house that day-she was furious with them when she discovered what they had done. Moms are so universal.). When the people came around with their cameras all the children put on their best "poor" face. Guess who was put into the sponsorship program? (And guess who got into big trouble when their mom received the photo a few months later of her children from that day?)
Don't get me wrong-my friend's family could have honestly used some help, and I'm sure this program did give them some great assistance. But why do we only respond to the pain of poverty, while we totally ignore the other side of it? The second we accept these images as the whole truth we deny people the dignity of being a whole human, capable of feeling joy as well as pain, capable of laughter as well as tears. Maybe this is a subconscious thing we do, but it's an attitude and idea that we need to destroy.
Poverty is hard but it shouldn't define people. If we turn our gaze to developing countries or impoverished areas and the people's poverty is the most remarkable thing about them, then we are sorely missing out on a group of people who have remarkable traits of God, just waiting to be recognized.
But that's just it-we don't see them because we aren't looking for them. We take one look at them and label them: POOR. HARD LIFE. HELPLESS. We think the best toy they will have is the one we give them. We think the time that we make them laugh and smile is the only time they will smile that day.
It's time to look beyond the camera lens and look at people in three-dimension. One of my sweet little neighbors has a favorite toy; I have seen him playing with it for literally hours every day, usually by himself, but contented as can be. We have played with jump ropes, hula-hoops, and soccer balls, but they are nothing compared to this. I have watched him outside, dressed in nothing but underwear covered in dirt from some serious playing, waving around a long stick with a ripped up grocery bag tied to it. Even this morning as I was thinking about this blog here comes my boy, whacking the tree in my front yard with his stick because the grocery bag got caught in the branches.
Now if I managed to snap a picture of this boy, stick in hand, when he happened to not be smiling, what would you think? "Oh, that poor dear boy doesn't even have clothes to wear or anything to play with but some trash." Is that truth? The truth is my neighbors don't have as many clothes as I do or as many toys as most kids in developed countries like the U.S. have. But the other truth, the more important truth, is that my neighbor doesn't wear clothes because he doesn't want to wear clothes, and he plays with a stick and a grocery bag because that's what he likes to play with. And you haven't seen true joy until you've seen a boy with his ripped up grocery bag.
Please don't think I'm condemning our society for wanting to help or for taking pictures of poor people. I just want us to start seeing these people as they are-beautiful, dignified creations of God. Let's stop helping people because we think their lives are pathetic, and start helping people because we are all broken people under one God who need a hand up every now and then.
After that young man behind me told everyone to "look poor" and to "stop laughing" I quickly jumped in and said "No, it's ok, smile!" Here are some of the faces I captured in my two-minute photo-shoot. Please take a minute to enjoy these pictures for what they show: real people who have many reasons to smile, just like you and me.
When we change how we see the world, that's when we can truly change it.
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