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.
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