Photo by Stéphan Valentin on Unsplah
Havana, Cuba, with its classic cars, ancient European structures, and festive, joyful people is a broken place, deep and wide. Just one image will convince you. Each month the government pumps water from a central source through its aged infrastructure to resupply towers within its grid. More than half of the water is lost in the process.
Sometimes churches pump goodwill into relief work without considering whether their system of assistance is broken. That system can be like a leaky pipeline. “Leaks” in goodwill can be subtle and embedded in one’s own assumptions. Emotions may drive short-term outcomes that do not align with the long-term goal to elevate people out of a bad situation.
Cuban politics is an example of a more obvious leak in good intentions. Managing “social fairness” from a central power has disabled the talent and motivation of the people. The local church has the potential to unleash it again. But we need to pump our efforts into the right pipes. Obviously that means local partners who operate with integrity. But it also means operating by the right principles ourselves—those that equip and sustain without leaks.
Around the corner or around the world, nameable principles must guide work among vulnerable people. You cannot empower people as a goal without empowering them in your approach. You can’t rush in to fix problems yourself and expect to equip people to maintain what you have done for rather than with them.
The goal is to equip
By comparison, last fall our church hosted a parenting conference featuring Sissy Goff and David Thomas. Sissy told a story of a mother who resented picking up after her children. They didn’t seem to appreciate all her efforts. She had to change expectations starting with her own. She needed to aim for their imperfect participation rather than her perfect results.
Like that mother, American philanthropy often pushes for short-term efficiency over long-term effectiveness. It values the immediate golden egg rather than growing a healthier goose. It takes patience to come alongside and not stand over people who are in survival mode.
If the goal is to elevate a community from poverty, then the local people themselves must be partners from the beginning. You cannot elevate people by doing for. If you’re going to give a fish, then fishing lessons should be included.
The goal is to sustain
Years ago a group installed wells in African villages which the local people could not repair. That outside group failed to consider how their efforts would be sustained.
Outsiders who want to help hurting people must know their suffering from the inside— to see, listen, and smell the squalor. In the words of my friend Bob Lupton who has worked in inner-city Atlanta for a generation, we must be proximate to pain so that our charity does not become toxic. Empathy from the outside can make us impatient for the quick fix.
Haiti is a parable of an anxious, quick-fix mentality. U.S. dollars have poured out like gasoline on a dumpster fire of corruption. Healthy relief begins with patient discernment of what God is already doing in broken places. It means finding people and slowly building a trusting relationship. Like Leon DorLeans in Port au Prince who has slowly but surely built some of the most effective churches, schools, and clinics in the country.
The goal of hope
Serving should not be a bait and switch. It’s not a means to gain trust and then pressure people about their beliefs. We share our beliefs the same way we share resources—to come alongside with love, not stand over with all the answers. People can tell the difference. If our operating principles elevate people, then they will want to know what’s behind it. They will want to know what drives us.
St. Francis said, “Always preach Christ; when necessary, use words.” This quotation has often been mischaracterized. We can be part of how a sovereign God enters into the suffering of this world through proximate, practical support. And, we can use words. Words are necessary to explain why we reach out and serve.
“How” we operate says something about our “why.” How must be shaped by why. The ends goal must participate in the means of reaching that goal along the way.
In sum, healthy relief and development begins with the end in mind. That means treating vulnerable people not as objects of charity but subjects of God’s affection. It’s a sacred thing to draw near to people in pain. We must do so holding out hope for them as image-bearers of God until they can hold that hope again themselves.
“God created man in his own image…male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).
Amen, brother