Global business of humanitarian aid

16 01 2017

I am watching a program on Netflix called POVERTY, INC. This excellent documentary seeks to demonstrate how the humanitarian aid industry has, in effect, become a global business which benefits the donor who possesses the power, while stripping motivation from the people who grow dependent on aid from outside. I recommend you view this program.

At minute 42, the show describes a “ladder” out of poverty, the steps of which empower people locked in poverty to gain the confidence to climb out of chronic poverty. These “steps” are:

  1. Legal protection from theft and violence
  2. Justice in the courts
  3. Legal title to one’s land
  4. Freedom to start and register a business
  5. Links to wider circles of exchange

The program argues that the successful effort to strengthen Europe after World War II (called the Marshall Plan) has not had this strengthening effect in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Needed aid after natural disasters has turned into “unnatural disasters” wherein aid agencies overstay the crisis and create dependency. Why work hard to develop local initiatives when the market is flooded with foods and goods from outside for free?

What is needed, purports POVERTY,INC., is for outside groups to help reconstruct the ladder. I recall hearing John Perkins comment on the oft-repeated analogy of the fishing pole. He said that it is better to teach a man to fish with his own pole than to continually give the man fish. But, Perkins added, he must also have access to the pond.

Are their agencies which, rather than perpetually handing out aid, are empowering local people by building the ladder?

What can one person do to contribute toward a solution instead of ignorantly perpetuating the problem?

(photocredit: WPphotosmart.

Poverty, Inc. website





How does a rich man repent?

3 01 2017

Recently I heard a sermon about John the Baptist and his call to repentance as a way to prepare for the coming of King Jesus. The preacher exhorted each of us to consider ways we should repent (i.e. turn around). The church was located in an affluent area, and the congregants reflect the lifestyle of the financially prosperous.

After the service let out, I was in the parking lot talking to my hosts, when another attendee walked past and engaged in conversation. He said he was soon to drive his motor home to Palm Springs to stay for some weeks, after which he would drive up along the California coast visiting beautiful cities along the way.

In these instances, we who have spent years in poorer countries or neighborhoods are often challenged with a private, parallel conversation. For me it could be summarized as, “What would one of my simple village pastors from Africa think if he had heard that sermon on repentance, and now stood in this conversation in the parking lot?” (Note: I include the descriptor “village” because some city pastors and elders in African cities are economically more akin to the American RV owner than their village compatriots.)

I had the same internal conversation on a walk during the recent Christmas season. I passed through a neighborhood of multi-level homes which cost hundreds of thousands to build. In the driveway sat at least one glimmering SUV, and on the lawn a “creche” depicting the humble birth of Jesus. Again, I wondered if a Christian from the developing world would view that scene as a bewildering contradiction.

How does a rich man repent?

I think of the rich young ruler who engaged Jesus with the question of  his salvation. Since the man was keeping the Mosaic Law, Jesus finally told him to sell all he had and give to the poor. The young man went away sad because he had many possessions.

Did Jesus want the young entrepreneur to give everything away so as to join the ranks of the poor? I think not. But the Lord saw that the man loved his possessions, which was an impediment to discipleship. Paul wrote along this line when he said that the love of money is the root of all evil. If I love my money, I need to repent. But how do I know when I have stopped stewarding my money righteously and come to love my money? If such love is actually covetousness, idolatry, possessiveness, or a source of pride, then no one knows if I need to repent other than God and me — and I am well able to deceive myself.

I begin to see that the African villager cannot really know how the rich American should repent, any more than the rich American can really know how the African should repent. But I am sure each would receive insight on the matter, to their benefit, if they spent some hours together reading God’s word and praying!

A young Christian family, living in the same metro area as the wealthy RV owner, formerly wanted to buy a larger home. But they intentionally decided to live simply in their current house. Dad takes the shuttle train to work, when he could drive his own car. A rich young family is seeking to live a lifestyle of repentance.

I heard of a Christian church that has decided to rent a central space accessible to all, rather than build their own building in the suburbs; this way they are able to put more funds into mission and outreach to the community. A rich young church seeks an attitude of repentance.

Repentance is a matter of the heart. If I am a hypocrite in my heart, I must deal with the fact that the Holy Spirit lives there too. A man with less money can actually love his money more, even as a man with more money can love it less. Are both of them ready to give their money away freely, as managers of God’s resources?

Repentance is a matter of my time, place, and circumstance. Another person cannot know my context, and therefore cannot rightly judge what I should do. But neither should I judge what another man does, or does not do. Maybe that is why community is so important, for people who share the same context can observe and speak forthrightly into each others lives.

“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14, NKJV).


Photos:  WP ImageSmart/Pixabay

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6 Reasons Your Nation Cannot Be Glad

5 09 2016

God’s desire is that every nation be glad. The Bible is clear about this. In one Psalm (#67) God reveals six signs of a glad nation. But your nation cannot experience these because they only happen when God is given opportunity to bring in His character. There are no glad nations today, and I do not think we can even imagine one.

I am an American, so let me focus on why America cannot be glad. You can adjust this to your own nation.

1. WE DO NOT LOOK TO GOD FOR MERCY AND BLESSING. “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us” (Ps. 67:1). When someone’s face shines on another, it means he has joy and pleasure on his face. He is pleased and happy with what he sees. A glad nation is one on which God looks with an intent to shower his favor. Most Americans have no interest in this.

2. WE DO NOT KNOW THE WAY OF SALVATION. “That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations” (v.2). A glad nation is one in which common families know that we are in dire straits without God, and that He is our only hope. Most Americans think they know all they need to know. They don’t think God can save.

3. WE DO NOT SING TO GOD WITH JOY. “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (v.3,4a). This scripture actually tells of God’s wish that everyone would be happy with praise! Americans are too busy for this, and too focused on many things other than God. We are so intent on “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that we created a sad nation.

4. WE DON’T WANT RIGHTEOUS GOVERNANCE. “For You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth.” (v.4b). God would like to gladden nations by helping governments to reward good acts, punish evil, and protect the weak. We are too interested in our own rights to let God’s way enter in.

5. WE DO NOT VALUE A PRODUCTIVE EARTH. “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You, then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us” (Ps.67:5-6). We don’t see the earth as God’s creation, so we make no connection between honoring God and having prosperity. We think the earth just happened, and we are trashing it. We don’t recognize our prosperity because we always want more.

6. WE HAVE NO REVERENCE FOR GOD. “God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him” (v.7). “Fear” means to honor and respect. Because my nation does not respect God, we have reason to be afraid of Him. God is angry because we have declined His goodness. This has seriously ticked Him off, and we are living with the results.

God is good and wants nations to be glad. You and I live in sad nations because God is willfully ignored. These are the sad facts.





Why send missionaries?

26 12 2011

There are voices in the Church today that look at missions-sending primarily through the lens of financial ROI (return on investment). They argue that a US-sent missionary is too expensive compared to the low cost of supporting nationals in their own country. Without getting deeply into this issue which has many facets unseen through the financial lens, such as the crippling dependency that results from the dollar, I am prompted today to share with you a letter I received this morning from one of my seminary classmates who has spent decades in West Africa. This letter reminds me of one of the reasons we must continue to send out missionaries from the USA: We need their perspective to help us see our own lives more clearly.

Here is the letter from Steve and Carol Smith:

Dear friends,

Carol and I stopped by the Nutrition center of the El Rapha Health Center on Wednesday where we saw a young mother with her six month old baby girl who weighed 3 ¾ lbs. (that’s not a typo). Our hearts broke as we saw a tiny adult-looking face (NO baby fat) with big sad eyes & listened to the little girl moaning in her mother’s arms unable to understand why she was suffering. The reason this child is at death’s door from malnutrition is not because the mother doesn’t love her but because of ignorance, unhealthy child-care traditions and poverty.

Another child was born into the poorest of circumstances and grew up in a backwater town in the Middle East over 2000 years ago. On that fateful night an angel announced to the most despised social class of the day these life-giving words: “unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Because he came, there is hope for this broken world. Because he came, we are here for such a time as this and you are where you are for such a time as this and the gospel we live and speak is “the power of God for the rescue of everyone who believes.”

May our hearts break for all who have not yet heard and who moan in misery without knowing why.  May God have mercy on this child and all the children who suffer.  May the love of God in Christ constrain us to no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and rose again on our behalf.

We want to thank you very much for being partners with us as we serve the Lord here in Côte d’Ivoire. We couldn’t do it without you. Your prayers and encouragement and support help us in so many different ways.

We wish you a blessed Christmas season and a New Year full of the joy of knowing Jesus and of making him known.

Steve and Carol