A brother in the Lord, gave me a book, on a recent mission trip. "When Charity Destroy's Dignity" by Glenn J. Schwartz. I confess I haven't read it all the way through yet, a year later. It's written for better minds than mine, and I'll need help to get through it, but I get the gist of it. In our zeal to help, we create dependants on the church organization, not the Lord. We enable in the most harmful ways, instead of enabling personal dignity and courage. A hand up, not a hand out as the saying goes.
There is a gut response to seeing need. You want to meet it. Now. And this is our western culture, that more "stuff" will make it better. I had a list as long as my arm of stuff I wanted to drum up for the Infirmary. And I haven't given up on some of it...it's still my wish to make it a bit more comfortable, especially for the bedridden.
Marla probably has to go through this with everyone, but I had to go through the "fix it" phase of my adaptation to the culture.
You give all this stuff, watch it be stolen, and realize..there is no fixing it. Not on a human level anyway. The real need is Jesus Christ and the love and healing He brings. Only He changes the heart. Only He gives faith that He will meet my need, and I don't have to steal from this yet poorer person than myself. It's all about the heart. So I can tear down the Infirmary, and rebuild it to a cutting edge facility and the "condition" will remain the same. Nothing will have changed. Their food will still be stolen, equipment stolen and sold, and I will come back to a stripped bare building, with hungry people in it.
You can't judge it. A poverty culture creates poverty mentality...or maybe it's the other way around. You see that in the States by people who have plenty, but are just afraid of not having enough. Even if you have "enough", you might not tomorrow, so take what you can now. It's dominated by fear. And if you've watched your children go hungry, you can understand that. It's far too complicated to fix.
The only thing that can fix deep spiritual and cultural problems is Jesus. Because He works from the inside out.
Because the Infirmary houses people who can not work, can not provide for themselves, and are incapable of sustaining their lives, we help with food and diapers and the luxury of a trip to the beach just for fun. I hope in the future, maybe several Jamaican church's might partner together to visit and love on the residents, and to help insure that needs are met. I pray for western missionaries to be phased out, and Jamaican missionaries raised up! But when everyone is poor, it's hard.
For now, they need help from the body. The church in America is not poor. And it's our job, to share with our brother's and sister's the world over. That is MY church in Jamaica. That's part of MY body. I think it shows the importance of working through the local body of Christ only, where ever you happen to go, because we are to be a unified body first, everyone sharing and meeting need. The object is to reveal God's faithfulness, not ours. God's provision, not my provision. Dependence on God...not me. We're just a reflection. And in that way, draw others to Christ as they feel His love through His people. Always...the object of any mission is to lift up Jesus, so that if He is lifted up He will draw all men unto Himself.
I've come to the conclusion that this is why welfare programs don't work. They create dependence on a government, that has no power to give life, not God, who has the power to give life, transform it, changing both people and circumstances. We do harm instead of good by taking away the pressure and pain that encourages us to change, encourages us to seek God for relief.
We do spiritual harm, when we say, here is your portion from the government, no need to change anything, rather than, here is a share of God's provision, and He has a plan for your life. He loves you.
Alright, off my soapbox....
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