Friday, July 16, 2010

Service is a Gift

The mobility team, John, Mike and I have returned to Ouagadougou for our flight home. We came yesterday, to allow an extra day for travel in case rain or something else, and it is a good thing because it is raining now. Nearly every rain here is like the hardest rain our friends in America have ever experienced, bringing 20 to 30 degree drops in temperature, so most things stop when it rains. I am reminded of a time when e-mail went out for an entire afternoon at Messiah College: I was not “productive” but enjoyed that afternoon immensely.

I have just now been sorting through photos, deciding which ones to use in this post, and found myself deeply moved to see again the faces of our friends from the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped and the Mahadaga community. They are beautiful faces, each reminding me of struggles and kindnesses shared together. But not everything here (or anywhere) is beautiful. Something that makes my African friends at the Center so attractive to me is that they are the faces of people who bring hope and love to the unlovely.

It also rained on the day I rode out with the physical therapists, so we saw only two children. The first was a darling little girl with Down Syndrome. I was on assignment for SIM to take photos of the work, and thought how fortunate I was be taking photographs that might move Americans to compassion and generosity. The second child, however, was less attractive. She was epileptic, and her face was scarred from falling frequently into the fire. Among people of animist belief, epilepsy is also associated with demonic possession, because of the seizures. Few epileptic children are loved or cared for, and few live to become adults. I learned later that many handicapped children are covered in filth when they are first discovered, bathed, fed and perhaps held for the first time since birth by the staff of the Center.

Thinking of my own first reaction to a less beautiful face, and about how friends in America might respond to this second child, I wondered sadly if one must be beautiful to be loved? And then I remembered: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:3, TNIV).” True love is indiscriminate in its generosity to people, life and all things that God made and declared good. He made us to give and receive love, but we and the world were broken by sin so that without God our love has become self-seeking. The love given by the staff of the Center for the Advancement of the Handicapped to those found unlovely in the world's eyes is not self-seeking. Surely this is a sign of God’s Kingdom breaking in upon us through lives that have been restored to health by our Maker.

The team has been studying, “When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting The Poor And Yourself,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Corbett and Fikkert note that one of the biggest mistakes wealthy Christians make is to associate poverty with a lack of material resources, and so we respond primarily by giving material resources. The poor, however, describe poverty primarily in terms of inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, social isolation, and voicelessness. The authors argue that unilateral material giving or doing for others is appropriate only in response to crises that leave others powerless to help themselves. Other giving that is apart from relationship contributes to the poverty of inferiority, powerlessness, and humiliation of the economically poor, while also encouraging the often “subtle and unconscious sense of superiority” of the economically rich “in which they believe that they have achieved their wealth through their own efforts and that they have been anointed to decide what is best for low-income people”.

Many have experienced satisfaction when they have helped others. Do not do for people what they can do for themselves, however, is the heart of Corbett and Fikkert’s message. It is an important message, but how to judge when others are able to help themselves? The authors suggest that the materially poor will know best what to expect of each other, and that being asked for help is no proof that the ones asking are incapable of helping themselves. This analysis made me feel like I am supposed to have everything, but am only to share with others those things that I judge them incapable of getting for themselves. Yes, I understand and embrace the principles of empowering others and avoiding paternalism, but sometimes when a human being asks for water, or food, or healing, or to be visited in prison the right thing to do is to meet that need. There is no principle of reason or logic that can help us know how to respond in love to every instance of human need, but the Holy Spirit knows what is best and will guide us when we listen to Him.

I have to admit that helping done to others is easier than helping done with them. Those who come to Mahadaga with the Collaboratory learn this. No one gets to come here and enjoy the pleasures of helping without also sharing in some small way in the sufferings of the people. We also get sick from the water and bit by malaria carrying mosquitoes. Endless requests to buy from hungry artisans forever waiting just outside our doors, and requests for food, and requests for money for medicine, and the stress of trying to know when to buy and what to give, are a small sharing in the sufferings of material poverty. Our frustration with construction materials that are always the wrong size and parts that are always failing is sharing in a small way with the suffering of living in the place that receives whatever goods cannot pass quality inspection elsewhere. None of this is easy. It does not get easier with time.

For me there is no “us” with everything and “them” with some things. The materially wealthy and materially poor are all made in God’s image, we have all been impoverished by sin, and we all have some things to share. We need each other. My friends in Mahadaga teach me lessons I need to remember nearly every day. They teach me to value relationships even though they cost me productivity. They teach me to be patient with the brokenness of the world, even when I am dissatisfied with it, just as God is patient with me. They teach me that failure to accomplish a big deal in the eyes of the world is not failure. How could it be? I am certain that God does not categorically count the materially poor as failures. They challenge me to aspire to be a big deal in the Kingdom of God, and to be a faithful steward of all that God has put into my hands.

I leave you with this photo of Diabidi sent to us by Francoise. Diabidi is a young woman who received an electric tricycle this year. Francoise says "she is "doing well and very happy". This photo makes us happy too. Yempabou, a young adult with cerebral palsy, and chief beta tester for the Collaboratory electric tricycle designs, is another new tricycle recipient. Handshakes are important to greeting saying farewell here every time you see someone, even if you see them more than once in a day. There are a lot of handshakes in Africa, and Yempabou is no exception. Because of his disability, however, I must always work a little harder to connect with Yempabou’s hand. Are we helping Diabidi and Yempabou, or are they helping us? Yes!

This blog post is the last for Jon, Charlie, Justin, Alex, Mike, John and David. Today has been a day of preparation for departure, and shopping for remembrances from our time here. When I first came to Burkina Faso I used to bring money to buy things for myself and friends and family, and I’ve bought a few things this time too. Lately I have been more excited about budgeting personal money to give away, and about “shopping” around for the best Kingdom investments I can find. What a blast! Thank you to our families, friends and other loved ones for all you have done to support and encourage us. We love you.

- David

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your heart with us as we have traveled with the team via the blog. What a pivitol time for each and every one. We are blessed by what the Lord has done through you and what He continues to do in us all. Praying for a complete safe return of the whole team. Blessings ~
    Jim, Anne and Stephen Kimpel

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  2. Thanks for the challenge to be a "big deal in God's Kingdom".
    Thanks also for the beautiful pictures, especially the one of Franciose.

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  3. Dr. Vader, you are always so insightful. What an honor for you and John to be able to visit Mahadaga again! I have thought often of your team and hope that they will be transformed the way my teammates and I were.

    How are Francoise and little Matthieu?

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