by Chris Horst | Apr 21, 2010 | Blog |
Last month I started a journey, in monthly installments, to two fictional cities—Assetsville and Needsville—both cities representative of poor communities in Africa. While the issues in these cities are identical, the responses to these issues could not be more different—both in philosophy and methodology.
Clean water and sanitation are luxuries. The statistics are devastating: One billion of our planet’s citizens lack access to clean water. Unsafe water and poor sanitation cause 80% of all diseases and kill more than two million people annually, 90% of whom are children under the age of five.
When these realities became publicized in Needsville, the response from the international community was swift and profound. Wells were drilled. Rainwater was collected and purified. Water filtration plants were installed. The challenge was big and the response was inspiring.
Sadly, the outcomes fell far short of the aspirations. Shockingly, 80% of the new wells fell into disrepair. The entire region became a “wasteland for broken water and sanitation infrastructure.” The working wells became overworked, plagued by shortages and unmotivated staff. Long lines developed at these wells as the meek recipients waited anxiously to fill up their jugs with the “free” water. Even some church well projects, while well-meaning, were not sustained. The wells were drilled for the residents of Needsville by missions trippers, not by or with them.
In sharp contrast, the streets of Assetsville are now flowing with clean water. Local ingenuity, entrepreneurial grit and sustainable models abound. A local church recently built a water purification center with the help of a Christian ministry and is now providing affordable clean water to their community. The water business employs a handful of church members and creates a revenue stream for the church to pay its underpaid pastoral staff. Refreshing: The local church is providing affordable pure water and sharing about the Living Water.
A microfinance program in Assetsville built a purification system in its branch office. Dozens of clients subsequently took out loans to purchase the clean water in bulk. These water vendors load up their bicycles with jugs of water and sell it in some of the most-underserved communities in the city. Through this model, they collectively sell over 300,000 gallons annually and experience the dignity of work. Innovative: Water solutions—microfinance-style.
Down the road, a pioneering new business is a booming success, bringing dignity to sanitation, through its high-quality, public, pay-per-use toilet and shower facility. Counterintuitive: “The poor” paying for the privilege of using clean bathroom facilities.
Even the children are involved in the movement. They pump clean water into their schools while they play on merry-go-rounds. The excess water is sold to the community and advertising space on the water tanks is sold to ensure the pumps are maintained. Clever: Sustainable clean water fueled by the play of children.
All throughout Assetsville, fresh ideas and entrepreneurial tenacity are charting a new course—a course fueled by smart solutions, and framed by healthy partnerships between the residents of Assetsville and those who are descending on the city to provide help. Next month’s installment: Education.
by Chris Horst | Mar 17, 2010 | Blog |
Charles Dickens originally released his literary classic A Tale of Two Cities in weekly installments in the 1850’s. In this vein, join me on a voyage, in monthly installments, to two fictional cities, Assetsville and Needsville—both poor communities in Africa.
I doubt any two topics are creating more news in our country right now than healthcare and job creation. And rightly so—they are important issues. In both Assetsville and Needsville, healthcare and job creation are also major issues. Easily-treated illnesses like malaria and diarrhea have wreaked havoc on families in these cities. Even buying medicine is a lethal guessing game. Job creation is a related and serious issue. In both cities, millions are unemployed and nearly everyone is underemployed. These cities feature identical problems, yet remarkably different approaches to addressing these issues.
In Assetsville, churches, charities and government assistance are focused, as you might imagine, on building on the existing resources and strengths of the community. As a result, hopefulness, respect, and mutuality line the streets. In Needsville, the same types of groups are focused not on the assets, but on issues, weaknesses and problem-solving. As a result, these groups collectively form a proverbial toolbox designed to repair Needsville’s problems. Sadly, this approach has driven out entrepreneurialism, community initiative, and even self-worth. Because of these differences in values, Needsville and Assetsville are worlds apart in their approaches to healthcare and job creation.
Needsville worked with various government agencies to establish foreign-run health clinics to address these serious problems. These clinics are facing insatiable demand for their services. The city also hosts teams of medical volunteers which come to treat common illnesses, conduct surgeries and bring in as much medicine as they can carry. These groups make a huge difference, but come sporadically. With these initiatives, incentives to provide good service are lacking, resulting in dim prospects of long-term viable health solutions in Needsville. In regards to jobs, healthcare is provided almost exclusively to the people of the community, but is not provided by the people of the community.
In Assetsville, however, a different story unfolds. Many new initiatives bring hope that quality healthcare and real job creation are not pipe dreams. A locally-run microfinance institution recently partnered with an innovative healthcare provider to provide loans to nurses interested in business ownership. These nurses buy franchises from the healthcare provider, receive training and purchase start-up medical kits (shoulder bags complete with malaria tests, a thermometer, medicines and supplies), which enables them to treat 70% of common illnesses. They do not work out of a facility. Rather, these nurses travel to their neighbor’s homes and bring quality healthcare to the people.
Another fresh organization uses a similar solution for vision problems. Aspiring entrepreneurs are trained to diagnose and fit eyeglasses and thousands of Assetsville residents are now working more effectively, learning to read, and seeing the world in a whole new way. In the center of the city, aspiring business owners opened several new pharmacies, providing legitimate medicine and health supplies to those living downtown. Entrepreneurship, employment, and the engine of business, are driving innovation and quality healthcare service.
Two similar cities. Two vastly different prospects for the future of healthcare and job creation. But these cities have issues beyond healthcare. What about education? Food? Clean water? Financial services? Future installments will examine these issues at greater depth.
by Chris Horst | Feb 15, 2010 | Blog |
My friend, Brian, recently returned from a missions trip to Kenya. He led a group of youth as they supported their Kenyan partner church ministry for two weeks. The Kenyan ministry’s focus was HIV positive mothers in its very poor slum community. They provided food, money, prayer and helped their children—demonstrating the love of Christ in word and deed. Brian and the youth group dove in. They spread the news of the church’s ministry into the neighboring communities.
A week into the trip, Brian had a stirring, even haunting, realization. This Kenyan ministry had become “the cocaine of its community.” He shared candidly with me that these mothers were completely dependent upon the charity, and indirectly on Brian’s church which funded it. Instead of working, these capable women would sit every day at the door of the charity, waiting for the free distributions. As a result, their children saw their moms time-and-again not as providers, but as placid receivers.
The more I study, the more I discover how different the biblical prescription of charity is from my own. Consider gleaning. God’s people were not commanded to harvest the fields fully and give a tithe of their grain away, but rather to leave portions of the fields unharvested. Doing so provided the poor, the widows and the foreigners with meaningful work, sustenance and on-the-spot vocational training. And gleaning was a command for all business owners, not just the wheat farmers.
When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. (Deut 24:20-21)
I believe we have misinterpreted God’s commands to help the poor. Jewish scholars state that woven through the Torah is an understanding that “not all charity is created equal.” They cite that “the greatest level [of charity], above which there is no greater, is to support a fellow Jew by endowing him with a gift or loan, or entering into a partnership with him, or finding employment for him, in order to strengthen his hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.”
Does this prescription align with the majority of our charitable endeavors? Brian had deep respect that this Kenyan ministry served the “least of these.” But, was this charity in alignment with the biblical model of charity? Were they helping these women…
- To no longer need to receive charity?
- Experience the dignity of honest work?
- Enjoy the blessing of providing for their children?
- Know the joy of giving charitably to others?
In fairness, there are times when the only appropriate response is to freely give things away. The Haiti earthquake and support to the disabled are examples of such. But, barring such exceptions, our long-term aim should always be to help in a way which frees recipients of the need for our charity, “so that they might help others in need” (Eph. 4:28). Well-intentioned charity devoid of this goal can lead to unhealthy dependency, it can strip parents of their God-given role as providers, and, as Brian saw in Kenya, it can lead to addiction.
by Chris Horst | Jan 18, 2010 | Blog |
This is part three of a three-part series, “How Then Shall We Help?”
It’s not just about serving and it’s not just about preaching. There’s the eleven word summary of the first two parts of the series. So…what is it about? How then shall we help? As Christians, what is our calling in a world that desperately needs the saving grace of Christ but also needs food, homes, clothing, and access to financial services?
Where better to look than the life of Christ? The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 families is a familiar one. In John 6, we read about how Christ miraculously multiplied just five barley loaves and two fish to feed an expansive crowd. It is interesting to note Jesus’ motivation for this act. “When Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them” (Matt 6:34). Christ’s act of love and service to the people flowed out of the compassion of his heart.
The word “compassion” is used many times to describe Jesus’ ministry. We read later in Matthew that “Jesus had compassion on the crowds and healed their sick” (Matt 9:36). Literally, the Greek word used in these passages means “to be moved by compassion.” There is greater richness in this word than can be gleaned at first glance. Charles Spurgeon describes it this way:
The original word is a very remarkable one…It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels—a yearning of the innermost nature with pity…I suppose that when our Savior looked upon certain sights, those who watched him closely perceived that his internal agitation was very great, his emotions were very deep, and then his face betrayed it, his eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that his big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which his eyes were gazing. He was moved with compassion.
Christ exhibited in this story a “yearning of the innermost nature.” When is the last time you had that sort of deep emotional churning deep in your gut? Jesus felt it often. He looked out over crowds of people—the sick, the hungry, the beaten-down—and was moved with compassion. We read in this specific story that Jesus went on to feed the crowds of hungry people. But, Jesus’ ministry did not end there.
Later in the day, Jesus left with his disciples and sailed to the other side of the sea. The crowds followed him. When they found him, Jesus offered these poignant words (John 6:25-27, 35). “You are seeking me…because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life…I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” First, we met Jesus the social worker. Now, Jesus the evangelist. He fed the crowds…and shared the Gospel. Matthew 24:19 described Jesus as “a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word.”
And there we have it. In this brief snapshot of Jesus’ life in John 6, we have our answer. As Christians, we are called to give bread and to proclaim the Bread of Life. It should never be separated. Jesus fed the five thousand, healed the sick, spoke against racism, and defended the cause of the outcasts in society. Moved by compassion, he provided bread. And, he demonstrated the absolute necessity for heart change. I am the bread of life.
Theologian Christopher Wright says it beautifully: “It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself…Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life—in every sphere..” It is not an either/or. It is a both/and. Not one without the other. Word and deed. Evangelism and service. Bible-translation and microfinance. Clean water and church plants. Hospitals and seminaries. Adoption and Christian youth camps. The seen and the unseen. Bread and bread of life.
by Chris Horst | Dec 22, 2009 | Blog |
This is part two of a three-part series, “How Then Shall We Help?”
Last month I stated that decreased suffering does not necessarily follow increased prosperity. In many cases, increased prosperity simply leads to new kinds of suffering. Helping our neighbors materially is not enough. It would be easy to assume from those reflections that the answer to the question, “How then shall we help?” would be this: Plant churches, hold evangelistic crusades, distribute Bibles, and get people saved. As Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt 16:26) Why, then, does HOPE waste its time doing economic development when it could be focusing solely on the real work of preaching the Good News? The core issue here is whether our efforts should focus unilaterally on the spiritual condition of humanity.
The truth is this: We cannot ignore our clear call to generously give to the poor—and not just because it amplifies our words. Throughout Scripture (over 2,000 biblical passages) we are called to help the poor in tangible, material ways. Humans are not simply spiritual beings which happen to exist in a physical state. The needs of the present must be met while we seek to address the needs of the eternal. Why?
- The Bible says our faith is void without it. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” – James (James 2). Viewing compassion and justice as a “means to an end” (to get people saved) illustrates a troubling disconnect between body and soul. Our concern for the poor should be a natural and generous outpouring of our hearts, which have been transformed by Christ. As James said, if we ignore suffering, of all types, in our communities here and abroad, even if we share an encouraging word, “What good is that?”
- The historical Christian Church has embodied it.”Nothing has contributed to the progress of the superstition of the Christians as their charity to strangers…they provide not only for their own poor, but for ours as well.” –Julian. As the anti-Christian leader of the Roman Empire, Julian made this comment in 360 A.D. History indicates that the early Church saw people as more than spiritual beings. It was that radical generosity which provided fuel to the message of Christ. Early Christians, it seems, as Tim Keller describes, “were promiscuous with their charity” and it showed in the Church’s rapid growth in that time.
- Jesus taught and practiced it. “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” – Jesus, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus, as Creator and Almighty God, chose to come and live among us, the poor. His Incarnation alone speaks to His concern for more than just our souls. He came from heaven to live among us on earth. While on earth, he healed the sick, befriended street-dwellers and prostitutes, and cared for the poor. In response to Jesus’ question above, someone in the crowd answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus replied to him, and to us, “You go, and do likewise.”
There is a problem if we view our sole purpose as Christians to proclaim the Gospel verbally. It illustrates a severe disconnect if we overlook the physical, emotional and social condition of our neighbors in our attempts to introduce them to Jesus. Further, our acts of service must not be viewed as a “means to an end.” Certainly, radical generosity opens doors to proclaim the Gospel. But, the Good Samaritan was not heralded because his mercy led to a conversion. He was heralded because countercultural compassion is the only appropriate response from a person whose heart has been transformed by the love of Christ. Thankfully, this is not an either/or proposition.
Next month, final reflections in the series, “How Then Shall We Help?”
