can you describe poverty?
I'm reading this really really great book called "When Helping Hurts". It is written to the North American church and beggs the question, what the **** should we, the wealthiest people to have ever walked the face of the earth (materially speaking) be doing to serve the poor? But more importantly it looks at all the things we have done and are doing that have the best intentions but are actually hurting those we are trying to serve. It all starts by defining poverty. I found this exercise to be intriguing...
"What is poverty? Make a list of words that come to your mind when you think of poverty"
The following responses have been taken from a study in the 1990's from the World Bank-the responses listed below are words that the poor used to describe their own situation:
"For a poor person everything is terrible-illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." -Moldova
"When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior. She has no food, so there is famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family." -Uganda
"[The poor have] a feeling of powerlessness and an inability to make themselves heard." -Cameroon
"Do you see any difference between how you described poverty at the start of this chapter and how the poor describe their own poverty? Is there anything that surprises you? While poor people mention a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms. North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc... This mismatch between many outsiders perceptions of poverty and of poor people themselves can have devastating consequences for poverty alleviation efforts.
When a sick person goes to the doctor, the doctor could make two crucial mistakes: 1) Treating symptoms instead of the underlying illness; 2) Misdiagnosing the underlying illness and prescribing the wrong medicine. Either one of these mistakes will result in the patient not getting better and possibly getting worse. The same is true when we work with poor people. If we treat only the symptoms or if we misdiagnose the underlying problem, we will not improve their situation and we might actually make their lives worse.
The problem goes well beyond the material dimension, so the solutions must go beyond the material as well."
So how then must we define poverty?
a good day
PREFACE: If you could listen to Mumford and Sons-Timshel-while you read this, it would greatly enhance your reading pleasure...seriously.
Timshel<<click here to listen
We have been meeting with two guys in a place called Bhobhoyi for the past 7 weeks. We meet to read the Bible together and talk about how we can become more obedient to His word. One of the guys we meet with is kind of a church goer, kinda not. When we met him he was in a "trial period" with God. He had tried some of his cultural things, ancestor worship, animal sacrifice, etc... and wasn't seeing any thing positive happen in his life. So he tried God...he's trying God. The other guy is not a church goer at all. His family goes to the Zionist church, but he doesn't attend. He wasn't really against God, but not really for Him either...neutral sort of.
Watching them read the bible and hearing their responses-what their learning, what they are doing in response to what they are learning, has been one of the coolest things I've ever seen or done in my life. Derek and I don't teach or tell them our opinion, we leave that part up to God-we figure He can do a better job than either of us. I'm watching them learn what it means to love from the One that created it.
One of the questions we ask when we meet is "is their any needs of each others we can meet this week, and if not, is there a need or stress in our community we can meet?" Today they told Derek and I they had been visiting a boy and his family that used to meet with us. The boy is 16 years old and his mother is really sick. He isn't going to school because he moved to Bhobhoyi after the school year had begun. They asked us if we would visit the family with them. Of course.
We walked into a little one room flat. It had a bed squeezed in one corner, a wardrobe in the other and a little burner in the other. The boy is living their with his mother and two siblings. They must have a mattress they pull out at night and sleep on the floor. Another neighbor was their visiting as well. During our conversation the neighbor told us that the boy is going to have to get a job and provide for the family sense the mother can no longer work. She reminded him that he had the brains and the physical ability to work and care for his mother. The boy stood their and shook his head and my heart broke...he's 16! 16! He needs to be in school and playing soccer and laughing with his friends... But that's not his reality. His story is the story of so many 16 somethings here...I hate that. I hate it.
But the two guys we were there visiting with piped up. They just said "we're here to encourage you, we're here to say hello and to sit and talk with you and visit you. This isn't the last time we'll be here, we'll keep coming." The boy smiled and shook his head again.
It was one of those moments.
Where everything stops for just a second. It's so bad, but it's so good. These guys we meet with have nothing to give. They have no money, no answers, not even a prayer (not yet, not yet, we're still in Genesis)...but they were there. They are just two twenty somethings holding arms with a 16 year old kid going through a hard time, a really hard time.
Tonight I was doing the dishes and that song came on, Timshel by Mumford and Sons...and my eyes welled up with tears-
Cold is the water
It freezes your already cold mind
Already cold, cold mind
And death is at your doorstep
And it will steal your innocence
But it will not steal your substance
But you are not alone in this
And you are not alone in this
As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand
Hold your hand
And you are the mother
The mother of your baby child
The one to whom you gave life
And you have your choices
And these are what make man great
His ladder to the stars
But you are not alone in this
And you are not alone in this
As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand
Hold your hand
And I will tell the night
Whisper, "Lose your sight"
But I can't move the mountains for you
Today reminds me why I'm here...what could South Africa look like if a few more people would crack their bible and begin asking, what will I do about what I just read? Would they stand with their neighbors, with nothing to give but to remind them they aren't alone? We stand with you, for no gain of our own. What would the world look like...now I'm getting a little extreme and sappy, but really??
We show up every Thursday morning to read the bible with a couple of guys from Bhobhoyi and our only hope is that He does too.
The Blow Torched Body Slam
Wow. Just finished watching an interview of Derek and I before we moved here, talking about this big African adventure ahead of us...and I barely recognize the people sitting on that stage.
These two newlyweds with a pretty packaged two year plan excited about saving the world. Living in the Eastern Cape and workin with this little ministry... I'm writing this today from my couch in the KwaZulu Natal province, doing nothing I thought I would be doing, with my husband I've been married to for 3 years and wondering how I got here?
I hear myself talking about the "need" in this nation, man-oh-man I had no idea...I don't think I really knew it at the time, but I was out to meet those needs. And I've been shown and convinced and body slammed with the truth that I just can't solve all South Africa's problems. That all those good things I wanted to do, were nothing compared to what it could be like if my job was just preparing a little space for Him to do. And sometimes for a "doer" like me that feels a bit like being tortured with a blow torch. It requires my trust be in Him and not me. It requires talking to Him more than talking to others. It requires asking questions when I just want to give 5 steps to happier tomorrow.
I just listened to my 2 years ago self say "I think it's comforting to investors and our parents that we're not just losing it and moving over to a foreign land where we know know no one and know nothing and have this dream of starting something new"... but that's actually, exactly what God had in store.
I'm no where I thought I would be, on so many levels. And sometimes I resent that and it feels unfair and I wonder if I'm moving backwards. But if I wasn't here I don't think I would be exactly where He wants me. Sometimes people put "missions people" or "ministry people" up on a pedestal. I'm becoming increasingly convinced we just might be the worst of the worst. I think He knew He'd have to drag me allll the way here to teach me who's boss.
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