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Christianity Today, July (Web-only), 2007 |

Speaking Out

Missions That Heal

Ministering across the wealth divide means giving up our savior complex.

Joel Wickre | posted 7/13/2007 08:55AM

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Months of community meetings and conversations ensued, leading to the formation of a local organization called (in translation) "From Here to There." This organization defined an agenda for the development of their community, and they began hosting groups of Americans a few times a year. The community takes great pride in sharing their culture and way of life with these groups, teaching them how to work the fields and speak the language, and they've achieved a number of their development goals.

This project works because villagers in Santa Rosa are defining the terms of engagement, and each of the American groups spends several months beforehand studying and reflecting on Nicaraguan history, politics, economics, religion, land, and culture. These young Americans enter Santa Rosa on vastly more humble footing than most short-term groups; their agenda has been designed by the community, and they know something about their hosts' rich culture and complex history. Likewise, the community of Santa Rosa is better able to receive Americans than most communities; they have identified their problems and designed appropriate solutions, and they consider themselves teachers and guides.

The results of this mutually transformational approach are manifold. The people of Santa Rosa have all the pride and none of the helplessness of my friends in other communities, and the Americans are more deeply and humbly transformed than most mission trip participants.

I hope to add momentum to the change I see in the American church today to heal our broken world by loving our brothers and sisters, rich and poor alike, across the globe.

Joel Wickre serves on the board of Blood:Water Mission and studies medicine and public health at the University of California Berkeley. He and his wife, Cathy, currently live in a rural village in Kenya, where they're assisting the community to open a health clinic.

Related Elsewhere:

Other Christianity Today articles on missions and ministry are available on our site.

Barak Obama, Don Cheadle, and Oprah are among those are on the covers of Vanity Fair's July 2007 Africa issue.

Blood:Water Mission, founded by Jars of Clay, is working with African communities to build 1000 wells.

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July (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51

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Albert

Posted: July 14, 2007 1:01 AM

I rejoice to see this article. The problem does not only lie in the West but also in the East. The richer nations are sending our "missionaries" to the third world countries with a savior complex. The people we are supposed to reach and share the love of Christ are being exploited. The LT missionaries goes with thought of doing missions for missions sake Love is secondary. The church needs to educate and prepare the missioner carefully. The needy are also people of talents, with pride, and they should be treated with respect. The better off tend to ram down the throats of the poor with their own standards and expectations and culture. An area of great need are the local pastors and leaders, their growth in the ministry is of great importance.

James

Posted: July 13, 2007 12:28 PM


Great insight for all Christians who are thinking going to ST or LT missions.

Anonymous

Posted: July 13, 2007 12:11 PM

This is a good article, containing good values. Too often we in the west have an unwritten prosperity gospel that forces us unconsciously to look down on those who are poor as if they are inherently evil or deficient. This approach seems to encourage missions to see poor people as inherently blessed and as having something to offer the missionaries, rather than just being "takers" who are unable to give back anything. Better still, though, it is written, according to scriptures penned by Paul, that we should not just see others as equals but as "better than ourselves". That would be true humility: Seeing Christ in others when we know that we fall short of Christ ourselves, but others in their special mysterious way, by being poor are truly Christlike, especially in their poverty. For, surely blessed are the poor, for the Kingdom of Heaven is surely theirs.

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