First off, let me explain what that even means. The word missional is a new one that is apparently not recognized by my spell checker as it keeps highlighting it. One way to understand it is that you are purposeful about being on mission wherever you are. Whether you are at home or abroad, you have a mission to bring the gospel to the people around you. That's the first part. The second part is communities. This means people who gather together to be in one another's presence and worship God, whether in service or evangelism or giving or singing or any other number of possibilities.
Earlier tonight, my pastor put on a BBQ for people who wanted to become a part of our church plant, The Creek. It was a wonderful time and I stayed there for about 5 hours. Ryan invited a few of us who have been part of the church for a long time to come and get to know some of the new people. One couple who I felt sorry for asked me about my trip and then we got talking about Haiti and starting business and just a lot of stuff I'm passionate about. If you read this blog regularly, you're well aware of how I can ramble on and on. This is no different when I'm talking to others, particularly when it's something I'm passionate about, such as traveling and international development.
I talked about how I would love to be a part of something that encouraged people to be entrepreneurs in order to create jobs. I truly believe that creating jobs is the only sustainable path out of poverty. You can give all the aid in the world, but unless people provide for themselves, they're dependent on others for basic necessities and it's a vicious cycle where well-meaning Westerners come into a 3rd world country, provide aid, and then leave for long periods of time without making any real lasting change. So much of foreign aid is simply for the people who are going to the developing country. It makes them feel better about themselves, like they did their part to alleviate poverty. Some of the material I've read over the last year or two, has really questioned this approach.
There are basically 2 prevailing points of view. One is that sustainable development will come from the top down, in basically a paternalistic relationship where the rich come to save the day and show the poor how to do everything, or more likely do it for them instead of teaching them how to provide for themselves. The other view, of which I subscribe to, is that sustainable development has to come from the bottom up. People in poverty need to be empowered to improve their own communities. The first step, in my opinion, is empowering them to create businesses to provide jobs for their fellow man. This is incredibly difficult in countries that are known for being corrupt and having so much red tape that it's virtually impossible to get something off the ground without bribing some official along the way.
Micro-enterprise seems to be a step in the right direction. Some criticize this form of development as being akin to using one credit card to pay off another. From what I know, this is not the case. I will never forget meeting a woman in the Dominican Republic who had received a micro-loan and was incredibly grateful for it and said it had helped tremendously. That pretty much sealed it in my mind as a very good tool for development. If you want to give aid, a loan is much more effective than a one-time donation of money.
I find hope in things that I see in different magazines and in particular a show I watched while I was staying at a couchsurfer's place in Paris. It had these stories of people who were making a difference in their own communities through sustainable business practices that were creating jobs for local people. It was simply awesome and really inspiring. One had found a way to use rice husks to create electricity. I think this was one of my favorites because it used what was once a waste product and turned it into a renewable resource. Absolutely brilliant. Another was a guy who had set up shop in Ghana I believe to make bicycles out of bamboo. Bamboo is a fast growing tree that is easily replenished.
Well, I could go on forever about this stuff, but considering it's a little past 2:30 in the morning, I'm going to call it a night. I have to stop drinking caffeine at night. I used to be able to drink it right before bed and it would calm me down. Anymore and I'm up all hours of the night. You'd think I'd learn, maybe by the end of the summer.
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