Education, empowerment, and employment

Everyone has those moments of clarity that stick with you for a lifetime, right?  Well, I’d like to share with you a few that have stuck with me as I’ve learned more about international development.  I got started on mission trips back in 2006 when I went to Kenya for a month long internship with NMSI.  I was so on fire for God when I returned home.  I had to learn more about missions.  Over the past few years since then, I’ve learned a ton.  I’ve also learned enough to know I have a long ways to go in regards to effective development strategies.

Anyways, back to the moments of clarity.  One was when I went to the opening lecture of international development program at Eastern University in the fall of ’08 I believe.  My friend Elise was starting the program and I happened to be visiting Philly that weekend so I begged to go along and she gladly obliged me.  Tony Campolo spoke for the entire day, I think it was like 8-4 with an hour break for lunch.  I was simply enthralled with his teaching and just soaked it up.  He’s a very engaging speaker as well as author and I would highly recommend reading something by him if you haven’t already. 

Anyways, one of the things he said that has always stuck with me is, “You’ve heard it said that if you feed a man a fish you feed him for a day and if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime.  But what if there isn’t a pond?”  It was absolutely mind-blowing to me at the time.  I come from an education background.  I’ve been in the education field my entire adult career so I know the value of an education and definitely believe it is vitally important. 

However, let’s say the people of a country worked with the government to create a wonderful education system that addressed the educational needs of every student in their country for primary and secondary school.  Is it really of any use if afterwards the graduated students don’t have access to a job nor have they been taught how to start a business?  I believe in a classical education in some regards, but it also has to be practical and useful.  Otherwise you have the current situation in several developing nations where even the young people who are very intelligent and well educated are still unemployed.  Come to think of it, that’s even the case all across America right now as well as other developed nations.  Not to the same levels of course, but I’m sure we all know someone who is a recent college grad but can’t find a job that uses their major to find employment.

If we are serious about helping others and discipling the nations for Christ, than we need to do some serious reflection about where missions has been and what the way forward is.  What good is a gospel that only focuses on life after death and not on this life?  I would argue that eternity starts now, we’re simply in the beginning stages of our own eternal existence.  There’s a passage in James that talks about if you see a brother in need and say to him, “Go and be well fed and clothed and I wish you well.” If at the same time you don’t do anything about his physical needs, there are some pretty harsh words in that passage and the rest of the Bible for those who ignore the needs of the poor.

So, if you truly are cultivating a heart for the poor and want to help them, where do you even start?  I spent a lot of time in cynicism and paralysis and still do quite often due to the overwhelming needs of this world and my seemingly insignificant contributions that I’ve made over the past few years in particular.  What we must realize though is that ultimately the goal is to bring glory to God.  And who is a local more likely to listen to, a preacher from another nation or some foreigner who helped them start their own business? 

We need to pray for wisdom on how to truly empower the needy around us and in developing nations.  Always, the answer comes from God first.  Secondly, He usually uses the locals to address their own nations’ problems.  Another quick quote by Tony Campolo, “Americans are not going to save Haiti, Haitians have to save Haiti.”  As foreigners we need to listen to the locals and see the rich resources they possess in human capacity already.  After that, we move forward and seek wisdom from God in how to empower them to solve their own problems.  The goal needs to be in working ourselves out of a job ultimately.  We must start seeing locals as equals and not as people to be pitied and given more and more aid that just creates a dependency mindset. 

How can we empower the people around us both at home and abroad to live for the glory of God and bring hope and love to the people around them?  Tent revivals are not gong to work anymore I’m afraid, I’m not so sure they worked in the first place.  We’ve created a church culture that focuses on converts and not disciples and as a result the church is a mile wide and an inch deep.  The call is to no longer bring people to your church building, but rather bring church to them.  It’s on you to share the gospel with the people around you; that is not the sole job of the preacher at your church.  We need to ask ourselves, “What does good news look like in this context?”  I can virtually guarantee that part of the answer lies in job creation.  People are ultimately hungry for Jesus.  Much like the man on the street corner with a megaphone and a sign condemning people to hell though, we do Jesus a great disservice and misrepresentation if we only present the gospel as fire insurance. 

What does dying to oneself look like in your particular cultural context?  How can you live for God and for others right where you’re at?  Here’s a hint, it’s probably going to be uncomfortable.  I mean, you are dying to yourself after all, right?  I don’t know of anyone who has seen someone dying a painful death like Christ died on the cross and said it was comfortable.  That’s what He calls us to, though, to take up our cross daily and die to ourselves.