The Freedom to Obey
A lot has happened this week on a number of fronts, which I will tell you amount momentarily. First, this is my second to last blog entry from Uganda. I’ll do a final one when I get home on November 20th, but I do plan to continue blogging every week, for those of you who have enjoyed reading or just want to keep track of what I’m doing. The entries might not be quite as substantial, but I plan on them being up every week. Also, I have some good new pictures up on my pictures page, so you can check those out if you like.
So this week, I learned how to ox plow, and I slaughtered my first chicken! The chicken really put up a fight as I was cutting it’s head off. Poor guy. But it fulfilled it’s purpose in life by feeding my stomach a few hours later.
This week the Institute took a retreat to visit other children’s centers in Uganda, in order to critique the way they do things, and try to see some ways that we can learn from them and do things better here at New Hope. I must say, it was quite an enlightening experience. We visited children’s centers that are dirt poor yet getting by, and one that was quite wealthy. It’s interesting to be on this side of the money…to actually see where a lot of it goes. It starts by a group coming to your church to raise money for child sponsorship, or by a commercial on your TV screen showing starving children in Africa, and “for only a dollar a day you can give this child a better life…” type of emotional heart-string pulling. I got a chance to see where at least some of it goes. Some of it was good, and some of it I seriously question.
Here at New Hope, each child is sponsored by one person each, for $30 a month. Some kids don’t have sponsors, and their money has to be taken from parts of other children’s sponsorship. This money goes for basics like food, clothing, shelter, and education. More sponsorship is needed(if you’re interested, click on the New Hope link on the right). We visited two other centers that did things quite differently. One was actually pretty similar to New Hope. Their sponsorship comes from a parachurch organization which revolves around African children’s centers. There were suddle differences in how they run things, what they have their kids do as far as work, how they organize their family groups, and how they discipline the children. We actually spent the night at this place. It rained very hard, and my bed got soaked because of a large crack in the roof right above my bed. Good times in Africa.
We visited another children’s center which was very different from New Hope. They were much bigger, and much richer. They had a number of positives, but a lot of things that made me concerned. For example, each home is run by a family mother- not a father. They don’t believe in that, because they believe that a mother can do a better job, and will be more gentle with the kids(their own words). I don’t agree with this, but it is a constant problem even at New Hope to find enough good family fathers. So few are qualified to do it well. They solve the problem by simply not trying. This will have an effect on the kids in years to come. Other issue include the fact that they don’t make their kids work in gardens, they rarely if ever spank the kids, and they are given everything they get. They don’t work for it.
Probably the main thing that I didn’t like was how they raise money. Each child has 6-8 sponsors, and they can have up to 20 sponsors each. They organize choirs which travel to America and Europe to sing in churches and get donations. There is a strong emotional appeal in this, and they get a lot of money for it. There are at least two serious problems I see with this. First, exposing these kids to American life at that age can be devastating when they come home. To function and live in their own culture after that can really affect their life and direction, and cause them to dream about going back someday, a fantasy which is unrealistic and unwise for them. The second problem is this: Imagine you are sitting in church and this African children’s choir sings and asks for support. You hear that you can feed a child for only a dollar a day. You give your money, not knowing that your are giving to a ministry that in many ways spoils their children, doesn’t make them work, and doesn’t spank them, and your money represent the 15th sponsorship of this child. You money is not survival, it’s icing on their cake. I wonder if they make that known when they visit the churches. Having the children go and ask for money from the West feeds their own begging orphan heart mentality, and it also feeds the handout mentality of many in the West, who think that money will fix Africa, whereas that is really one of the primary things that is keeping much of Africa crippled.
So if you’re thinking about giving to one of these child causes, I would simply reccomend doing your homework, and make sure you know where your money is going. Don’t just seek to satisfy your conscience by giving it away. I would seek out smaller individual organizations(like New Hope Uganda!) to give to. That’s just my opinion. On a positive note, they are still a Christian ministry, and are ministering to a great need in Africa, as we at New Hope are, so we should seek to encourage each other and even work together when possible for this ministry. It is far better than leaving them on the streets.
The last thing I would like to say for this entry is something that has hit me recently regarding God’s “call” for my life personally. If you’ve been reading over the past few months, you know that missions has very much opened up to me, or rather I’ve opened up more to missions. I’ve been going through a process of tearing down the reasons to NOT do missions. Most, if not all of them, are bad reasons, based on overinfatuation with this present world, and closed-mindedness to new, different things that would drastically affect this one life I have to live. Gradually I’ve been able to identify these areas and the different forms they take, and eliminate the things that are in the way. In the way of what, you ask? What are these things standing in the way of? Not overseas missions, per se, but in the way of total obedience to God.
As Christians we are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Our life is a vapor, and we are not to be in love with this present world. Those who are make themselves enemies of God. We are all called to proclaim and know God’s manifold perfections wherever we are. That’s in fact why we exist. The important thing is that I do this whole-heartedly, and be willing to give up everything in a second because of obedience, and the value of what we have in Christ in comparison. So in short, what has happened for me is a gradually dying of many things that are keeping me from total obedience in my life calling, whatever that may be. It’s doesn’t really matter whether it’s in Africa or in America. Are you willing to give away your comfort, your strength, your finances, your security, for Christ? Are you willing to take that risk for the gospel? In eternity it will become clear whether we have made good choices in this area. I read Romans 8 this week: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed.” Anything we give up in this life will be worth it a thousandfold in the next life. I feel that I’m more and more starting to really believe this. As a result, I feel a growing sense of freedom to drop everything for something like overseas missions, to give up these things, and not just be willing to do something, but actually DO it. To exercise simple obedience, and just go! Wherever that may be, I feel a real freedom to just do it. It’s a great feeling!