Monday, August 10, 2009

Poverty




The best things start small. Everything starts small. In fact, anything great starts small. The challenge becomes: Can we wait for the small to develop and become what it can be?

Entering the country of South Africa, I marveled as the mountains bowed down and met the waves of the ocean. As I drove from the airport with a bit of jet lag, I saw the acres upon acres of townships where multitudes of people live. The homes in a township consist of four walls of half-broken wood, dirt floor, and tin roofs.

Desperation arose in my heart as I thought: how do people live like this? And the question continues as I face the contrasting reality of human suffering amidst the beauty of the land. Africa has captured me in her struggle to be free.

As I have been learning in my community development class, poverty is multi-faceted. Part of my role is to help the people in impoverished communities to recover their true identity and true gifting so that they can break free from the cycle of poverty. Programs that create dependency on another person or system does not bring liberty for the people.

“If poverty is the absence of things, then the solution is to provide them. This often leads to the outsider becoming the development ‘Santa Claus,’ bringing all good things. The poor are seen as passive recipients, incomplete human beings we made complete and whole through our largess...we act as if God’s gifts were given to us and none to the poor. This attitude increases their poverty and tempts us to play god in the lives of the poor (Poverty and the Poor).”

As a church we have a mandate from God to take care of the poor. The question becomes, what does it mean to take care of the poor? Does it mean always providing for material lack in their lives? I don’t think so. I will continue to explore the topic of poverty as I work and live among the poor in South Africa. Thank you so much for your support and prayers! Love, Meg