Dateline  Haiti. Feb 7, 2010

Michel drove us through the heart of downtown Haiti.  We were left reeling by the complete destruction.  CNN images only supply a small slice of the reality.  Through the busyness of our documenting, observing, and evaluation; we stopped in the realization that people lived here, died here and still remain under the concrete.  We paused for a moment.  A child’s photograph lay on top of the rubble outside of a broken prison wall.  A Christmas tree, white with dust, lay wedged under the weight of two floors collapse.

People pick up the pieces and move on.  Street vendors sit outside of what were once shops and businesses. Dazed, overwhelmed by loss and yet forced by the urgencies of hunger, thirst and shelter to continue moving.

We met with a number of the agencies that were first on the scene.  Our review of the efforts to this stage had us connecting with the Samaritan’s Purse relief team director; with CRI, the coordinator of the medical response facilities in the country; as well as our long-time partners at the Canadian Food Grains Bank.

We drove out of town to listen to rural community leaders describe their plight.  Large businesses have collapsed, not only burying buildings but also employment in the aftermath.  The nations flour-mill is gone, the flour for bread will now need to be imported.

We visited with David, who until a month ago was simply running a small orphanage of 50 children.  Today he was heading out for his second distribution as he attempted to feed the 5000 people who are calling for help.  The local mayor called and asked him to care for another 200 children.  David would like to say yes, but he is not sure if he has the supplies or the capacity.

Notions such as relief, recovery and rebuilding suddenly take on a depth of meaning beyond another headline.  These priorities may actually mean life and death for the hundreds of thousands who remain camped in the temporary shelters on any spare bit of rubble-strewn ground.

The government directive has asked the people to continue to sleep outside rather than go back inside of the listing walls of their homes.  Very few were inside anyways, fear rules here, wondering when the next shock will come.  For thousands there are no more homes only blue tarps and braided palm tree walls.

We are challenged but committed to simply walk forward into the next step.   This is what we know:  we need to pray, continue to listen, engage, and give.

It is 10:30 pm and the rain has just begun, the first since the quake.  It looks like the brief delay in the start of the rainy season is over; these temporary shelters won’t last long.

David Adcock and Mark Crocker

There are so many reasons why you cannot do short-term mission – it costs a lot of money and time,  it will interfere with your career path, relationships and family – these are true.  But there are also reasons why we can get involved.  Which reasons do you listen to?  Here is Jayme’s story:

We were asked to stand in a line, still, eyes shut. He told us there might be people putting things on us—dressing us—but we weren’t allowed to move, weren’t allowed to say anything.

Little did I know how hard this request to stand still, stand still and just receive, would be.

He told us that no matter what we must accept what they were going to give to us. We must accept it so that they can receive their blessing.

An amazing 3 days lead up to this point. A group of Canadians, mostly newly graduated doctors—some of the most highly educated people in the world—together with a group of volunteers from a slum in Zambia—some too poor to pay the $6 a year to send their child to primary school. Two groups thrown together by God, serving each other, learning from each other, freely giving and freely receiving.

It was the last night of this 3 day event together when James made this request of us, this small request: to stand still and receive.

Eyes closed, we heard singing, yelping, shuffling of feet, and when we opened our eyes they were standing in a line in front of us. Smiling widely, James started speaking again. He told us that they had talked about what they wanted to give us to show us their gratitude. This expression of gratefulness was a surprise in itself, they were the ones walking the hard miles every day in their communities, visiting the desperate, trying to encourage the broken, building a school and road to the school and gardens for the kids, and… They were the selfless ones that had taught us so much about loving our neighbor. And now they had decided to give again, from what they had.

They came forward and started dressing us.

Gertrude came towards me, took off her own Zambian cloth wrap and wrapped it around me. Then she took off her head scarf, and dressed me in it. Loveness followed her and gave me her shirt…it just kept coming. It was overwhelming I thought, too overwhelming… and then came the dress. Lovenesswho had just taken the shirt off her back, Loveness, a mother of 5, with no income, spending all her time and energy cooking for orphans in her community.

Loveness, who had the sincerest smile. She came to know love through this community program. She had turned her life around. Kicked out of her rented one room because she could no longer afford the rent after falling ill, almost to the point of death. Loveness made her living as a prostitute. She was found by James and Sukai through her starving and desperate children. Now she is not only healthy, she is beaming because of the love inside of her. Now she spends her days cooking for other vulnerable children. It is hard work with no credit. She said to me once that if she was doing this for man, she would have given up a long time ago, but she does this for God. I could tell by the smile on her face and the light in her eyes that she wasn’t just saying it—Loveness.

This was the Loveness standing in front of me now pulling purple silk out of the package tied around her waist. And with the most genuine smile and a special light in her eyes—like it was Christmas or something and she got the best gift of all—she pulled this beautiful silk dress over my head. Could this be the most precious thing that she owned?

I felt like some one had just spilled the most expensive perfume on me. I will spend my life trying to give as much as she gave me that night.

Follow Jayme and Lynn Chotowetz (as I do) at unhushed.com

Mark Crocker

Spending time in another culture forces us out of our comfortable shorthand, bias and uninformed opinion. As we travel we often find ourselves both learning from the most resourceful people on the planet, as well as finding levels of frustration we had no idea could exist.  Our too simple solutions are proved false.

Cross-cultural partnership often means that failure suddenly exists not simply as a concept but as an actual reality.  Frequently, the beautiful idealization of partnership has been intractably dismantled.  Both parties are angry at the other for diminished expectations and it is normal for people in this circumstance to grieve a little.  Now comes the tough part … are both willing to continue the difficult path of reconciliation?

What began in the initial excitement phase of cross-cultural engagement, has now been stomped by the cruel forces of the rejection phase. It is important to realize that this is the right moment when an true and honest engagement might actually become possible.

If participants are willing to push through into growth, to commit to the hard work reality of cross-cultural relationship and effective partnership – in more than word alone – a truly engaging partnership may emerge.

New people are invited to trust the story of the kingdom.  Others, who have already walked this way, hold their hands out to new-comers as they choose to take their first faltering steps.  The practice of the kingdom becomes natural when the hand-holding and support goes both ways, developing mature partners.  Cultures around the world share the beautiful stories of how the Kingdom of God is relevant anew, as it wrestles in the Kingdom of Caesar, or in the Kingdom of Sudan, or in the Kingdom of Capitalism, or even in the Kingdom of Canada.

Settling in. The church was born. In time the movement developed systems to transfer their vision, songs and creeds gave language to basic theology, buildings and teachers reinforced the message, slowly the movement became a community and then an institution. The first believers faced anger and mistrust, many were killed, others recanted, some ran. Everyplace they ended up, the followers of Christ would dream dangerous dreams. They dared to ask what the world could look like if everyone made everyday decisions between the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Caesar.

The historical story of this body reveals moments of wild success as well as dramatic failure in their mission, often it happened at the same time. Great social oppression as well as great political acceptance each carried painful compromises. Sometimes the problem was from within, their mission was at times ignored and forgotten, its leaders grasped for power in the name of the kingdom, the church made horrific mistakes, and blamed it on others.

Still it stumbled along, voices from the centre called out to the margins. Power was laid down. Everyday people made the little choices that would reject Caesar and attempt to live the new kind of kingdom. The mission carried on: people believed in the dream of the kingdom enough to act as though it exists, and continue to find others peculiar enough to join the movement. The cycle of passion, settling in, discontent and then renewal continued and still carries the Mission forward.

Discontent. Every generation is newly made aware of how simply the Mission of the Kingdom (and the Church) can be forgotten, or consumed by caring for the needs of the institution. At times the mission gets sidelined and rather than existing as the purpose of the church, it becomes a program of the church. It sits alongside the youth or kids club as a line item on the budget.

When Personal Spiritual Development became the Mission of the church, missions became activity. Noble and Excit!ng opportunities for Western Christians to practice and perfect their personal spiritual growth. In subtle as well as significant ways, Mission can be reduced from inviting others into the kingdom way of Christ, into a tool for pastors to use in promoting lordship development in parish members – the problem may be, that as a tool, it works too well!

It is natural, reasonable and even commendable thing to value and promote the spiritual development and care of people. Yet, while this goal is understandable, Mission as Program does pose a problem.

This “missions for the benefit of me”, has lead to the critique by some that perhaps the majority of recent missions dollars we spend is actually money spent on ourselves. There are legitimate concerns regarding the effectiveness or ethical responsibility of naming this ‘tourism with a purpose’ as the mission of the church.

Is mission really intended to be more for the one going than the one receiving? Some suggest that a trip is 80% for the participant and 20% for the host culture, others suggest an obverse in that relationship with the 80/20 reversed. Some suggest a 50/50 split is more equitable. 60/40?

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I will get the third and final section up soon.  Any thoughts so far? I love a comment or two …

Mark Crocker

In any case, I thought I would post my thoughts on the changing purposes of mission, both the historical as well as present realities. This is the first of 3 parts:

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At its core, the mission of Christ was intended to invade the natural order of the universe, a peaceful yet powerful revolution. The dream of Christ was to substitute grace for karma, to stop the cycle of ‘an eye for an eye’, to put an end to giving everyone exactly what he or she deserved.

The essence of the message Jesus that revealed, “the kingdom of God”, surrounded all of life. Jesus taught that every second of the day, humanity is faced with a choice: live according to Caesar, the established order of power, wealth and system; or live the kingdom of God, a seemingly idealistic and naïve version of the world. The choices could not be unified, they oppose one another, and every second of the day, both options stand available to be chosen by anyone.

A new story was being told, at once counter-intuitive, and yet so much more interesting. It confused those who first heard the message, it did not call for the old expected religious piety. Instead Jesus asked his followers to relearn what faith might mean, he called others to join with the poor and oppressed the foreigner and slave. He did not permit people to simply write off others as victims of social stratum, chance, destiny or the gods. Instead Christ asked everyone to take responsibility for that which they were not responsible – one another. Suddenly everyone is my neighbor, not just the person who lives in my home-town, everyone included even the ones with the cult-like beliefs from the next province over.

The message was meant to upset the very structure of society as at the same time it challenged the individual as well as the community. Unscrupulous business practices are tougher with my friend than my enemy. Relationships takes on significance when our partners are to be treated like family rather than mere objects to meet our sexual needs. Power that was usually used to gain friends and influence people was now to be wasted on the hopeless causes of poverty and inequality. It sounded like the loopiest idealism ever considered.

The Mission of the Kingdom was at various times dangerous to politicians, ridiculous to the powerful, unworkable to philosophers and yet still, so very, very compelling. Everyone was invited in; a person only had to be bold enough to believe that acting on the compelling vision of Jesus could actually mean a change in the way of the world. The bar was not set very high for entry, believers were simply asked to attempt to live it out loud. Yet Jesus also knew the stakes, if you followed the rules of the kingdom of Caesar, then all would be well, if instead you began living as though the ‘kingdom of God’ was actual reality you were bound to get into trouble. It would mean crosses in Palestine, torture in Turkey and rubber bullets in Alabama.

After Christ finally co-opted power through the most unlikely of methods – his execution and surprising resurrection, the church accepted that mission. They chose to relearn what faith might mean. To act as though the kingdom was present, they needed to forgive enemies, turn the other cheek, share what was rightfully their own, and trust that God was for everyone, all the world – not just their little ‘blessed’ corner.

Many did empty themselves of years of religious dogma. They relearned what it would mean to believe, they attempted to live it out loud, and somewhere in the very human mess of it all, they found themselves partnered with God to change the natural order of the universe.

part 1/3

I will try to get the second and third sections up this week …

Mark Crocker

The only way in which I feel I might truly face the realities of the AIDS pandemic across Africa is through some sort of participation. There are many ways to do so, but here is my favourite.

Hands at Work in Africa. The individuals that make up Hands work very hard at starting Home Based Care initiatives in the small communities across the continent. Home Based Care does what it says, it keeps orphans in their homes while mobilizing the community to care for their needs.

The incredible advantage to home-based care is that it does not further seperate orphans from extended family members – instead the children remain closer to their aunts and uncles, grandparents and friends. Secondly the cost to maintain a child in their home environment is far less than the cost to remove them to an orphanage. At present, Hands At Work is caring for over 14 000 children at a resource level that would not care for 1400 in an orphanage.

It does not hurt that George Snyman, the director of Hands at Work, is an inspiring fellow. A former IT guy, a white South African, he one day went for a walk – over the next few weeks and months he visited the mud huts of hundreds of individuals and faced the realities of AIDS not as a concept, but as individuals. If you watch this video you can hear the story for yourself. Heather Yourex, a Canadian Mid-Term Volunteer and Journalist recently put this together:

One by One from Heather Yourex on Vimeo.

To me, the answer is simple. This is the relationship of a boss and an employee. A one-way street of authority and direction.

Strangely, in some circles, this exchange of resources for receipts is often known as ‘partnership’. Perhaps you also receive the same emails and direct mail campaigns that cross my desk every week or so; all seem intent in offering a strange version of ‘partnership’ with all kinds of people from Sudan to Sarnia.

Yesterday, as one of three guest panelists for a World Vision event, I was in sunny Vancouver. The organizers of the event offered a breakfast meeting in order to present some expertise on what effective partnership may actually look like.

My fellow panelists were the author Dr. Harold Percy and pastor in an Anglican parish in Streetsville, Ontario; as well as Ernest Fraser from South Africa who presently works as World Vision’s Partnership Coordinator out of Swaziland.

I loved the topic – International Partnerships,and we spent a great couple of hours telling the inspiring, frustrating and often funny stories of Short Term Mission teams attempting international partnerships.

From emotional promises to dashed expectations. Short-termers who saw through the sepia-toned glasses of epic and enourmous personal achievement, to the hilarious cultural gaffes that are ever-present in any exchange around the globe, this word partnership definitely revealed a wide range of response, both good and bad!

I really enjoyed the give and take, as well as the informed and important questions. Important realities were discussed and some awkward versions of the world were refocused into newer and healthier perceptions.

One issue I shared during the course of the morning was my thoughts on the questions we ask before we engage with others, here are some of my notes …

For a long time, our process was to simply bring in our resources to help with the percieved needs of others – this was our goodwill attempt to answer the question, “What do they need?” Although this is the right question to ask in terms of relief work – aid for people who will otherwise die today – in terms of development, this tends to strip the person of dignity as they stand as recipients only. Additionally, they must take what we give, which positions us as benefactors and eventually corrupts us. This relationship quickly ceases as entitlement and power corrupt both sides – recipients may be ungrateful as they receive cast-offs and grow dependant, all while benefactors feel misused and an ungrateful attitude.

Eventually this process changed, the new question was “What do you need?” Agencies simply began to ask what the community required. This was a much better process, people began to take ownership for their projects, volunteers began to come forward. Still, the position of benefactor and patron allows for inequality. People are subtly told that they cannot meet their own needs, others must solve their problems for them. Benefactors take on a hero role. The process may take longer, but this question also leads to a subtle dependency.

Recently, the question has again adapted, now some agencies are asking, “What are your dreams?” As the answer to this question promotes the individual, other questions may also help get us to the heart of the question. “What kind of community do you want your children to grow up in?” This question positions the community as primary drivers and care-givers. The community takes on sole responsibility, and we are honored to assist in their responsibility.

As my friend Julio from Honduras explains, “If I have to have a heavy table in my house, I may need to ask for help. It is my responsibility, because I own the table, but I may need a friend to give me a hand. The key to remember is that when you let go of your end, you do not own the table, it is still my table. In the same way, I own the problems of my community, I may ask for a hand, but I know that the responsibility for the ownership is my own”

I love Julio’s thoughts, and I love how I learned from him. How else have you received from others through international engagement?

If we are truly willing to engage in mutual partnership, I believe that what is of real importance, is that we allow our international partners to also ask us that third question. Are we prepared to begin to position ourselves as receivers as readily as we position ourselves as providers?

Mark Crocker

At times, as I have heard people attempt to teach the way of Christ they have faced into a depressing failure. In some cases I hear those same people justify their failure in this way “Scripture suggests that the Gospel is offensive. If I share my thoughts and it turns people off – the problem is their own. They are at fault.”

In some cases, the strange reality is this, the person who is assured that the Bible is what offended others, is often offensive in many other areas of life.

The offense of the gospel was never intended to be an offensive tactic or a way for us to release ourselves from our obligation to others. Even a cursory glace at Scripture will reveal who was offended by the Gospel.

It did not seem to offend Roman Centurians, and Samaritans (for a modern day comparison think of a business foreman, and a Mormon). It did not seem to offend the average guy or girl who spent their day at work, and came home to a drink and chat with friends. Really, the only record of offense we regularly find in Scripture is the offense of theologians and other community spiritual leaders.

The gospel is offensive, because it offends me.

• It offends what I wish to do, it offends my philosophy and pharisetical love for being right and instead thrusts me to the centre stage of life to relationship.
• It offends my notion in a territorial god, smaller than the God of all people, who blesses me and me alone.
• It disallows religious certitude and instead forces us to the higher standards of love

Perhaps the text of Galatians 5:11, “The offense of the cross” has too long been used as a club. Somehow the meaning has been transmogrified into a shortcut thought: if I simply provide the 4-spiritual laws, then I have done my duty. If it fails then this is simply because the gospel is offensive to some. We let ourselves off the hook because we proof text our way to righteous indignation – well, after all, this gospel is offensive.

Mark Crocker

Hey pal,

I was looking on stopover.ca for that story about bad motives… the guy befriending you only to sell you something etc. Couldn’t find it. Could you tell me what section of your website that story is in, or, if its not there, could you send it to me. I writing a little thing on motives and thought I could use it to illustrate. Thanks!

Steve

here is the link

http://stopover.ca/2005/08/18/a-casual-deceit/

feel free to use it, you may recognise yourself as ‘the friend’ in the story. If you are publishing and can reference the source … even better!

so what are you writing, and who for?

Thanks Mark. Just gave it a read and I think I’ll use it. You’re a good writer. Really good. I’ll be sure to reference!

I’m putting together what will eventually be a book, but is presently a five session seminar on the subject of evangelism. It’s called E-Quipped, and I’ve taught it before, but am trying to make it better.

I’m working on a bit right now basically saying that our motives matter, and that a good deed is only as good as the motive behind it. I believe compassion is to be our primary motivation and am trying to put together an inspiring definition and explanation of compassion, what it is, what it looks like, and where to get it.

Got any thoughts on this one?

definitely. these are my disjointed and brief thoughts … (i just re-read what i wrote and thought i should remind you) i realize that when i type i tend to forcefully suggest my point of view, so read this with my friendly tone in mind …

i went through a struggle in terms of why we do what we do … i started in obedience, moved onto feelings (ie compassion), thought about ‘becasue it is good for me’, and ended up in love (which is a good place to be)

i think that we often think of obedience to God as our reason, but this too quickly devolves into contractual relationship, or it becomes self-righteous personal salvation.

feelings such as compassion dull. to work ourselves up into feeling for others, to ‘feel their pain’ is sort of a weekday talkshow dr phillish way of rose colouring the world. try as we might, most of the world does not feel this way … and when they are forced to – they resent it.

Third reason – ‘because it is good for me’ (brocolli and immunization needles) tend to last as long as a promise to quit smoking for many people. simply being good for us is not enough!

why i do what i do, and in fact why you do what you do is quite simple … we love it.

we cannot help but do it – and frankly – to tell others that they should feel this same way is gift-projection and denying the fact that the whole body of Christ is not a hand or an eye. we are created to love different things for a reason, we need to find that passion. at times we need to inspire others to join us in it … but really if they are already there to listen to you … is it so important to clarify motives?

we love to clarify motives, as though pure thought is the reason for doing what we do. In most cases it is not, we do it because we desire to do it!

if you have 35 minutes, check out my podcast “the why and what for of mission” on stopover.ca (my site) for more thoughts on it

i might just blog this interaction if that is all right …

Mark Crocker

Yet this story has also not been all peaches and roses. The appeal of a the STM trip has had many thousands of others jump onto the bandwagon. Some ineffective teams work great damage to the character of God as they arrive internationally with their own single-minded agenda. Naive teams may deny the unique and strange ways of Christ with his diverse family around the globe.

The jury is still out in terms of the final effect of this STM worldview, in any case this methodology has deeply impacted the way that churches now participate in missions. Where in the recent past the responsibility lay primarily with arms-length agencies, churches are now proactively working to personally engage in personal Missions initiatives ‘on the ground’. Our response and our methods in this new reality matters.

If you hate Short term mission for the all to common stories of inappropriate engagement and damaging witness you are not an anomaly. It is easy to recognize failure, send me into a church service or celebration on any Sunday morning (or Saturday night), and I am sure that I along with anyone else could find something to find fault in.

I remember hearing the fervent story of one young man who expressed his spiritual gift was to step into a church, ’stir up the sh!t’ and then leave to let them deal with it. As is always the case when I hear this type of critique, an arrogance of personal perfection in matters theological or practice is always just below the surface. Evaluation, Judging and Fault-finding has never been our problem; the tough part always is stepping beyond the chaos of our individual disapproval and stepping into the much tougher place of participation into the dynamic lives of others

As people of a living and active faith it is as wrong to think we can somehow compartmentalize our engagement to merely as providing funds to missions agencies. This life of Christ is not a life of mental approval to written theological statements, neither is it a ‘life’ of sin management, rather it might only be able to be proven once it is lived – this way is participation, engagement, emotion, and a willful choice to fierce living.

It is too easy to judge a movement by its failures.

Yes, short-term mission has failed. Much like long-term mission, church communities, denominations, leaders, theologians – the list of examples grow daily. They all fail, because they are filled with people who run them – people with strange ideas and pointless passions, much like you and I. Judge them and we avoid looking at the sheer courage of those who refuse to step aside from opportunities to participate far beyond their ability.

Still I believe that STM is perhaps the premier method by which many thousands can feel the strong pull and passion of what Christ meant when he called us to service. In this age of information, we know less and less – as information is mistaken for our participation.
It is only when we actually feel the mud between our toes, spend time carrying water with a double orphan, or accept hospitality from a stranger with less in their cupboard than we carry in our suitcase, that we can begin to grasp just who our global neighbors are. No compelling story or high production video can tell a 1/100th of the reality, it is experience and experience alone which allows us to actually engage.

And this is the wonder of STM work. It is possible for you to engage. Wtihin 24 hours you can be there, you can spend an afternoon walking and talking with a stranger, and change your view for a lifetime.

Plan to participate, Recognize the failures, Realize there are better ways to do this, Discover the guides along the way. There are effective ways to engage.

Mark Crocker