stopover.ca

It was awesome.

If you have not already done so … you should too

The scope of the HIV/AIDS issue is so massive that numbers become meaningless … I have heard them hundreds of times, told others of their scale on numerous occasions, and yet at this moment as I type – I cannot remember how many zeros to put at the end. Is it another 10 million orphans by 2020, or 100 000 a month? I am sure I could do a quick google search and discover the most recent UN figures … but that perhaps is not the point. The numbers are too massive for me to comprehend, and I am significantly involved in the issue. For most, the numbers become meaningful only as information, not as a way to relate or to possibly engage with the issue.

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.

What do you call it when I give you money, and you give me a report and a receipt?

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.

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This is a map of the world with a twist. Instead of having each country (or continent) represented by land mass and area, each country is scaled according to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Canada looks like a toque, two sizes too small …

Some countries look like they could use a jog around the block, and forego the double-chocolate cake for desserts …

But where did a whole continent go?

Mark Crocker

Have you prepared just enough for this trip to make you dangerous? Learned the 10 basic language lessons, discovered the strange cultural customs, worked your way around a map of the country, and prepared your ministry objectives as fully as possible. Your preparation, coupled with the faith of those sending you may even give you the sense that the situation although difficult, should somehow, somewhere have a relatively simple solution.

The very nature of a short-term trip often spells out an unspoken version of the world. A version that suggests that resources and/or information is the basic commodity missing from the situation, discover the problem and fix it and all should be well. We operate like a large appliance repairman, “ we enter with a certain expertise and set of tools, find the problem and fix it – ˜good as new”! That version may best be illustrated by the common phrase spoken by most short and mid-term missions participants: “Why don’t they just…

The attitude is this: the problem is significant, but through resources, hard work and modern insight, we should be able to promote long-term solutions. In short, It is simply the prerogative of the short-termer to aid in the discovery of the root of the issue, develop some solutions, articulate and clearly teach those solutions to local peoples, and finally follow up to see how they are following through on the process. Much of this version of the world may only be true simply because the short-term worker has a clearly defined (short) time frame in which they can work.

Missionaries of every type have had to face these issues. In essence the question comes down to more than the resources we hold in our hands, the better question may be, “As we prepare to go, what do we need to bring, and what should we leave behind?”

What do you refuse to take on short-term missions?

Mark Crocker

 This is my new favourite Cross-Cultural picture … is it warning of the dangers of smoking? or of children trying to steal a puff?

Mark Crocker

Don Crawford is one of the first people I connected with in Victoria, a great thinker and encourager, I just added his link to my blogroll …
Check it out! (look on the right)

I was in Lacombe Alberta last night where I taught a group of about 20 people some thoughts on Mission partnership. This is a portion of one of my thoughts …

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

I recently came across an old CTV article that referenced an Australian government travel website. I googled the Aussie government site and read the warnings firsthand, some notable warnings are:

• We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in Canada because of the risk of terrorist attack.
• The wind-chill factor can also create dangerously cold outdoor conditions beyond the thermometer reading.
• The province of British Columbia in western Canada is in an active earthquake zone.
• Forest fires can occur in Canada.

Terrorism, cold weather, earthquakes and forest fires! These dangers place us on their watch list in terms of tourist security. At first the warnings seem laughable – as Canadians we know ourselves to be living in the safest place on earth … right!? It is too easy to poke fun at this seeming over-careful concern for personal security, and the readers comments after the article seem unanimous in their withering reply.

It would be easy to retaliate with the fact that seven out of the ten most venemous snakes in the world live in Australia, the vastness of the outback … or that Dingo’s Eat Babies! But now we are just getting silly. Fighting the argument at the same level at which it is made, validates it as an accurate argument.

As I smiled over the article, I suddenly remembered the many hundreds of people I have talked to over the years who have shared concerns very much along these lines when it comes to releasing their loved ones to participate in short term missions in other global ‘hotspots’. I think of it as the one Immutable and Infallible law of Short Term Mission; whenever someone decides to participate in mission, the news will quickly report of some significant danger around going to that specific place.

It happens everytime. Perhaps it is because we are simply paying attention and now listening for news on that region of the world, or because we have done a great job in sharing our mission with many others (who are all collectively paying attention to listening for news on that region of the world). Whatever the case, these new-found dangers sometimes have participants drop out due to their own fear, or the fear of friends and family.

Two thoughts jump out at me:

1. How much do we miss of what is actually happening in our world, simply because we are not listening (anyone remember this happening in the past? Rwandan genocide perhaps … or Sudan right now)
2. At a loss to first ourselves, how often does our fear keeps us from the adventure in front of us?

Of course everyone needs to make their own minds up whether or not they will go. I do not think that we are playing games here, and it is in no ones best interest to promote a naive bravado, or gung-ho cowboy attitude. A good friend took a team on his first trip overseas, and one of the team-members died after drowning in the sea during a day off. The fact that ‘it could have happened here’ is not too comforting to a grieving family, because it did not happen here, it happened in that vague space known as ‘over there’ – somewhere foreign. It is good to think through the ramifications of safety and security surrounding international travel. But … I do not believe that safety and security are the identifying reason why we do what we do.

If you would like my opinion on how to make a good decision on entering into insecure areas, check out this link to another article I had put together in April.

By the way, I promise I will blog details when the earthquake seperates us in BC from the rest of Canada, if you will let me know how the wind-chill and dangerously cold temperatures are working out for you.

Mark Crocker

A friend recently emailed me with a request for a story I had told him a few years back, it has lead to an interesting exchange of thoughts regarding faith, evangelism, mission, compassion, and motives … I have posted the exchange here …

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. Continue reading »