People need to be needed

Reading an article sent to me today, I was struck again by the simple idea that people need to be needed. The article talks about missions and relating to each other across economic divides but this applies across social, religious and really any other boundaries that we create.

excerpt from the article

Poor people are people. Those who live and die in want of basic needs are just as smart, beautiful, creative, motivated, holy, and wise as you and I. They are also just as dumb, ugly, dull, lazy, sinful, and foolish as you and I.

This serves as a lead in to the story that talks about transforming the way short term missions works in one specific area. The gist of it is that the local population drives the activity and serves in a leadership role, rather than being simply recipients of charity. The fundamental shift comes when we recognize that you do not have to come from a wealthy country, have a Harvard MBA, be the right skin color or come with any other credentials to be an effective leader, teacher or mentor. It is arrogant at best to try and swoop in, determining the needs and providing a solution without the guidance of those being helped.

To be in a recipient only role dis-empowers the recipients and robs those providing the aid of the opportunity to really know those they are working with.

While living in Africa as a child, I saw both sides of this approach. I saw missionaries who were so full of their goodness that they would not deign to eat off of a plate that a Chadian had used. I saw the opposite side of that in my home, with my fathers best friend being a Chadian whom I called my uncle. The people we worked with were my family, the relationships we had were relationships of equals in my experience. What a contrast and what a gift from my parents to me - I never have been able to fully reconcile the two sides of the coin but I am now beginning to understand it more, though I am saddened by the lost opportunity on both sides all those years ago and continuing all over the world even today.