These are a slightly different angle at which to view the word "mission" or "service" than the words charity, relief, donating, that tend to pop up in short term missions.
Opposite sides of a coin perhaps.
My little brother Isaac once interpreted a pastor's speech to me as this: "Jesus probably wouldn't just reach out a hand while he was standing above you and pull you up to stand and walk. Jesus would probably sit down with you, talk to you and learn what it's like to sit in your position for a while. Then he might take your hand and you arise together." The story of his life and death we remember at Easter is one of God as Jesus setting aside his privilege, honor, power, and highness as God (the highest he could be) to sit down with us in the nasty body of a human and feel pain, gooey emotion, and sit down with us to experience our life and death. He did all this beside and among us before he rose from the dead so we might arise together. Allelujah! AMEN!
It is through this lens of let's call it "sitting down service" I've gained as a YAV that I now view the world of service. I am not here to just throw money at the problem to fix it, or even just donate cans of food. In order to follow Christ's example with service I think I'm just here to empathize with and understand what it feels like to be in a vulnerable position of those I serve. I am here to love my neighbor, to feel what my neighbor feels in joy or pain. That's compassion literally from it's latin roots "com"(-with) "passion"(-feeling or pain).
I read from Isaiah 58 to some Lyon College students last week. Verses 6-9 come to mind. and are presented well in the NRSV translation:
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator[a] shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
This is an amazing passage, please read the whole chapter. I like how NRSV writes verse 7 as "share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house" These are commands that not only remind us to "love your neighbor," but command us to do it in a way that involves SHARING a little with those we serve. Isaiah didn't tell the Hebrews to donate money for the hungry to eat, he asked us to share bread from our plate. Isaiah didn't tell the Hebrews to support a homeless ministry with your paycheck, he said, "invite the homeless poor into YOUR house" When John the baptist quoted Isaiah, He didn't say "buy some clothes for the clothes closet," he said, "you who have two shirts give one to your brother who has none, those who have food do likewise".
By giving from our supply of food or clothing directly to another, I think it puts us just one step closer to those we serve. For the purpose of this article I'll call that level 2 service. So pretend level 1 is-give money to a charity to buy food for someone else, and level 2 is-give someone bread you already have on your plate: Recognizing neither one are evil acts, just different ways to meet the needs. The difference is small but worth exploring.
Level 1--
- meeting needs from our abundance
- giving money or support for someone else to do the work meeting the needs
Level 2--
- Sacrificing something to give to a neighbor in a way that gives you at least a taste of what your neighbor is dealing with.
- Setting aside "our" place to sit with "them" as God set aside his high place to be with us.
- Realizing that putting quotes around "us" and "them" is really kind of silly because we're all equally as sinful, and all equally loved by God. I don't know if I can say it any better than that. We're more alike than we tell ourselves. God's high place is just as accessible to each of "us" and each of "them." God loves the whole world no exceptions.
All this big picture stuff is making some sense as I prepare for a short term mission trip with Living Waters for the World. I've been brainstorming a lot about the role of short term mission to meet immediate needs verses this "level 2" stuff I'm just barely starting to understand as a YAV.
A brief flashback to my first level 1 short term mission:
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When I was 16 I found myself in San Diego in the parking lot of Motel 6 ready to go to Mexico and build a house for someone I called then, "a needy farm worker." As loud airplanes flew close overhead, Mac, the trip leader told us one thing that really challenged me. He said "we are not here to build houses, we are here to build relationships"
I said to myself then, "Well I came to build a house, I don't know what this guy is talking about." After nine years of trying to figure that out, I find myself preparing for another trip south of the boarder with Mac; this time to Guatemala to build a Living Waters for the World System for a school, visit another school where his team built a system several years ago, see a few other sites, and come home.
This brings me back to the ideas of level 1 service, one angle at which to view mission or service. "Feed the hungry, Clothe the naked, give to those who have less, sometimes even get them 'saved' (depending on who you are)" All mostly good things which I like to believe have good intentions.
The YAV principles of solidarity, empathy, siting down and arising together give me a cynical view of short term mission and the "level 1 service". We have such detailed work to do building the water system and teaching the Guatemalans to use it that it can easily become a hero mindset. A tone of "we rich, white (mostly retired) people are coming to build you a system or a house, save your life, and feel good about ourselves" can easily come to mind. Myself and other YAVs sometimes take this critical stance about short term mission. It can easily skip over, or gloss over the relationship-building part and be destructive. Books like Toxic Charity, and When Helping Hurts explore the negatives of unsustainable mission work. This happens when we say to ourselves, "Well I came to build a house, I don't know what this guy is talking about"
The mindset I hear in fundraising sometimes "we are helping them because we are so blessed" can further draw that line that "we are better off than them and that means we know how to fix their problems." What I see in Isaiah 58 is a subtle clue that this should be done in a way that makes us equals, that highlights that common struggle we all share. And even though "we" may never truly know what "they" are going through, we are attempting to learn.
It's a fine line to make. I don't want to discount the good work LWW is doing but I recognize YAV has a different focus than LWW. YAVs are focused more on relationship building and understanding the social system and situation than just getting work done, and LWW is all about, "providing clean water to all God's children for a generation." We are on the same team of building the kingdom of God and spreading love. We're all doing what Isaiah is yelling to the masses, but we emphasize different parts of the goals.
Mac our trip leader has great long term relationships he's made with community leaders in Guatemala already. He is friends with Israel, the driver they've used on past trips and who will guide us this time. He already knows and has been communicating with leaders at the second school we're visiting and close to ten people in the Yucatan LWW network. So the guy who first told me this type of thing is all about relationships is not lacking in relationships he's already built.
And I know LWW is moving in a direction of sustainability, local in-country ownership, and emphasizing "teach the teacher" so that the community can run the system. They have some of that mindset of short term mission, "us fixing their problems"
Best I can tell, LWW has level 2 in mind with most of it's members, but by it's very nature someone doing level 1 can easily jump in andget away with only doing level 1 service with them.
So after nine years of trying to understand, "we are not here to build houses we are here to build relationships" and almost two of those being YAV years, I have some personal goals for the Guatemala trip.
I want to actually build relationships with people in Guatemala
I want to actually remember the name of someone I meet there
I want to not be the dumb white gringo who doesn't know Spanish
I want to learn what life is like in Guatemala
I want to say something different when I come back than "I went to give them something, but they gave me so much more"
I want to enhance the remainder of my time at Ferncliff with this trip by bringing back ideas for sustainability in service
All things I didn't do as a naive young 16 year old in Mexico.
So how do I do these things?
I find myself taking a risk, and building relationships in Little Rock before I travel.
To learn Spanish as a YAV, I really can't afford to pay a tutor. Sorry tutors out there, I know you have to eat too. Best of luck!
So I asked around to see who is offering free Spanish lessons. The library system has done some in the past, and a local church hosts a free weekly Spanish bible class for members led by Carlos a super awesome pastor Carlos from Cuba. Please pray for Carlos, and his wife Sally. Carlos has been ill for a few weeks.
I also reached out to a friend in El Zocala, a local immigrant support group working with the Hispanic population. She encouraged me to volunteer with their English Second Language (ESL) class and pick up some Spanish, and we're even looking into a "language exchange" for one or a few of the students to teach me some Spanish and I help them with English. In fact next week I have a one-on-one session with a lady from El Salvador who will teach me some Spanish, especially about Guatemalan food which is much like El Salvador's food. So I'm adding and checking off "talk to a lady from El Salvador" on my list of life goals. That's something I'd call Gus about, which makes me feel I'm doing something right.
I am also doing a little bit of online "pen pal writing" in Spanish for practice with an old high school friend from Columbia, and another YAV from Puerto Rico. I've been in touch with a few YAVA who have spent time in Guatemala, and have even been in contact with a YAVA who lives in Guatemala now and we may even meet her on our trip.
Questions about shots and where to get them have given me more reasons to talk with a local doctor at church. And I'm car pooling with another LWW student from Conway, AR to get to the water system training in Mississippi.
Guess what Mac, I've already started this relationship building before I've even gotten to Guatemala. Yo tengo muchos amigos nuevos!!!!! Yo estudio espanol con mi amigos nuevos!
I've come a long way since I was 16 on my first mission trip. The church has come a much longer way on it's mission trips throughout history. I am encouraged by groups like YAV that emphasize the compassion and work toward a world where we realize there really isn't all that much difference between "us" and "them" especially on the things that matter to God. I just believe so deeply that all that really matters in life is that we just love each other like Christ, and even providing clean water takes second place to that.
I challenge you to do a level 2 service this week and this month, something that invites you into sharing or dialogue with your partners in service and those whom you serve. Can you do one of the following at least 3 times before May 1?
Try to make yourself aware of someone else's situation. Try to experience it.
Sit down with someone you don't know
Look up the definitions of solidarity, compassion, empathy, and reciprocity
Talk to a neighbor, colleague, or a friend about something instead of looking it up by yourself
Please let me know your thoughts on doing "level 2" or "sitting down service" in the comments below. How did these things go? Am I crazy?
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