Comprehensive Culturally Relevant Ministry
Deb came to Africa knowing and understanding that she was a guest in a land other than her birth home. It has been quite a journey. One of listening, learning, observing, developing close relationships and friendships with the African people. And it is has been one of determining how Eagles Wings can best "fit in" to become a partner - coming alongside new friends in ways that will encourage and enhance the natural gifts they have to contribute to the rest of the world. The African reliance on Jesus and their unwavering faith in him is fertile soil that grows an ability to be leaders in the Christian faith that, frankly, many of us white folks living in a more privileged place just don't have. Why? Maybe because as has been said "we have insured ourselves against God. We don't need Him." The Africans do - in many of their lives, He is all they have. So Eagles Wings is here to ground them in their faith and to teach, to encourage, and to equip - providing access to resources spiritually, practically and physically that are not available to them. And in the meantime? I have learned so much more from them. The sum of one plus one has been much more than two!
When Deb came to Kenya in 1996 as a missionary her focus was on training, using a discipleship model. She came alongside Mary Kamau, the wife of James - a member of the mission team in Kitale. Together they developed a Christian Counseling Program for pastors wives, and today it has evolved into an accredited course at ICM at the BA level, and includes men as well. When Deb left Kitale, Mary assumed leadership of the program, forming a Board from the wives of Pastors in training at ICM Seminary (now renamed Africa Theological Seminary). Since moving to Naivasha and becoming a permanent resident in a community, Deb sought to serve by becoming involved in real life problems. The ministry of Eagles Wings was built on the foundation of the vision of ICM for providing theological training, but also by networking with others in the Naivasha area. Eagles Wings became a Ministry Center to provide real solutions to real problems with issues like orphans, unemployment, food and shelter, and fellowship opportunities.
How to help is a good question. But how to help appropriately is the right question. Read Reverend Greg Snell's article below, published in Christianity Today.
When Deb came to Kenya in 1996 as a missionary her focus was on training, using a discipleship model. She came alongside Mary Kamau, the wife of James - a member of the mission team in Kitale. Together they developed a Christian Counseling Program for pastors wives, and today it has evolved into an accredited course at ICM at the BA level, and includes men as well. When Deb left Kitale, Mary assumed leadership of the program, forming a Board from the wives of Pastors in training at ICM Seminary (now renamed Africa Theological Seminary). Since moving to Naivasha and becoming a permanent resident in a community, Deb sought to serve by becoming involved in real life problems. The ministry of Eagles Wings was built on the foundation of the vision of ICM for providing theological training, but also by networking with others in the Naivasha area. Eagles Wings became a Ministry Center to provide real solutions to real problems with issues like orphans, unemployment, food and shelter, and fellowship opportunities.
How to help is a good question. But how to help appropriately is the right question. Read Reverend Greg Snell's article below, published in Christianity Today.
Christianity Today
Never Give up!!!
I was recently encouraged to think about what good development is after reading an article where some professor basically said that we need to give up and do nothing more in places like Africa. I just can not buy into that. The litany of our failures he detailed in Africa was true so the question I want to address is what are key practical principles of good development?
First some presuppositions.
First, I believe there is a lot in common in the major principles behind economic development, leadership development and other forms of development. All missionaries are in the development business. Ultimately it is much about power: it takes great wisdom to transfer power. Helping people help themselves is one of the toughest businesses you can be in.
Secondly, the resources are in the harvest field. We must destroy the bias many of us have that financial poverty means lack of potential resources. Until we all understand this dependency will continue to exist.
Third, the goal in most development is to help people gain control over their lives. People I have known in Africa for the last 24 years see what we have in the west (better education, medical care, food availability, mobility, economic opportunities) and they want it as well. We have a moral responsibility to help them get what they want, not what we want for them.
1) Know your Mission, Vision, and Values, and have a plan and strategy.
There is nothing more important than knowing your mission, vision and especially your values. Make sure others potentially working with you
know and own them as well. The president of Starbucks spends most of his time visiting stores and reinforcing company values. Lift up your values continually and make sure they are understood and owned from bottom to top.
2) Be cautious about starting something new yourself. Look more for what is already happening.
Avoid “deficit auditing”, that is looking only at what a community lacks and therefore what they need outside people to provide. This produces dependency. Instead look at “asset auditing” in which all the resources, human, economic, cultural, spiritual etc are acknowledged,
strengthened and built upon and harnessed. Rick Warren says it this way, “Don’t ask God to bless what you are doing, Do what God is blessing.”
Three of the graduates of our BA program for pastors in Kenya came to me 6 years ago and presented me with a large budget they wanted me to fund for their new Bible School in their home area. I found someone to kick in a VERY small amount only as initial encouragement and
told them to get going and do something with the resources they already had and then people will come on board. The school they eventually started (with pretty much nothing) just had its first gradation.
3) Check in early with government and community leaders
God has leaders in place in every country in the world and it is important to meet with them early on while avoiding political affiliations. One
missionary I knew did not do this and due to the high profile work they did they eventually were perceived as a government threat and were deported from the country. I was once interviewed the mayor of the town in which we working telling him what we were about – our purpose, vision, mission and values – and then asked him for his input (given those parameters) on what we could do to help him accomplish his ojectives. That had not happened to him before and I gained a helpful important friend.
4) Don’t be afraid to let things die if the values are just not there.
I have followed closely a particular development project in Africa for the last 24 years. Those who ran it will tell you it was not one of their best efforts. When they were recently about to close the project the local pastor came to me and asked me to help him raise $3000 to fund the primary school now that the organization was pulling their funding out. I asked him what percentage of the school budget were the local people going to provide? His answer was “None, as pastoralists they don’t believe in education.” My answer was, “Then close the school and work on
building the values behind the need for education first. You can reopen the school when people see the need and are willing to get behind it.” He was speechless. That school was propped up artificially. Development is more about building values then methods, projects or buildings. Beliefs and values guide behavior. We will do what we value, not what others value for us.
5) The only thing that should totally be free is relief.
Relief is given (usually without conditions) in a crisis situation when lives are threatened. Development is what happens when the relief
phase is over. EVERY form of development should involve cost sharing. Projects will succeed insofar as those controlling them have incentives for them to succeed. Incentives are neutralized when things are free. Cost sharing does not always mean money. Development organizations have created scales for measuring other forms of sacrifice like labor, time, materials etc.
A friend of mine went to Africa in the early 90’s and got motivated to encourage his wealthy US business buddies to give funds for 3 windmills in a dusty dry region of Kenya. It was a donor driven project. When there were breakdowns local people did not repair them and my friend began
to rethink what good development was. Later, when local women wanted for $5000 for a mill to grind their corn he said, “When you show me a bank statement for $2500 that you have raised I will find the rest.” Today that mill is still working and the windmills are still nothing but a headache.
6) Look for bi-cultural leaders, “cultural guides,” and listen to them.
Development done across cultures needs people who have a good understanding of the other culture. Look for natural leaders respected by their own people. Here in Rwanda I am serving and working with hundreds of people but I have 2-3 Rwandese who I have built a close enough relationship with that they will actually tell me what I need to hear and perhaps don’t quite understand. When you work closely with a cultural guide you are demonstrating humility and a desire to be a “learner.”
7) Have a detachment or transition date in mind.
This doesn’t mean you can’t continue to communicate and even work together but there needs to be an end goal for the transition of power,
energy and momentum. Often you do have to physically separate for that transition to really take place. One of the axioms in development is that the people with the resources ultimately control the strings. The goal is resource transition. People in the community need to look to themselves and their own leaders for solutions. My pastor used to preach about the “ministry of presence” and about the “ministry of absence.” It is all about transition and development of the values that lie behind the goals of the project.
8) Don’t answer questions too quickly.
When developing the 12 Jesus’ answer to a question was often another question. Avoid the temptation of showing off with a quick solution to
someone else’s problem. A wise African church leader once told a missionary, “If you see a spark of a flame of leadership in an African leader be very careful not to blow it out, instead nurture it. Even if you think he is going in the wrong direction do all you can to encourage him as a leader.” Think through the ramifications of any question or opportunity to take over, and then think through it again. Anything and everything you do will impact more than what is first obvious.
9) Know the difference between principles and methods.
Principles are drawn from our created order as human beings and thus are trans-cultural. Methods or forms are designed for certain situations
and may or may not be trans-cultural. In life, methods are many, principles are few. Methods change often, principles never do! The understanding of quality leadership in the US has grown dramatically in recent years better reflect the way we were designed to be treated as human beings. Africans will tell you it is something they want desperately for their own leaders. Now the method might be different in a place like Africa but we need not apologize for what we have to offer as principles. Church leaders here in Rwanda are very excited about getting
Rick Warren’s books, Purpose Driven Life (PDL) and Purpose Driven Church (PDC) in their local language because both books are chock full of principles of how God designed us as people (PDL) and how He designed organizations to work (PDC). Trust the local leaders to change any methods that do not fit their context.
10) One of our main jobs from the west is exposure (not selling, not doing).
We have a wide range of resources to offer the world and it is not our job to tell them what they need but what we have been given. One time
Dr. Phil Walker, president of International Christian Ministries, was talking with key church leaders of an African country and said something like, “Now keep in mind that what I bring to you, you sure don’t have to accept. Please feel free to use only what you need or want.” Now that sounded like a good thing to say at the time but he was quickly reprimanded by a wise and courageous African leader. “Don’t treat us like children and apologize for what you are doing. We are adults and know what our people need and what they do not need, so just be bold and share what you have. We will decide what is good.”
11) Look for the benefit to your own life.
Most development work involves partnerships and partnership means mutual benefit. If you are from the west and working in a country with an
annual average income of $500 a year, that does not mean that the people you are working with do not have something you need. Time and time again we have introduced visitors to the people of Africa and inevitably they go home saying, “I came here to give my help but I got so much more than I ever gave.” Our mission organization has developed documents called “strategic partnership agreements” which detail what each party plans to bring to the table for the other partner. We have found that Africa has so much to give.
12) Ultimately it is all about the heart.
That is why it is hard for me to separate development from my faith. Jesus is about changing hearts. Good values and proper beliefs behind development are “heart” issues as much as mind issues. Once the heart is right the brain will make better decisions. People will be more motivated by what they see in your heart than what you say.
I was recently encouraged to think about what good development is after reading an article where some professor basically said that we need to give up and do nothing more in places like Africa. I just can not buy into that. The litany of our failures he detailed in Africa was true so the question I want to address is what are key practical principles of good development?
First some presuppositions.
First, I believe there is a lot in common in the major principles behind economic development, leadership development and other forms of development. All missionaries are in the development business. Ultimately it is much about power: it takes great wisdom to transfer power. Helping people help themselves is one of the toughest businesses you can be in.
Secondly, the resources are in the harvest field. We must destroy the bias many of us have that financial poverty means lack of potential resources. Until we all understand this dependency will continue to exist.
Third, the goal in most development is to help people gain control over their lives. People I have known in Africa for the last 24 years see what we have in the west (better education, medical care, food availability, mobility, economic opportunities) and they want it as well. We have a moral responsibility to help them get what they want, not what we want for them.
1) Know your Mission, Vision, and Values, and have a plan and strategy.
There is nothing more important than knowing your mission, vision and especially your values. Make sure others potentially working with you
know and own them as well. The president of Starbucks spends most of his time visiting stores and reinforcing company values. Lift up your values continually and make sure they are understood and owned from bottom to top.
2) Be cautious about starting something new yourself. Look more for what is already happening.
Avoid “deficit auditing”, that is looking only at what a community lacks and therefore what they need outside people to provide. This produces dependency. Instead look at “asset auditing” in which all the resources, human, economic, cultural, spiritual etc are acknowledged,
strengthened and built upon and harnessed. Rick Warren says it this way, “Don’t ask God to bless what you are doing, Do what God is blessing.”
Three of the graduates of our BA program for pastors in Kenya came to me 6 years ago and presented me with a large budget they wanted me to fund for their new Bible School in their home area. I found someone to kick in a VERY small amount only as initial encouragement and
told them to get going and do something with the resources they already had and then people will come on board. The school they eventually started (with pretty much nothing) just had its first gradation.
3) Check in early with government and community leaders
God has leaders in place in every country in the world and it is important to meet with them early on while avoiding political affiliations. One
missionary I knew did not do this and due to the high profile work they did they eventually were perceived as a government threat and were deported from the country. I was once interviewed the mayor of the town in which we working telling him what we were about – our purpose, vision, mission and values – and then asked him for his input (given those parameters) on what we could do to help him accomplish his ojectives. That had not happened to him before and I gained a helpful important friend.
4) Don’t be afraid to let things die if the values are just not there.
I have followed closely a particular development project in Africa for the last 24 years. Those who ran it will tell you it was not one of their best efforts. When they were recently about to close the project the local pastor came to me and asked me to help him raise $3000 to fund the primary school now that the organization was pulling their funding out. I asked him what percentage of the school budget were the local people going to provide? His answer was “None, as pastoralists they don’t believe in education.” My answer was, “Then close the school and work on
building the values behind the need for education first. You can reopen the school when people see the need and are willing to get behind it.” He was speechless. That school was propped up artificially. Development is more about building values then methods, projects or buildings. Beliefs and values guide behavior. We will do what we value, not what others value for us.
5) The only thing that should totally be free is relief.
Relief is given (usually without conditions) in a crisis situation when lives are threatened. Development is what happens when the relief
phase is over. EVERY form of development should involve cost sharing. Projects will succeed insofar as those controlling them have incentives for them to succeed. Incentives are neutralized when things are free. Cost sharing does not always mean money. Development organizations have created scales for measuring other forms of sacrifice like labor, time, materials etc.
A friend of mine went to Africa in the early 90’s and got motivated to encourage his wealthy US business buddies to give funds for 3 windmills in a dusty dry region of Kenya. It was a donor driven project. When there were breakdowns local people did not repair them and my friend began
to rethink what good development was. Later, when local women wanted for $5000 for a mill to grind their corn he said, “When you show me a bank statement for $2500 that you have raised I will find the rest.” Today that mill is still working and the windmills are still nothing but a headache.
6) Look for bi-cultural leaders, “cultural guides,” and listen to them.
Development done across cultures needs people who have a good understanding of the other culture. Look for natural leaders respected by their own people. Here in Rwanda I am serving and working with hundreds of people but I have 2-3 Rwandese who I have built a close enough relationship with that they will actually tell me what I need to hear and perhaps don’t quite understand. When you work closely with a cultural guide you are demonstrating humility and a desire to be a “learner.”
7) Have a detachment or transition date in mind.
This doesn’t mean you can’t continue to communicate and even work together but there needs to be an end goal for the transition of power,
energy and momentum. Often you do have to physically separate for that transition to really take place. One of the axioms in development is that the people with the resources ultimately control the strings. The goal is resource transition. People in the community need to look to themselves and their own leaders for solutions. My pastor used to preach about the “ministry of presence” and about the “ministry of absence.” It is all about transition and development of the values that lie behind the goals of the project.
8) Don’t answer questions too quickly.
When developing the 12 Jesus’ answer to a question was often another question. Avoid the temptation of showing off with a quick solution to
someone else’s problem. A wise African church leader once told a missionary, “If you see a spark of a flame of leadership in an African leader be very careful not to blow it out, instead nurture it. Even if you think he is going in the wrong direction do all you can to encourage him as a leader.” Think through the ramifications of any question or opportunity to take over, and then think through it again. Anything and everything you do will impact more than what is first obvious.
9) Know the difference between principles and methods.
Principles are drawn from our created order as human beings and thus are trans-cultural. Methods or forms are designed for certain situations
and may or may not be trans-cultural. In life, methods are many, principles are few. Methods change often, principles never do! The understanding of quality leadership in the US has grown dramatically in recent years better reflect the way we were designed to be treated as human beings. Africans will tell you it is something they want desperately for their own leaders. Now the method might be different in a place like Africa but we need not apologize for what we have to offer as principles. Church leaders here in Rwanda are very excited about getting
Rick Warren’s books, Purpose Driven Life (PDL) and Purpose Driven Church (PDC) in their local language because both books are chock full of principles of how God designed us as people (PDL) and how He designed organizations to work (PDC). Trust the local leaders to change any methods that do not fit their context.
10) One of our main jobs from the west is exposure (not selling, not doing).
We have a wide range of resources to offer the world and it is not our job to tell them what they need but what we have been given. One time
Dr. Phil Walker, president of International Christian Ministries, was talking with key church leaders of an African country and said something like, “Now keep in mind that what I bring to you, you sure don’t have to accept. Please feel free to use only what you need or want.” Now that sounded like a good thing to say at the time but he was quickly reprimanded by a wise and courageous African leader. “Don’t treat us like children and apologize for what you are doing. We are adults and know what our people need and what they do not need, so just be bold and share what you have. We will decide what is good.”
11) Look for the benefit to your own life.
Most development work involves partnerships and partnership means mutual benefit. If you are from the west and working in a country with an
annual average income of $500 a year, that does not mean that the people you are working with do not have something you need. Time and time again we have introduced visitors to the people of Africa and inevitably they go home saying, “I came here to give my help but I got so much more than I ever gave.” Our mission organization has developed documents called “strategic partnership agreements” which detail what each party plans to bring to the table for the other partner. We have found that Africa has so much to give.
12) Ultimately it is all about the heart.
That is why it is hard for me to separate development from my faith. Jesus is about changing hearts. Good values and proper beliefs behind development are “heart” issues as much as mind issues. Once the heart is right the brain will make better decisions. People will be more motivated by what they see in your heart than what you say.