Returning to South Africa

Well, Robin and I will be leaving early tomorrow morning for the Seattle airport. Thirty some hours later we should arrive on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. This will be a 3+ week Two Tunics working visit. We are definitely not looking forward to the long trip or to the tremendous heat and humidity that everyone in South Africa has been telling us about this summer over there. But this trip is not about the weather and hopefully will be well worth the discomfort of the trip. I plan to use this blog to provide (hopefully) regular updates and insights on the progress of our trip.

The primary purpose of the trip is a little difficult to express concisely in a sentence or two but let me try. The bottom line is that we at Two Tunics want to ensure that the ministries and programs that we are involved with in South Africa are implemented in a way that empowers and equips the communities we are serving. One key way of doing this is to ensure that we are working through local partners in effective partnerships. We want to avoid paternalism ("we know what is best for you") and not create or perpetuate dependence ("we're poor and need your money/resources to meet our community's needs").

We do feel that from the beginning we have been participatory, relational and humble in our approach. We went in as learners and identified what locals were doing that was working and then supported that. But we still have much to learn about serving poor communities in a way that helps and not hurts both the poor, their communities and our witness as followers of Jesus Christ. Our Two Tunics board has recognized certain dangers and potential pitfalls that we need to be sure we avoid in our approach. Therefore we are going back to South Africa now to begin making needed adjustments in our structure and approach.

The decision for us to go back to South Africa at this time (only 3+ months into our "furlough") was made as a result of discussion around these issues during our board meetings in January. Since then I have read a book that moved my thinking about some of these issues to a whole new level. The book is called "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself" by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert. I think it should be required reading for anyone doing or considering doing missions work (short or long term) in a poor community. It has really challenged me but also excited me. This is going to be a really hard road but the rewards will be great as long as we travel the hard road.

I will be commenting some more on this book in upcoming blogs but if you or your church are doing any kind of mission work in poor communities or you are supporting any organizations involved in care of children or the poor, I recommend you read this book. For now stay tuned to this blog for updates and insights on the progress of our journey these next 3-4 weeks.