On my recent trip to Africa, I disciplined myself to keep a daily journal of what transpired and how I felt about it. These entries are from that journal.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
I learned a lot about World Vision today. They have been around over 50 years doing relief work and holistic ministry among the poor. Presently they are serving in 100 nations. They are definitely not an American ministry. They employ 13,000 world wide. Only 800 are in the United States. That is less than 5%. They pay a good wage to get good people and therefore many other ministries are envious of them. But the respect they have in communities from the people is pretty impressive.
To get an understanding of what takes place, I jotted down these key elements of holistic ministry as seen through World Vision.
1. Transformational Development - this includes:
*The well being of children and families
*Empower children as agents of change
*Transform relationships
*Interdependent and empowered communities
2. Transition systems and structures
3. Emergency Relief
4. Promotion of Justice
5. Public Awareness
6. Witness for Jesus Christ by life, deed, and word to encourage people to respond to the gospel.
7. Respect dignity of life
The goals are long range:
* Assess needs with the community
* Design a plan based upon research
* Implement the plan (3-12 years)
* Monitor and Evaluate
* Reflect and learn from the process
* Transition total control to the community (12-15 years)
Some key elements of this Church to Community sponsorship program.
1. Child sponsorship dollars go to the community – thus assisting the child you are sponsoring and the entire community.
2. Each community decides their own priorities. World Vision does not dictate to them.
3. HIV education, prevention and assistance is interrelated in all aspects of their ministry.
4. The model of church engagement is church to community not church to church.
5. African staff and communities make the decisions not Americans.
Here are some startling statistics they shared with us that are pretty eye opening.
Every 1.2 seconds a child is born into poverty
Every second a child is infected with HIV
Every 2.1 seconds a person becomes a refugee
Every 3.6 seconds a person dies from malnutrition
The afternoon was set up for a time to visit a giraffe park and the Karen Blixen estate. (The movie Out of Africa is set there.) I was told by some folks that it is not really that great, so I skipped out on that trip to catch up some reading, journaling, and a nap!
This final night in the Orientation phase, we sat with our teams for dinner. Our team will be led by Simon Ole Masi. It means “Simon son of Masai.” He is a Masai elder himself, so this makes for great ministry. He is very excited that we will be among his people. The more I talk to him, the more impressed I am with him.
There are three pastors visiting this Area Development Project. Joshua is a Church of God Anderson, Indiana pastor serving outside of Indianapolis. Gary is a Grace Chapel Pastor from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and of course me. I cannot say for sure, but I think we are going to hit it off.
We will meet two primary tribal groups the Masai and the Kipsigi. The Masai are warriors and herdsmen who do not own land. The land is for the community. They all share grazing on it. The Kipsigi are farmers so they own land. They used to be at war, but now are in a time of peace. There is an excitement building and there is likewise a bit of fear developing. Gary told us he has never been on a Mission trip where he did not get gravely ill from the food, climate, etc. But he is here because God told him, through his wife to come. When I heard that, I compared my situation. My family is not why I am here, but I have to give them credit because they did not get in my way or make it difficult so I would be distracted while here. That would surely have limited God’s working.
We depart tomorrow morning just after breakfast. We will have a six hour ride in four wheel vehicles that will cover about 350 kilometers. The first 120 are decent roads we are told. When we asked him about the others, Ole Masi just laughed.
On a side note, I will have some photos up tomorrow.
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