Helping Without Hurting

"Your churches from the West are destroying our churches and causing division with our pastors!"

These sober words from Reverend Heng Cheng  (President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia) 16 years ago still haunt me, but have helped us develop our strategy in Cambodia which strives to help more than hurt.  I will unpack this story in the next edition of Global News in addition to some Helping Without Hurting principles.  

The theme of the Love and Justice Course this month has been love and justice in the life and teachings of Jesus.  We learned that Jesus promoted reconciliation and human flourishing with those living in brokenness by teaching, healing, and bringing the Kingdom of God wherever He went.  Based on kingdom principles, we also learned about poverty alleviation with a helping without hurting approach. 

“Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings.” 

– Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor

The goal of poverty alleviation is not to make the materially poor all over the world into middle-to-upper-class North Americans. Nor is the goal to make sure that the materially poor have enough money. Rather, the goal is to restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to be, people who glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.  

Recognizing that missions trips and outreach programs can cause harm, Tenth works hard to listen and stand with communities that have invited us as outsiders to walk alongside them as insiders.  To learn more about helping without hurting, check out - When Helping Hurts, Toxic Charity, Subversive Mission, and Walking with the Poor.