Top Down or Bottom Up

We read and hear of many initiatives to wipe out poverty throughout the world in our generation. On any given day, we will see shiny 4 wheel drive vehicles with dark tinted windows, representing nearly every aid agency under the sun driving up and down the narrow, deteriorating highways of southern Malawi, where we work. Their occupants will all be quite familiar with the better restaurants, as these are the places they will always stop for lunch or dinner. They will either be well dressed, well fed Europeans, Americans or Asians, or perhaps a native Malawian who happened to win the relief agency jackpot, and landed a job which will put him in an economic stratum much higher than his fellow countrymen.

Some endeavors require a top down approach. Engineering an expansion bridge over a three mile wide river, designing a new jet fighter plane,  or building a hundred story skyscraper come to mind.  Fixing Africa doesn’t fall into that category. Much greater minds than mine have taken that course for at least two generations now, and things keep getting worse, not better. In 1960, 10% of the world’s poor lived in Africa; today it is a full 50%. Fifty years ago, Africa fed itself, yet today there is a constant influx of food relief, billions in dollars and euro’s, and more aid programs, both governmental and private, than anyone could possibly count.
 

 Whichever daily newspaper you happen to pick up will have several major articles on this or that ambassador handing over a seven figure check to a government minister, which is geared toward fixing a particular problem. Also featured will be an equal number of pieces opining as to why those solutions never work. Were you to believe the myriad billboards proclaiming the successes of the various programs already being funded and In place you would have to conclude that everything was just fine.
 

Once every few months, a high official from a Western government, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund will make front page news by criticizing the lack of progress by the government in dealing with their particular project, or for having gone way over budget. Stories of misappropriation of funds abound. All of this occurs in an environment of food, fuel, and fertilizer shortages, constant power outages, and malaria and cholera outbreaks. Hospitals and clinics are constantly reporting short supplies of essential medications. Africa is so vast; its systems so corrupted and inefficient right down to the local level that no amount of large scale aid will ever truly hit the mark.   
 

Contrast all this with the work of an all-too-small army of boots on the ground compassion workers from various denominations of churches, and idealists of all ages and stripes from around the world. Some will stay weeks or months, while others live here for two or more years. Some come on their own; most will have a sending organization. Their common thread is a desire to work within the broken framework to make some healthy impact on a small scale, and inspire and encourage others to perhaps work in a like manner, either here or elsewhere.
 

 From the very beginning of our call to Malawi, the Lord made it very clear to Phyllis and me that our work was to be done at the local level, and we were to work at building solid relationships, and address root issues, and indeed they are many. Whether in the villages where we have restored broken wells, or in the community where we live, the vision is to bring first of all the Gospel message, but also relief from the hardship, toil, disease and early death, which are all so prevalent here.
 

In the eleven weeks since we relocated here, along with buying our first vehicle, purchasing furniture, appliances, and curtains for our home, and learning our way around, we have been able to establish four teaching points; three in remote villages, (two of which we were able to bless with well repairs on Christmas Day), and the fourth right here in our own community. Phyllis has been working on adding nutrition training to her already effective hygiene and sanitation workshops, and we’ll soon be launching hands-on training in two complementary Third World relevant cooking technologies.
 

Our most fervent prayer has been for the Lord to surround us with people with pure motives, and who share our bottom-up vision of being used to restore one person at a time, one village at a time. Most recently, answers to those prayers have been coming with the arrival of Hellen, Phyllis’ new interpreter, and Daniel, the former YWAM worker, who has blessed us with his delivery business, and now wants to accompany us to the villages to work alongside me with the children as Phyllis and Hellen work with the women.
 

We love our work here, and believe with all our hearts that we are making a difference in the lives of these beautiful women, and children. We’re also confident that the things we are able to teach will sweetly filter down into and through the communities we work in. At the end of the day, however, I am reminded of Jesus’ instructive words to the disciples over two thousand years ago, which apply possibly more so today.  “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” Matt 9:37-38