To Give or Not to Give

Dependency or Bitterness?

This morning I opened our main office door and a poor woman I'd never seen before walked in. As soon as she saw me, she unrolled her tattered medical prescription and began asking me to pay for the medicines. I told her I didn't speak her language and she promptly asked me if Melissa (another foreigner who does speak her dialect) was in. I indicated yes and off she went, still clutching her prescription. She was going to try again.

A few weeks ago two women, very nicely dressed and from the begging class, knocked on our door. As soon as they saw us, they said "white people!" and came in, sat down and insisted that we give them something.

Most people in our part of town aren't very used to seeing foreigners at all. As we walk down the street many children that see us, yell "whites!" and rush up saying "Give me 5" (the equivalent of $0.02) or "Give me 20" or "Give me 100". Needless to say, locals don’t usually get the same request.

Sitting in front of the "western" style grocery stores are the most audacious beggars in the whole city. If you are white, they pull your clothes, stand in your way and tap on your car windows until you give them something – or drive away.

A while back, a woman came into our office with a boy and an x-ray. She said that her son had swallowed a coin and that it was going to cost $80 for surgery. She wanted us to help out. Upon cursory examination of the x-ray, it was clearly a fake. A few months later, we saw the x-ray again – with a different woman and a different boy.

Every day we need to decide – to give or not to give. They know we are "rich" and it's true – we do have the money. People here make it through hard times by going around to their friends and family and "talking" for money. Lack of work, corruption and injustice do not help people's financial situation. Yet Jesus says that people, who won't work, shouldn't eat. He also says that if you don’t give - you go to hell (direct quote). So can we give in a way that doesn't foster a bad system? Or dependence? Or lies? Local people have had experience with foreigners bailing them out. Does it matter that they spent their whole paycheck on their cousin's extravagant wedding feast so that their family would look good? Or, that they lost the job they managed to get because they stole from their employer? These are not easy issues, scripture goes both ways.

I pile the children, our stuff, and myself into the backseat of a taxi. I'm settling in to watch the scenery go by, as peaceably as possible with my two little ones. The taxi driver starts up a conversation:
     "Are you American or French?"
     "American," I reply.
     "Oh", he says, "America is a great country".
     "It has its positives and negatives…" -- I can tell what's coming.
     "I would really love to go to America. There's lots of money there. Can you help me?"

We’ve come up with an idea. We want to create what we're (temporarily) calling an Ethics-Based Vocational Training School. Many programs out there provide vocational training and money management skills. However, we want to stress the importance of business (and personal!) ethics. A basic fact of life here is that businesses don’t run because the system is too corrupt, people are too dependent, and the basic skills and values which Americans take for granted – like being a good employer or employee – have never been taught.

Please pray for this idea. We're in the process of writing up a formal project proposal. Pray that:

Curriculum ideas, materials and instructors would continue to fall into our hands.
This truly would be something that could and would transform people here.
People's understanding of God would be challenged in that they start questioning those who are believers.
Godly values would be imparted – not just western imperialistic ones.
Zach and I would have lots of fun and good communication as we put this together.

Names and places may have been changed to protect those involved.

Dependency or Bitterness?

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation, for The Encarnacao Training Commission. Last modified: July 2010