Thoughts on Free Stuff

By Sara:

Living at World Hunger Relief, we think a lot about living simply just like we did when we were in Uganda.  (For one thing, we use composting toilets so our waste doesn't leave the farm!)  Anyway, World Hunger Relief exists to help alleviate world hunger in three main ways: through training people like us, through motivating people in the US to think about the sustainability of the way they live, and through partnering with groups around the world who work to end hunger.

So something I have been thinking about recently related to the sustainability of the way I live and simplicity is that it is hard to say no to free stuff. 

We all experience times when we are offered something for free, whether it is free samples of food at the grocery store or free notepads and hats at conferences.  Often, when we are offered such things, even if we don't need them, it's free, so we take it.  This can lead to cluttering up our house with stuff we don't need.  Or if it takes the form of free food you don't necessarily want or like, but you feel obligated to take and eat it, since it is free.  Then, you might even end up eating too much.  In college, I remember how I was never willing to turn down a free cookie or chip clip or pen because even if I wasn't hungry or if I had 20 more pens at home, maybe I would need it later!  (Okay, maybe I still might fall into that mentality...)

Anyway, all this led me to think about mistakes missionaries and short-term mission trips can make with handing out free stuff.  It isn't always bad to give to others, but we need to realize that if it is hard for us rich people to say no to free stuff when we already have more than we need, then surely it must also be hard for people who are materially poor to say no even if it is something that doesn't meet their needs at all.

Also, it seems that we often value things we paid for more than we value items which we have been given for free.  Anthony has found some websites that offer free music and so he has ended up with more music than he could ever listen to.  Now, when he is deleting excess songs, he finds that it is easier to get rid of a free song than to delete a song he paid 99 cents for even if the one he paid for has lyrics he's not comfortable listening to.  I know we've talked about this before, but as an example, when it comes to handing out Bibles to people who don't have them, it is worth considering whether it might not be more valuable to someone if they have to work for/buy it than if the Bibles are being handed out for free all over the place.

So then, this is a difficult subject.  Material possessions are not all bad, but they can own us.  And they can be destructive in interactions with the materially poor.  Therefore, I have a challenge for all of us who already have too much stuff and still struggle with saying no to more.  Here is my roundabout way of getting to that challenge: When people travel on mission trips from the US to poorer countries, it seems that one of the biggest things that we take away is that "the people there are so joyful in their relationship with God and they hardly own anything!"  And then we go back to the US or Canada and think that the application for what we just learned is to be thankful for all the stuff we do possess.  For certain, it is good to appreciate what we have as a gift from God, but maybe a further application would be to also reduce the amount of stuff we have.   Maybe, like the materially poor, we would depend more on God and have a greater appreciation of his provision for us if we didn't have as many possessions to distract us.  Let us take a good look at what we own and consider what kind of hold it might have on us.  Are our possessions keeping us from joy in the Lord or do they make us think that we are completely self-sufficient?  What are we willing to give up in order to be closer to God?

Timothy Leadership Training Part 2

By Anthony:

I just completed my second week of Timothy Leadership Training (TLT).  If you don't know what that is, I explained it back in January when I completed the first week.  See this post: Timothy Leadership Training Part 1.  But here is a short summary.  In Africa and many other places around the world, pastors and church leaders have a very difficult time going to a seminary, or even getting any kind of biblical, theological, or practical training at all.  TLT tries to fill the gap for these pastors.

It is a simple inductive training, somewhat like a Bible study, in which groups of leaders and pastors can study the Bible together and be trained in basic topics like stewardship, preaching, or caring for God's people.  It's simple but powerful material.  And most of the learning comes directly from the Bible and from discussion.  The real gold of the curriculum, however, is that it forces you to put into action in your church or community what you have learned in the lessons.  TLT has proven to be transformational in churches all over the world, by God's grace.

Last week we met in Grand Rapids at the Holiday Inn.  I was cold all week after being in Texas heat!  This time, I studied two topics (out of 7): Biblical Preaching and Teaching the Christian Faith.  Although the real reason I am taking this training is just so that I can teach it to others, I appreciated the lessons learned in these manuals and will integrate what I have learned into my own preaching and teaching.

Just like at my last training, I had the opportunity to fellowship with pastors from all over the world, some of them important leaders in their denominations and churches overseas.  Most of them were here for the training so that they can teach it to others in their home countries.

But it might interest you to know that at least half of the people taking TLT in the US are regular church members, and not pastors.  Some are getting the training to equip themselves to do ministry here.  Others are taking TLT to train leaders in their churches here.

And then some are being used by God to take this training to other countries.  I think this is a great thing and a good way to do short term mission trips in ways that help without hurting.  If you are interested in short-term overseas mission work, you could consider becoming a TLT master trainer and equipping a group of pastors in another country with this training.  They would then eventually pass the training on to others in their country without you.  You would not set up this training in other countries by yourself, but would work with TLT staff to do so.  If you have questions or are interested, let me know.   At each training I go to, we hear testimonies of couples, usually retired couples, who are doing this and God is using them in amazing ways.

This picture shows most of the people of my small group who studied the same topics I did.

At the end of the week, we explained our action plans and prayed for each other, asking that God would make these plans come to pass, by his grace.

Book - "Wizard of the Nile"

By Anthony:

I would like to recommend that you read the book I just finished called, "The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted," by Matthew Green.  It is about a journalist who goes to Uganda and tries to get a meeting with Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, which terrorized Northern Uganda and parts of Sudan for decades, fighting against the Ugandan government, and committing numerous atrocities against civilians.

If you want to know more about the recent political situation in Uganda, or more about the LRA, then this is a book for you.  By reading the book, you will also get some sense about what Ugandan life is like, and what kinds of interesting tribes and people there are in Uganda.

In the book the author gives nice summaries of the history of the region, after doing quite a bit of careful research and interviewing many people.  I knew a fair amount about Uganda already, but I learned a lot that I didn't know. 

The author gives a more realistic picture than we are used to, of Joseph Kony, the current Ugandan government, as well as the role of the United States in the conflict.  He doesn't defend Kony, as Kony is certainly responsible for thousands of child abductions and countless atrocities.  But he does explain Kony's role in the political situation, and shows us he is more than just a demon possessed madman (as we like to think of him, though he may indeed be that too).

Here are a couple things that I found interesting.  We tend to think of the LRA as this rag-tag group of children with AK-47s thrust into their hands running around maybe strung out on drugs.  But as interviews with actual child soldiers in this book make clear, the LRA was a pretty sophisticated fighting machine, with divisions and tactics, modern weaponry, intelligence officers, and strategy.  They trained and got themselves ready to fight.  And the children and other soldiers really gained a sense of camaraderie with each other, in the same way that I think modern soldiers today become very close during combat. 

I also learned that there was at least some aspect of really wanting to rebel against the government in the agenda of the LRA.  It was not just about randomly committing atrocities.  They had some reasons that made good sense as to why they were fighting against the government.  And I learned a lot about Uganda's current president.  It was troubling to see that some of the cultural/political realities that started this conflict are in some ways still there.  Uganda is completely at peace right now, and the LRA is out of Uganda, but that doesn't mean everyone is happy with the current system.

What was further really troubling to hear was about how the Ugandan government with help from Western aid organizations and governments just put Northern Ugandans in camps whether they wanted to or not, for their own safety.  And their lives in the camps for years and years ended up giving them far worse suffering and a far greater death toll, than they may have faced if they had been allowed to stay on their homelands.  Life in the camps was horrible and full of disease and squalor.

Sometimes the book seems more like a travel adventure book than a really good analysis of the situation, but I still found it helpful.  I really appreciated his descriptions of former child soldiers, as well as reporting on his interviews with them.  I didn't think the book was necessarily excellently written, but it is definitely worth a read, and it is easy to read, especially if you want a good starting point at understanding the LRA in Uganda.

Evangelism is Not Offensive

By Anthony:

Evangelism in our culture is normally seen to be offensive and intolerant.  To tell someone that they need Jesus or need forgiveness for their sins, or shouldn't be living a life without God is very politically incorrect.  Unfortunately I think many Christians are buying into this lie.  I want to argue in this post that evangelism is not at all offensive and intolerant, though some people may indeed be offended by it.  It is actually a loving and caring thing to do.  Even for people who believe the Christian faith is false, or who believe that God does not exist should still see evangelism from Christians as a loving action.   Here are a couple of videos that show my point.  I thank my brother for pointing them out to me.  First, a funny video from the show Seinfeld.

In this clip, Elaine's boyfriend is certainly not a model Christian.  His faith seems pretty shallow.  However, Elaine herself points out to us the true nature of evangelism, that it is a loving and caring action.  Elaine is most upset in the show, not that her boyfriend is a Christian, (though she doesn't like that either), but that he doesn't care enough about her to try to get her to become a Christian.  He seems to not care at all that she is going to Hell, since he doesn't try to talk to her about his faith.  Elaine remains firm in her rejection of the Christian faith, and yet she is still greatly bothered by his lack of love and evangelism.  Even this secular television show points out to us that our culture's notion of evangelism being offensive is based on false logic.   If we really believe what we claim to believe, we should be sharing our faith with others because we care about them.  If we don't, we might seem less offensive, but actually we are callous and uncaring towards non-Christians.

Next, an atheist named Penn Jillette argues the same point.  Although he is an atheist, he sees the true logical and loving nature of evangelism, and argues that all religious people should proselytize.  

People should want to be evangelized to by Christians, (even if they are convinced that God does not exist), because that shows that Christians care about them.  At the very least, people should expect Christians to evangelize to them.  If we don't share our faith, it makes people think our beliefs are a bunch of nonsense that even we don't really believe.  Sharing our faith with someone is not intolerant.  Real tolerance means respecting people and allowing them to believe differently.   Tolerance does not mean we shouldn't try to influence other people.

I can't guarantee that it won't offend someone if you tell them about Jesus, but it shouldn't offend them.   Evangelism is loving.  We were commanded to love our neighbor, and sharing our faith is the greatest application of loving our neighbor.  We should care about whether they have eternal life or not.  If what we believe is true, then sharing our faith is the most loving thing we can do.  It is a beautiful thing to do.  It is sharing good news, not bad news.

Romans 10:9-15
⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”