Making Matters Worse in Haiti
What an amazing piece. Here are some of the best excerpts. As I am in the midst of planning a mission trip this year, it does make me wonder what to do. I've always felt that short-term missions was more for the people going. For instance, on a mission trip I went to in college, we spent around $14,000 to get our group down there and back. Would that money have been better used for the kingdom if we had just sent a check and had them build their own church?
"Does it ever occur to those leaders who take bright, enthusiastic American young people to Haiti to build hundreds and hundreds of church buildings and schools that Haitians are capable of building them? Do they even consider how many jobs they take away from Haitians because of their well-intentioned construction enterprises? Does it occur to them that when Haitians see an American youth group put up a cinder block school building in just ten days that this could contribute to a sense of inferiority as these Americans do in ten days what seems to Haitians like a miracle?"
"Altruistic Americans have done to the Haitians what an out-of-control welfare system has done to so many poor people here in the United States. It has made them into people who are socially and psychologically dependent on others to solve their problems and who have lost confidence in their own capabilities."
