Mission as giving and receiving

Theologian Miroslav Volf from Yale University has written a book I want to read: Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. I am especially interested in the focus on giving and receiving gifts in ways that honor God. He says gift giving is a triangular exchange between God, the giver and the receiver.

As a missionary I am a middleman who brokers the gifts given to those in Africa where I live who receive some of those gifts. It is my responsibility to watch how the gifts are used. It is my responsibility not to siphon off the gifts for my own benefit. It is also my job to help the receivers to receive the gift responsibly. It is also my job to speak to the givers.

Volf is quoted in an article I read, “We who are affluent often don’t know how to be good givers- we give but for all the wrong reasons.” Why do we give? To puff ourselves up? To atone for transgressions? God desires that we give for the right reasons. The idea that came to me is that in all of our mission work are we focusing on the heart attitudes of givers and receivers that God may be honored? Perhaps in so doing we are also growing his church. We may (or may not visibly) see the gifts multiplied as all of our hearts are changed to give and receive in response to the free gift and love of Jesus death on the cross for us. Giving and receiving in freedom not under compulsion!

Development and Mud huts

Development is great. Church aid organizations often help build orphanages and other homes for underprivileged people. My problem with Western development is the ignorance of culture and tradition.

Who or which culture sets the standard for development? Here is one example. Is a mud hut by definition a substandard home? What does it say if that is how your people have been living for thousands of years? Does it mean that their traditional homes are inferior to those of concrete? I never realized how cool a mud hut home is compared to a cement structure until I stayed in one. I never realized how well they keep water out with only grass roofs and how much cooler they are compared to metal zinc roofs (which is the main alternative in Ghana at least.)

If mud huts are well maintained – worked on every year, they are very accommodating homes. They are cool and comfortable. They are affordable and within the price range of nearly every Ghanaian at least in rural areas. They are easy to maintain and not so costly as more Western style homes. The people already possess much of the expertise to build and maintain them.

I grant that cities can be a different animal since people are living right on top of each other in ways that are not accommodating to traditional African ways of life. Any thoughts? Any thoughts on the millenium goals? http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ Check em out.