The Truth
Sometimes the truth is shocking, shocking to the point of shaking the soul. Dividing the mind and spirit as the Bible puts it. There are those moments when the truth hits you and you wonder why you have never seen it before. “How could I have been so blind?” you think. I am reminded again and again how complex the world is and how little our human minds can really understand. It reminds me how much we need God and to trust him and his wisdom.

Where does this come from? Since coming to Mozambique I have had to confront on a daily basis the children that come and ask for money, for food, for candy or for pens. It is a constant question, do I give, or not. Why should I or should I not. Other missionaries will tell you, does not give to children. But, why not? It is a question that never ends or has good answers. We have trusted the advice of our missionary friends, at least most of the time.

Over the past few months I have come across candy in various ways. Why not give it to the children as I pass on the road. Give them a treat. I do not have food, but all children like candy, right? I pondered this over the last few weeks after having given to a few children. I started thinking about what we tell our children in North America. “Do not take candy (or other things) from strangers.” But surely in Africa we can give to children we do not know. They will be grateful, right? After all, they have nothing.

It just so happens I was having a conversation with a missionary that has been here for many years in Mozambique. She was telling us that she does not give candy to children. I asked why not. She said she does not want to train them to take things from strangers because hundreds of children are taken by strangers and sold into the sex slave industry by people who do that very same thing. She told the story of a pastor she knew who had lost a very young girl that very way. Fortunately she found her way back five years later, praise God!

The truth hit. Why would it be any different to accept candy from strangers here than in North America. There is no difference. But I am not a stranger, I am a good Christian man, I am not dangerous, I came from North America to help people in poverty, especially children. But to them there is no difference. I am a stranger. I am a foreigner, not to be trusted. By my giving I am just preparing them for the next person to come and offer a candy and take them away, destroying their life.

This also brings up other questions. Why would I do things in Africa that I would not do to in North America. Sometimes there are good reasons for this. Other times it is because we often do not really care about Africans. People are hungry, let’s get a shipment of food to them, meanwhile careless food distribution depresses the price of grain in the market putting farmers and merchants out of business and crippling them after the food distribution stops. What would happen if someone came to Nebraska and started giving grain to cattle farmers freely. The grain market would go down and the corn farmers would go out of business. There would be no-where to sell the corn. The market would be undercut. The grain farmers would be in uproar and it would cripple the local economy.

Granted this is a worst case scenario and I do not claim to know everything about farm economics in rural Nebraska. But this happens in Africa when we are not careful how we give. But they are poor we say. Yes, they are. But do we do in Africa what we would not do in our own communities. This is the big question for me. And when we do is that?

Maybe there are better ways to give.

God we need your wisdom to do your will in this complex world.