We leave tomorrow

We've all been approached and solicited for money. Sometimes at church. Both the solicitor and the request-receiver know the same biblical texts about giving to those who ask of us, about Christ being present in his poor. We often feel terribly guilty for ignoring such requests. Truth be told I've also felt guilty when I give. Who knows where that money is going, what addiction I've just fed--and not just addictions to substances, but to dependence on handouts.

Zoe is trying to do something different among African orphans. Its Rwandese founder noticed as she worked for western aid organizations that when they would leave, their recipients were worse off than they had been before the westerners came: more dependent, with fewer personal resources and social capital. She asked herself how western help could empower, expand opportunity, and not enfeeble. Zoe was the fruit of her questions.

Zoe places orphans in disciplined small groups together. This is a bit like Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank, where the relationships in villages stand in for the collateral that middle class people have to put up for loans. But it's explicitly Christian. John Wesley noticed that only those in disciplined small groups make progress pursuing holiness. Those who exercise know this too. Plan to run with a partner and find yourself out there pounding pavement. Plan to run alone and find yourself hitting snooze.

Zoe spends three years taking orphans from the streets and into sufficiency as business owners and community leaders. It has failed if its participants don't graduate out of their program. It's beautiful: designed not to make us feel good for giving, but to help those to whom the giving goes. Doesn't sound revolutionary but that it is.

We leave RDU at 0 dark thirty in the morning. I trust we'll come back brimming with stories. Our children and youth have led the way on this, funding our initial relationship with Zoe. Cam, Price, JJ and I hope to come back with a glimpse of what that funding has done. Thank you all for your prayers!