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There has been this struggle for many years about effective and wholistic ways to reach out to people of other cultures in a way that will not cause more harm than good.
When I lived and did ministry work in Africa, I got to work with many foreign Christian missionaries and ministries who were excited and passionate about helping people and communities in Africa. Having my feet on the ground and living among the people in the community, I was able to see firsthand the great work these missionaries and ministries were doing for these communities, and I was able to join them in the work they were doing. A few months after the foreign missionaries left, slowly the locals and I started to see where the work of the missionaries and I were getting it wrong and unintentionally creating problems and confusion for the locals. We were all working together but something was missing to where the progress that was made was undone after only a few months. You could call this kind of situation “When Helping Hurts.”
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The local’s cultural values and their ways of living were not always taken into consideration when aid and short-term discipleship programing was given. In some of these programs, the community was given relief in place of sustainable development which created dependency. These locals at some points could not continue the programs and some of them went back to idol worship as they were left with confusion and mockery once the foreign missionaries left. And as you all know that the deepest need of a man is his spiritual need. So, at the end of our work in this community, the people’s other needs like community owned development, physical empowerment, and wholistic strategies were missed and it left the locals dependent on outside support rather than focusing on the resources in their own community for development. The locals continued to depend on outside support rather than collaborative efforts from missionaries and locals working together. This is why Emissaries Mission was founded. It is our desire to do the most effective work for Christ wholistically.