Global Calendar
Key Article:
Some Historical Perspectives on Member Care and Humanitarian Aid
Kelly O’Donnell 5.05
Over the last 20 years, a special ministry, really a movement, has developed around the world which is called member care. At the core of member care is a commitment to provide ongoing, supportive resources to further develop mission/aid personnel. Sending organisations and churches, colleagues and friends, and specialist providers are key sources of such care. Several conferences and special training symposia, for example, have taken place over the last 10 years in countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Korea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Cyprus, Germany, The Netherlands, Brasil, El Salvador, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia. Member care has truly become international, plus a core part of mission/aid strategy!
The member care ministry and movement, as you may know, did not develop easily. It was often through crises, mistakes, and failure that we began to realise that Christian workers needed quality support in order to help them in their challenging tasks. At first many of us thought that we were being unspiritual or weak, and not trusting the Lord enough. But we were overlooking our own humanness, sometimes trying to be something that we were not created or called to be. We began to realise our Biblical need for one another-as seen in the dozens of “one another” verses in the New Testament (e.g., Hebrews 3:13; I John 4:7,8). We began to understand that the issue was not so much our having a lack of faith, but rather our need to clearly see God’s plan and His provision of care.
I remember how much I myself needed better training and support during my first cross-cultural ministry trip (30 years ago!). I was a young, enthusiastic believer of 19. What joy I felt when I heard that I could join a short-term team to work with a tribal group in the mountains of southern Mexico. It was a mixed experience for me, as can be many mission experiences for people. Not surprisingly I got sick with stomach problems (unclean water), confused by the language (a different dialect of Spanish was used), and was often cold (did not bring the right jacket), tired (from the high altitude and reduced oxygen), and hungry (little food available in this poor area). By the time I returned to my home country, I was not very excited about doing mission work again. God used me nonetheless, but some of my struggles, as I think about it now, could have been easily prevented.
Member care, I have learned, is not about creating a comfortable lifestyle. Nor is it about trusting people instead of trusting the Lord. Rather, it is about further developing the resiliency and godliness to do our work well. We want to balance the realistic demands of suffering and sacrifice with the realistic needs for support and nurture in our lives. We can pray for stronger backs to endure, yet at times we must also find ways to lighten the load of ourselves and our colleagues. The call to take up our cross daily is also understood in light of the fact that we are to support each other as we bear our crosses together. And in light of the reminder from the Lord to come to Him for refreshment, as His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Finally, let me say that the same discipline that Paul said is needed to “run to win”(I Corinthians 9:24-27) is also needed so that we can “rest to win” (Matthew 11:25-30). Think of member care then as a type of discipline. It is a personal, community, and Biblical practice-an intentional practice-to help renew us and remain resilient. May the Lord help all of us as we both run to win and rest to win!
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Humanitarian Aid: 7/03 Humanitarian Policy Group Briefing (hpgadmin@odi.org.uk). “The extensive literature on Western humanitarianism seldom does justice to its religious traditions. Western humanitarianism was moulded by Catholic monastic orders, by the Geneva Calvinist founders of the Red Cross, by the Salvation Army, by the Leprosy Mission, and by the Oxford Quakers who helped to found Oxfam. Church organisations dominated international aid until the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s, with the founding of the secular agencies Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Even today, strands of Christian humanitarianism are strongly represented by Caritas, World Vision, the Order of Malta, Christian Aid, and the Nordic churches…Although it is likely that practicing Christians are in a minority among the personnel who work for Western humanitarian agencies, the West is widely perceived as Christian, and the liberal humanism underpinning Western humanitarianism, even in its ‘secular” form, is arguably itself underpinned by a heritage of Judeo-Christian values. Jonathan Benthal, Honorary Research Fellow Department of Anthropology, University College London
