What is poverty?
This seems like the kind of question any school child could answer. Poverty, one might think, is when a person or family can't afford the basic necessities of life. Using similar definitions to this, countries determine for themselves at what annual income rate a person is or is not 'below the poverty line.'
I wonder though, if measuring poverty strictly in terms of economics is an accurate way of measuring something as complex as poverty. We put the question out to the Woodland High School (Breslau, Ontario) team when they were here, and asked them, "What is poverty?" Their responses were thoughtful: a lack of a basic need, a lack of a home, limited natural resources, a lack of knowledge, spiritual or emotional lack, no access to health care or education, no vernacular Bible, and a lack of community. Their responses definitely included the material but extended to non-material poverty: knowledge, spiritual, relational.
We then talked about where we see poverty in Haiti. They listed a number of things:
Though we had just defined poverty as being more than the material or monetary side, the students couldn't help but notice that so much of the poverty they could see was material. But when we got to talking about 'poverty at home' the expanded definition of poverty helped us see our own culture a little more clearly:
It was great seeing the conversation begin with the "out there" issues of poverty at home -- ie: shelters and homelessness -- but then quickly shift to the poverties which we who are 'wealthy' have. While there weren't any personal stories of such poverties, I got a real sense that the teens were reflecting on their own culture and therefore on themselves. I was reminded of the quote from the book, "When Helping Hurts" that "until we embrace our own mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good." As I listened to the students talk, I felt like I was being taught.
Getting to a point of admitting our own brokenness, though, is a place of vulnerability, and doesn't feel like a place of strength. Even though the apostle Paul instructs, in 2 Corinthians 12:10, that "when I am weak, then I am strong," we who are Christians are still reluctant to follow our Lord's example (Philippians 2:5-11) of emptying ourselves of our strength. And so we face a 'crisis.' One of the Woodland students, Tsung Chen, aka Oliver, was able to share some Mandarin Chinese (below).
While admitting our brokenness and poverty may seem like a vulnerability, it is also an opportunity. As I have seen teams embrace this aspect of their own poverty, I have seen the ways they have noticed some of the assets the Haitian people and nation have.
For example, one participant noted that the Haitians are the happiest people he has ever met. Another looked at the chaos that is the sea of street-side petty vendors and noticed a healthy spirit of entrepreneurship. Another, looking at the imbalance in some Haitian families where there is only one income earner, sometimes a son or brother, who brings in all the income, and noticed a healthy sense of identity within the context of family.
All that to say that by embracing our own poverty, we can notice another's assets. And only in noticing and working with the assets of the host country population and culture can we hope to help support anything life-giving and sustainable. In church work back home, such as when Maranatha Church did their Visioning work a few years back, we looked at assets using a discipline called Appreciative Inquiry. This tool is used here, too, in a place where traditional poverty is obvious, to discover what the building blocks for renewal might be.
So, what is poverty? It is a lack. But if we acknowledge our own poverty and commit to a humble stance because of it, appreciating the assets of the other, we may just find ourselves taking the kind of Christ-like posture advocated in 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."
Then, we will lack nothing.
This seems like the kind of question any school child could answer. Poverty, one might think, is when a person or family can't afford the basic necessities of life. Using similar definitions to this, countries determine for themselves at what annual income rate a person is or is not 'below the poverty line.'
I wonder though, if measuring poverty strictly in terms of economics is an accurate way of measuring something as complex as poverty. We put the question out to the Woodland High School (Breslau, Ontario) team when they were here, and asked them, "What is poverty?" Their responses were thoughtful: a lack of a basic need, a lack of a home, limited natural resources, a lack of knowledge, spiritual or emotional lack, no access to health care or education, no vernacular Bible, and a lack of community. Their responses definitely included the material but extended to non-material poverty: knowledge, spiritual, relational.
We then talked about where we see poverty in Haiti. They listed a number of things:
 |
| Where do we see poverty in Haiti? |
It was great seeing the conversation begin with the "out there" issues of poverty at home -- ie: shelters and homelessness -- but then quickly shift to the poverties which we who are 'wealthy' have. While there weren't any personal stories of such poverties, I got a real sense that the teens were reflecting on their own culture and therefore on themselves. I was reminded of the quote from the book, "When Helping Hurts" that "until we embrace our own mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good." As I listened to the students talk, I felt like I was being taught.
Getting to a point of admitting our own brokenness, though, is a place of vulnerability, and doesn't feel like a place of strength. Even though the apostle Paul instructs, in 2 Corinthians 12:10, that "when I am weak, then I am strong," we who are Christians are still reluctant to follow our Lord's example (Philippians 2:5-11) of emptying ourselves of our strength. And so we face a 'crisis.' One of the Woodland students, Tsung Chen, aka Oliver, was able to share some Mandarin Chinese (below).
 |
| CRISIS = risky danger + opportunity |
While admitting our brokenness and poverty may seem like a vulnerability, it is also an opportunity. As I have seen teams embrace this aspect of their own poverty, I have seen the ways they have noticed some of the assets the Haitian people and nation have.
For example, one participant noted that the Haitians are the happiest people he has ever met. Another looked at the chaos that is the sea of street-side petty vendors and noticed a healthy spirit of entrepreneurship. Another, looking at the imbalance in some Haitian families where there is only one income earner, sometimes a son or brother, who brings in all the income, and noticed a healthy sense of identity within the context of family.
All that to say that by embracing our own poverty, we can notice another's assets. And only in noticing and working with the assets of the host country population and culture can we hope to help support anything life-giving and sustainable. In church work back home, such as when Maranatha Church did their Visioning work a few years back, we looked at assets using a discipline called Appreciative Inquiry. This tool is used here, too, in a place where traditional poverty is obvious, to discover what the building blocks for renewal might be.
So, what is poverty? It is a lack. But if we acknowledge our own poverty and commit to a humble stance because of it, appreciating the assets of the other, we may just find ourselves taking the kind of Christ-like posture advocated in 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."
Then, we will lack nothing.
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