For anyone who is familiar with mission work, especially in third world countries, you may recognize the stigma that looks something like a huge group of white people (commonly known as Gringos) coming into an area for about a week or so and doing so much work that it almost looks like a battlefield after Mr. Clean and Bob the Builder waged war. This is not a bad thing, infact it really makes an impact on whatever community the work is done in. Sometimes, however, it causes a sense of dependency, a stereotype that causes people to expect others to come in and give them whatever they need. I’m sure you have heard the old saying “Don’t just give a man a fish but teach him how to fish” (or something like that) and it really is true
. Here in Honduras Tony has created a community that doesn’t get everything they ask for but has to work for what they have and as a result shares everything they have. To the left is a picture of some of the street kids painting over the graffiti that they might have put up. Every time we walk into the community we are faced with people who want to work and it is hard to keep a paint brush or a rake in your hand without someone coming up and taking it to work. As another example, there is another man come every morning and is working on the front lawn of the school before we get there and after we leave. To him it doesn’t matter that we are there, the work will still get done, and that is what we want. It is so encouraging to come in to a community and start to realize that the question of “what will happen after the Gringos leave?” is slowly becoming less and less of a concern. Everday the people show more and more of a passion to change their own community. This is exactly what we want and exactly what others who yell “get out we don’t like white people here!” would probably want too. Here is another picture of how much they want their community to change as some of the kids painted Matthew 5:14 on the front of their school without any of our help. I can’t wait to hear what God does after we leave!
. Here in Honduras Tony has created a community that doesn’t get everything they ask for but has to work for what they have and as a result shares everything they have. To the left is a picture of some of the street kids painting over the graffiti that they might have put up. Every time we walk into the community we are faced with people who want to work and it is hard to keep a paint brush or a rake in your hand without someone coming up and taking it to work. As another example, there is another man come every morning and is working on the front lawn of the school before we get there and after we leave. To him it doesn’t matter that we are there, the work will still get done, and that is what we want. It is so encouraging to come in to a community and start to realize that the question of “what will happen after the Gringos leave?” is slowly becoming less and less of a concern. Everday the people show more and more of a passion to change their own community. This is exactly what we want and exactly what others who yell “get out we don’t like white people here!” would probably want too. Here is another picture of how much they want their community to change as some of the kids painted Matthew 5:14 on the front of their school without any of our help. I can’t wait to hear what God does after we leave!
