The desire to make an immediate impact

I've recently had some very good dialogue over email with Joel Percy, regarding the natural desire we feel when presented with incredible heart-breaking scenarios, to "fix" the problem and offer immediate help.

When we met Shelton, Magret and Concillia in Zimbabwe (the three orphans living on their own) I felt that intense desire to do whatever I could to change their scenario. Then, when we introduced them to The Meeting House and talked about their situation on video, I received numerous emails and personal questions asking the same thing... "What can we do immediately for those three kids."

One such email that was very heartfelt and passionate asked the two following questions (note - NO DISRESPECT at all is meant towards the person who emailed this. I have a great respect for his passion, his generousity, and his desire to make a difference in this world!! I wish more people responded with immediacy to the problems in the world!):

How can we help those 3 children without any family to support them? I am sure there are thousands like them, but we have to start with one project. Our Home Church group trys not to get overwhelmed with the magnitude of needs around us, but just take action and begin to make a small difference. Action is our motto!
First thoughts:
1) Can we move these children into a home with support so they can spend their time being kids and going to school?
How much would this cost annually?
2) If option 1 is not possible, can we immediately support these 3 kids with food, shelter, beds, etc where they currently live? What would be the budget for this option.

It may not be this simple, and there are probably many issues, but I have to believe we can do something now.
So today, or tomorrow, can we immediately make a change for those 3 children?


I posed these questions to Joel, and here was his response. I thought it contained alot of insight and challenged some of our typical responses. I have his permission to share it here.

Comments are more than welcome.

First, I totally understand the desire to do something and see immediate results. I don’t question that in any way—I’ve felt it myself a hundred times.

But after having those same kind of reactions myself, and taking the time to talk to people who are a lot more experienced than me in this stuff, I realize I need to slow down my own tendency to try to fix things right away. There are a ton of areas in life where doing something fast and dramatic is actually not the best and healthiest solution. People who try to lose weight REALLY fast, or get rich REALLY fast, or solve their relationship problems REALLY fast, or even grow spiritually REALLY fast, tend to get themselves into trouble and make bad choices. I’ve come to believe that this is one of those areas. The best thing we can do for those kids is to work through existing local channels (i.e. the BIC AIDS Project), draw on the experience of people who know a lot more about the solutions than we do (Mennonite Central Committee) and take a broad approach to helping as many kids as possible while still seeing a measurable difference.

I know it seems kind of counter-intuitive, but the problem with the “make a dramatic difference for 3 kids” approach is that it actually feeds our desire to feel good rather than push us to do what is objectively best in the situation. If we help three kids, there is something in us that emotionally feels a sense of completion. The problem is there is no sense of completion for the hundreds of thousands of other kids in southern Africa who are living without parents, without food, without hope. If we could put all 500,000 (I’m guessing at that number, but it’s not crazy) of the kids in child-headed families in front of us at once, we wouldn’t emotionally feel good about helping three of them on a grand scale and ignoring the other 499,997. But since we can only see three at once, our emotions lead us down a path that is, ultimately, less helpful.

There is a balance to find here. You can focus too much, or you can spread yourself too thin. It’s a tricky balance. On that point, I come back once again for the need for a great partner organization. MCC is better and more experienced at finding that balance than we are. That’s why we’ve given decision-making control over to them.

Bottom line is this…What can we do? Give to Mission 2. Then encourage friends and folks in your Home Church to give to Mission 2. For us at The Meeting House right now, that really is where it all needs to start.