{"id":81,"date":"2022-11-28T17:27:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T17:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/lets-party-our-end-of-the-year-celebration\/"},"modified":"2023-01-17T15:21:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T15:21:56","slug":"lets-party-our-end-of-the-year-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/lets-party-our-end-of-the-year-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Partnering Like Family, Not Donors"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"81\" class=\"elementor elementor-81\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-7cbeacc elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"7cbeacc\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-18f2e4c8\" data-id=\"18f2e4c8\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-217de393 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"217de393\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.8.1 - 13-11-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>I was supposed to be in Zimbabwe this week with a small group of people from the US, Canada and the UK.\u00a0 We were going to get an up close look at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.handsatwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hands at Work In Africa<\/a>, a group I ran across about a year ago and was deeply impressed with.\u00a0 Like many organizations working with the most vulnerable and in hard to reach places their focus is on children.\u00a0 But what really impressed me was their model; the\u00a0<em>way<\/em>\u00a0they go about helping.<\/p>\n<p>They help villages find community-based solutions to their problems.\u00a0 While most outsiders with resources and networks to additional resources only see needs, Hands at Work sees assets and strengths within these communities.\u00a0 It\u2019s called\u00a0<em>Asset-Based Community Development<\/em>\u00a0(ABCD).\u00a0 \u00a0Done right, this approach to \u201chelping\u201d the poor works in ways that simple \u201cneed-meeting\u201d and \u201cserving the poor\u201d never do.\u00a0 It\u2019s a longer, harder process that forces the donor\/giver to slow down, to listen and learn from the very people they are trying to help.\u00a0 It\u2019s a process that affirms and protects the dignity of those being helped and confronts the tendency toward benevolent narcissism in the donor\/giver.\u00a0 And that really is a win-win.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing about ABCD that has always impressed me is the fact that it never settles for the simplistic and sentimental notion of merely \u201cidentifying with the poor.\u201d\u00a0 No, the end goal is not to merely identify with someone\u2019s suffering but rather step into the complexity of a long-term partnership committed to creating lasting solutions for a better life.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8703 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/sattalks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/HaW.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sattalks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/HaW-200x141.png 200w, http:\/\/sattalks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/HaW.png 222w\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"156\" \/>As I was learning more about this ministry, I read on their website:<\/p>\n<p><em>Hands at Work in Africa identifies African Christian leaders demonstrating a passion to serve the poorest of the poor. We support those leaders in developing a community-owned organisation that unites local churches and mobilises congregation members, and we begin a long-term partnership of serving those organisations and working to increase their ability to provide effective, holistic care to the vulnerable: physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Churches outside Africa join their African brothers and sisters, participating not as donors but as family members joined in a common cause to serve the poor and to reach Africa\u2019s most vulnerable, one by one.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My reason for going to Zimbabwe was to see first-hand how they do that. Not just how they help the poor but how they structure, nurture and protect these cross-cultural partnerships from paternalism and on-going dependency.\u00a0 That\u2019s really what Significant Matters is all about.\u00a0 We want to help the church move beyond helping that hurts by telling the stories of ministries like Hands at Work and unpacking their models.<\/p>\n<p>Why is that important?\u00a0 Because our models determine the long-term unintended consequences of our actions.\u00a0 When our models are flawed we may see short-term results but the long-term consequences eventually leave us as bad or worse off than the original problem.\u00a0 We believe the church can lead the way in developing models that never settle for short-term success at the cost of long-term consequences.\u00a0 The more we do that, the more the world will take us seriously when we share the hope we have in Christ and why the church matters in this world.<\/p>\n<p>Lord willing I\u2019ll get to Zimbabwe sometime in the next year and hopefully we\u2019ll get Hands At Work to a SATtalk as well.\u00a0 In the meantime, I hope you will check them out yourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Blessings!<\/p>\n<p>Tom Bassford<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was supposed to be in Zimbabwe this week with a small group of people from the US, Canada and the UK.  We were going to get an up close look at Hands at Work In Africa, a group I ran across about a year ago and was deeply impressed with.  Like many organizations working with the most vulnerable and in hard to reach places their focus is on children.  But what really impressed me was their model; the way they go about helping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[14],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}