I had the privilege of addressing my colleagues at work today, this is some of what I said:
"God helping me: I take my everyday, ordinary life — my sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and I place it before God as an offering. [Because] embracing what God does for me is the best thing I can do for him. I refuse to become so well-adjusted to my culture that I fit into it without even thinking. Instead, I will fix my attention on God. [As a result of this relationship with God and my life experience] I have been changed from the inside out. [I try to] Recognize what God wants from me, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around me, always dragging me down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of me, develops well-formed maturity in me.” (Romans 12:1-2)
Relationships have the potential to
turn you inside out. (Just ask any love struck teenager!) But one of the most
powerful change agents I know is the privilege of meeting people, looking into
their eyes, hearing their story and offering them the dignity they deserve for
that time I have with them. It’s those moments that change me from the inside out.
An old poem by Ann Flint says, “God has no hands but our hands to do
his work today”, so when
we ask, what is God doing in Sri Lanka, what we really need to ask is what are
we doing? What am I doing?
There is a whole theological argument
behind that statement, (not the agenda of this morning) but I believe that God
created humanity in God’s own image and that “it was very good” and that any
attempt by you or I to restore the dignity, the hope, the self-respect and
self-reliance of individuals is the work of God. Any effort made to reconcile
human beings to one another and to God is God’s work. So, what we do, “engaging people to eliminate poverty and
its causes”, that is God’s work, that is what God is doing in Sri Lanka.
Over the past few years WVL has been
working hard to gain entry to some of the Tea estates in the high country of
Sri Lanka under the premise of partnering with them to supply clean water and
improved sanitation facilities. And this has happened – today families have
access to water in their homes, as a result:
· (anecdotally) children are healthier,
· School attendance rates have improved
· Schools have water and latrines
· women are able to get to work on
time, therefore their wages are not docked and the family has more income,
· families are taking more pride in
their community, (gardens, etc…)
· communities are saving money and
managing the facilities by themselves
· People are
proud of themselves, they have dignity!
But
water was the catalyst to a much deeper issue. For over a hundred years there
have been three distinct factions: Tamil workers, Sinhala/Foreign Estate
Management and Sinhala Government. Essentially the Tamil workers were
non-residents, they belonged to the Estate. Government didn’t have jurisdiction,
or concern. Management were masters of their own empires.
The project seeks to create new relationships
between Management, Community and Government. Management has seen the benefit
of supporting their workforce, listening to them and partnering with them for
improved conditions, and links have been forged between Government and
Management for improved infrastructure. Believe it or not, getting people
talking together benefits everyone. Sinhala is talking with Tamil, Management
is listening to Worker and Government is integrating Workers into country.
The project is designed as a Peace-building,
Water and Sanitation project but it is, as all development projects should be,
actually about reclaiming or restoring the dignity and self-worth of people
that through no fault of their own, just because of the accident of birth
place, are impoverished, marginalised and neglected. And it is successful
because people have taken the time to build relationships of trust that are
resulting in personal transformation.
But the transformation is not just on
the part of the beneficiaries, the poor and the marginalised; transformation
(or change from the inside out) is occurring in all the project actors.
You travel and listen to the project staff and you will hear and see passion and
determination. These people have seen the difference bringing water to a house
has made. They have seen the before and after. They have seen the ‘glint’ in
the eye of a mother return when she realises that she doesn’t have to send her
daughter to walk 4 kilometres for water any more. They have seen the school boy
splashing his mates at the school bathroom. Changing (hardened, theoretical) development
professionals from the inside out – that’s what God is doing in Sri Lanka.
You listen to the Estate Manager who proudly speaks of the fact that
he has less ‘sick days’ to reschedule because people are not sick anymore. Of
course he sees the benefit to his bottom line, but as he kneels to accept a
flower from a little girl, he touches her shoulder and looks into her eyes –
she smiles and they laugh together – that’s not fake. Creating a new heart that cares about
more than the dollar – that’s what God is doing in Sri Lanka.
You sit in the boardroom of the local government office and you listen as they tell
you all the wonderful things they are doing for the people – as if it was their
idea – but you also hear about a new relationship that exists between the
Management and Government. Power brokers are listening to one another and are
working for a common good – for the rights of the poor and the marginalised. Reconciling relationships, creating
partnerships of transformation that is what God is doing in Sri Lanka.
You hear the stories of the workers as you are proudly welcomed into their homes. They
greet you at the threshold to their community with flowers, beetle leaves, and
a cup of tea. Like a modern day pied piper you’re followed around the community: land that was
swamp and putrid a year ago is now channelled and planted out with vegetables.
100 year old homes have been lime-washed bright colours. People speak of hope for
a better future for their kids. Restoring dignity is what God is doing in Sri
Lanka.
This is some of what God is doing in
Sri Lanka. But all this starts, not in Sri Lanka but it starts in one person –
one person who decides it’s worth caring. It starts with you! It starts with
me! It starts because something, (or some One) has happened that changed and is
changing you from the inside out and you have recognised what God wants from
you. You may not call it that – you may not use religious or faith language –
but that doesn’t change the fact that you are doing God work!
That is what I (and other program
managers) do in our in-country work for World Vision and for God. We build and
maintain relationships of trust that lay foundations for multilevel
transformations: transformation of individuals and transformation of
communities. It’s only through relationship and trust that we have a hope of
changing the world.
May the Lord disturb you and trouble
you,
May the Lord set an impossible task
before you,
And dare you to meet it.
May the Lord give you strength to do
your best,
And then - but only then -
May the Lord grant you peace.
