Last week I attended a Transformational Development Workshop in Rundu. There are two main things that made it a great week. 1) The concept of transformational development is something I’m very interested in and something anyone in community development work needs to learn more about and 2) I’ve always wanted to go to Rundu. Rundu is a town about 8 hours north of Windhoek. I’m always eager to travel to a new place, but this particular place has some pretty special people there. Two families (the Wilsons and the Eisbrenners) and one individual (Margaux) serve there whom I’ve known since the beginning of my adventures in Africa. Margaux and I traveled together all the way from AIM’s headquarters in Pearl River, and we soon met up with the Wilsons and the Eisbrenners in Kenya for ABO.

The workshop was led by Lois Ooms. Lois has worked in Africa since 1969 and in transformational development since 1984. In Kenya she networked with community and church leaders, health professionals, Kenyan missionaries and local churches to begin low-cost holistic community development groups focused on health, widows, HIV/AIDS home care, orphans, and microfinance. She leads workshops to empower people to begin with what they have—no matter how small—to create a foundation for sustainable self-help programs.

I’m not going to try to outline the entire workshop, but let me at least give you a summary. The basic premise of transformational development is to realize the resources inherent in a community and come alongside them to assist them in reaching their full potential in terms of development. (That’s my concise definition anyway…) Lois and others in her field insist that transformational development begins by examining the four relationships God established for us at creation: man’s relationship with God, with others, with self, and with creation. She began with this claim, “Living in a world of violence, suffering, tragedy and self-centeredness, many of us and especially the poor, don’t clearly understand who we are and what is our work as people—created by God; this is the foundation for motivating people to be stewards.” Lois focused on a holistic approach to sustainable development and reflected on “The Poor”, examining the root issues of poverty and the role of income generation in a sustainable outreach program.

I came out of this workshop with quite a new perspective concerning ministry, especially in poverty-stricken areas. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that in certain situations, money can do more harm than good. God has consistently blessed my support raising efforts, and I’ve been able to provide monetary and other gifts to communities and individuals here and in previous ministry locations. While I don’t regret giving those gifts, I feel that I am better equipped with the knowledge of how best to provide aid to those in need. Furthermore, I am learning a bit more about how to assess “those in need”. I’ve started reading one of Lois’ recommendations, When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about transformational development… or even just anyone who is involved in community work and/or cross-cultural ministry.

I want to close with an example Lois gave of a children’s program she visited in a country where some of her friends are serving as missionaries. It is a prime example of donor funds potentially doing more harm than good. We as missionaries and community development workers need to rethink what it truly means for a project to be sustainable. I am grateful for both the challenges and encouragement given to me through this workshop. It has been a springboard for implementing new ministry ideas here in Namibia (and changing some of the ways we have been doing things).

“Riding through a rural area where many of the poor lived, we saw hundreds of children roaming around. We stopped in, unannounced, at a large program that had multiple centers focused on a variety of issues. One of their goals was sustainability. They had beautiful well-kept buildings with TVs and videos inside—built, maintained and equipped by short-term teams from outside; we found local women, who were employed, cooking fried chicken for lunch for the children from an area where the normal food is corn meal and vegetables. We saw about a dozen children playing on elaborate playground equipment. No one could explain how the children were chosen or why there were so few.”

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.”

That’s RELIEF.

“Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

That’s DEVELOPMENT.

“Teach a man to think about fishing in a new way and you will change his life forever.”

That’s TRANSFORMATION.

Other great resources on this topic: Walking with the Poor by Bryant Myers; The Forest in the Seed by Scott Allen and Darrow Miller; Chalmers Economic Development Institute, Covenant College, Lookout Mt. Georgia, www.chalmers.org.

Photos of kids from the OVC project and local village:

Abigail, the Director of FHS, joined us for the workshop. It was great to have her with us and to hear her input and stories from her own experience in community development. This is a photo of her with a friend's adorable little brother.