From: Guy Pierce <guypierce@compuserve.com>
Date: Fri Aug 11, 2000 11:18 am
Subject: changed heart, changed community

Hey there. My name is Guy Pierce. I am new to the forum and excited about learning as much as I can. I will be going to teach English, and possibly medical work, as an inroad to cp work and I had a few questions. Any comments, personal insights, or personal experience on these issues would be helpful.

While we will be doing R&D work, the goal isn't just that. It's not just to improve the lives of the people, but to build relationships so that we can share. How do you maintain the balance between R&D and cp work so that we're not always doing the R&D and lose focus on what we really want to see happen?

I have heard instances where people got so caught up with (by that I mean it was so time consuming) the commun. devel. projects that they had little time to reach out or disciple. I don't want that to happen, but realize that it is a viable inroad to serve and bless people which helps them to open up. It may also be imperative in creative access areas.

Second, how do we do R&D without the people thinking that it is colonialization? Along with that, how do we avoid causing dependency on us by bringing in stuff that they can't reproduce (since they may not be able to get the supplies we can, funds, etc.) - this would cause a paternalization which has proven to be counteractive to a growing cp movement?

Lastly, by community development what do we mean? Do we mean to suggest an actual development of the community (discip. nations through programs)? Or do we mean projects which will help the community become better but not necessarily change it? Some suggest that lasting change will never occur until there is individual change of heart that leads to changes (in time) in the community.

For instance, Mangalwadi wrote in Truth and Social Reform "The renewal of society begins with renewal of individuals who pass from death to life, from unrighteousness to righteousness. It is a modern folly to assume that the key to the economic prosperity of a society depends primarily on its collective programmes, communes, or cooperatives.

This misguided belief moves even Christians to spend their energies in trying to work exclusively for 'community organisation' or 'community development'. The fact is that very often no entity called 'community' (intentional bonding in an organised social structure) exists in a given situation. What exist as social realities are individuals, families, and castes.

A reform movement which seeks to go to the roots, must therefore go to the individuals and families." (p 78-79) He is saying that true reform needs to be based on individual hearts being renewed, not by programs. But, can both exist together and accomplish the goal of individual changed hearts, which transform their society through the help of programs established from without rather than within?

I look forward to your help and comments.

Guy Pierce

(Guy is with a team now working in Kashmir. Let's lift them up to the Lord esp. with regards to the current unrest in that region between India and Pakistan.)