Somehow my generation has it figured out that being white and passionate is enough to solve problems and work effectively cross-culturally. It’s not really something expressed in generations before us- us on-fire, bleeding-heart millennials. Especially in the church.
It’s something that was built up and encouraged in my own life- something I am actively working to grow out of and challenge as I identify my own tendencies toward entitlement and thinking I can do it all without really knowing how to do much.
Now, don’t get me wrong, passion is great. I believe passion drives great work to fruition. But church folks (not only church folks, but yes, mostly church folks), we’ve got to stop encouraging passion without education, passion without experience, passion without the proper training and expertise- we’ve got to stop maintaining that passion is enough.
Why is this so important?
Because we are making a mess.
I’ve seen it, I’ve cleaned it up, I’ve been responsible for it myself.
We’re coming to countries like Uganda and we’re playing doctor, we’re playing director, we’re playing teacher.
We’re playing with people’s lives.
~
I hold a high standard, but not an unrealistic standard, for how things should be done in the missions, aid and service work we deliver to vulnerable communities here in Uganda. In Social Work school we spent a lot of time studying best practice/evidence based interventions and we focused on the importance of delivering clients the very best possible services.
Competence is one of the 6 core values in our code of ethics and it teaches us not to offer services or practice outside of our training/expertise, “Social workers should provide services and represent themselves as competent only within the boundaries of their education, training, license, certification, consultation received, supervised experience, or other relevant professional experience”. (NASW, 2008).
This is why Megan and I have hired Ugandan social workers who are licensed and trained to work with our families. It’s why most of our job centers around boring administration work and not direct practice. We know we aren’t the most fit and that Ugandans can do this sort of service work with families and communities far better than we can.
This core value, competence, is why I didn’t drop out of school and why I want to continue my training and education until it actually matches up with my job description.
I know that currently, to be running an NGO effectively, I probably should have 10 more years experience (at least) in the field, learning from others. I definitely, at the least, should have my MSW (Masters in Social Work) and most of all, I know I am certainly not the most fit to be filling the role that I am.
I know that, a 24-year old white girl, fresh out of undergrad, should not be the one overseeing a Ugandan social worker with 10 years experience in the field or a pastor with a life-time of knowledge and wisdom in working with and alongside of vulnerable families and communities.
It feels unnatural and it should.
It should feel strange to us that people with less training and expertise are the ones in charge.
It should make us angry when people practice medicine without medical degrees.
We should challenge the young person dropping out of college in a blind fit of passion after a 2-week mission trip and encourage them in the benefit of gaining education and experience before launching an NGO on your own.
Church, I believe you owe this to us. I believe you owe it to us, I believe you owe it to the missions you are funding and to the communities you are investing in.
You owe it to us because ultimately, holding us to a higher standard and challenging us will improve everything we are doing as cross-cultural workers and representatives of the Western church.
~
I’ve had a lot of conversations with my staff around this topic, and the conclusion we always seem to reach is that, if it would not be allowed to happen back home in America, it should absolutely not happen here in Uganda.
Having a lower standard, because it is Uganda, because “This Is Africa”, is unacceptable.
And church, I’m really tired of you turning your head to this.
Not only turning your head, but I’m upset with you for encouraging this blind passion in me, in my generation.
I believe God loves His people around the globe dearly and I believe, when we have access to education and we turn it down because we are impatient and we WANT IT NOW, we are not loving his people well and we are showing them that a lower standard of care and service is what they deserve.
We remember that love is patient and that God is not unaware of the needs of his people. While we step away to educate ourselves. While we wait and gain experience. He is right there with those who are suffering. And when we enter back into the field of service and we get to love His people from other cultures, we get to serve them the way they deserve to be served. We get to say to them, you don’t deserve a lower-standard. You deserve the best I can give you.
So, church, this is me asking YOU to ask me the hard questions. To challenge me, to challenge the young folks entering international work. Encourage more patience, question our entitlement, remind us that we don’t know it all and that we have a heck of a lot to learn still.
We might get mad at you at first, but {most of us} will thank you later, and so will the staff and communities we work alongside of.
~
-Kelsey
Marcia Baugh said:
AMINA AMINA…AMEN!! Kelsey! I couldn’t have said it better…thanks for chiming in with us again with our voices in ONE accord, serving (and administrating those more qualified to serve:) the vulnerable families in Uganda !
Andrea said:
Really appreciate this post.
Christian Hagen said:
Everything you said is right. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Steve and Pam Wise said:
Hi Kelsey. I have been a teacher for 39 years. I am no longer in class, I am now in community work, but I have rarely heard it said better. May I be so bold as to suggest two relevant texts from the Master’s course I am presently taking at Fuller’s (No, one is never too old to learn that you don’t have enough education to meet God’s high calling in missions): Foolishness to the Greeks, by Lesslie Newbiggen and Subverting Global Myths, by Vinoth Ramachandra. Both speak to the issues you raise in thei excellent post. Thank you for your insights, and God bless your ministry for Him.
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Abbie Lambert said:
Thanks so much for posting this! I can definitely relate to this topic because there have been times when I have wanted to just drop out of school to go and serve others. I believe my intentions are good, but your article really made me think about something I haven’t taken into consideration. It’s really important to have the knowledge to do certain things because we can’t effectively help people without it. Thanks again for your words! They are really encouraging 🙂
ansrng4chldrn said:
Kelsey. . . . AMAZING!! Being here 16 years, I’ve seen it and it scares me. But thank you for having the boldness to say what so many of us are thinking but just don’t have your boldness. Keep it up and you are doing a good job 🙂
Mark White said:
I will have to disagree to most of this Kelsey. As a 50 year old trying to do most of the things you are talking about, I can honestly say that your value of formal education is still that of a fresh undergraduate “young and naive”. I have an education and many years of experience, as does my medical doctor wife. None of it has adequately prepared us for working in Africa, only experience can do that. We arrived in Africa the first time to meet one of the early twenty somethings you speak of, with no medical training, doing advanced medical care on babies(they learned their techniques on youtube. At first, I was appalled, then my wife(the physician), smiled as she realized this baby would have died if not for the heroic actions taken by this young woman with “passion”..because, unfortunately, this is Africa. She was the best hope this child had. The dirty little secret in American medical education is that the axiom “see one, do one, teach one” is how much medical training is done. You literally watch it being done once, then you do it,, then you show someone else how to do it. In the U.S., we give an inordinate value to formal education. Unfortunately, by the time most of us finish our formal education, enter relationships, have kids, and are saddled with student debt, the passion we had in our early 20s has greatly dissipated, if not completely disappeared. Dont undervalue the value of passion and hard work. It has carried mankind for all but the last few generations, before the rise of the Universtiy. The real shame is that all of you young girls are “carrying the water for the Church” We should all be ashamed that there are not more of us doing what you are doing. Will you make mistakes? Undoubtedly. Will you do much good? YES. No missionary in history has not made mistakes. It is part of the process. Education will not change that. Keep your passion, keep up the good work, and learn from your mistakes. You dont need to look for reasons to feel guilty about the work you do(even if you are white).
pearltobefound said:
Kelsey talked about both education AND experience. People can have no formal education but take time patiently learning from people in the field/missionaries on the ground and THEN take action. “Unfortunately this is Africa” –> just because this is Africa, does not mean that people don’t still deserve our best. And jumping right in without taking time to learn about how to serve well is not our best.
Also, that woman with passion performing medicine? I don’t know if she was based in Uganda, but there are a lot of great Ugandan doctors here [some even trained in the west] who could provide better care then someone who learned procedures on Youtube. Maybe she should have taken the child to one of them. Maybe she is as good as them, but when it comes to children’s lives you don’t mess around. You give them the very best you can. Is Youtube learning really her best?
John said:
Hey Kelsey,
I was lucky enough to visit Abide last December whilst in Jinja and I just want to say I’ve been really encouraged by the work Abide is doing. Having volunteered at an orphanage in Uganda for a few months last year, I could see that there were many issues involving orphan care which were troubling, I assured myself by thinking that these problems were inevitable in the pursuit of helping the people. I was so encouraged to find that there is a better solution, not only that but to have found an organisation that seems frankly, more concerned and focused about what is best for Uganda as opposed to an organisation that is focused on sustaining and growing their organisation whilst neglecting and researching on whether the direction that they are heading towards is good for Uganda
I hope God blesses Abide.
Just a quick question, do you have any tips for the student who is pondering about what he can do to help / stay connected to Uganda in the future (whether supporting financially from home or working in Uganda) on what he can do to stay educated about Uganda and her needs?