Friday  |  October 2, 2009  |  00:00 AM

When I was asked to write for Barclay Press, I was quite excited. Global outreach is something I care deeply about, and actually is a part of my studies and employment. I’ve learned a lot these past few years leading, training and organizing college student missions trips at our church and through my intercultural studies classes at Fuller Seminary. It isn’t uncommon to bring up the idea of global outreach or missions in some Christian circle and hear the laments of all that has been done (and is still being done!) in the name of Christ that harms development, destroys culture, and creates dependency. One idea that has gotten under my skin since I first learned about it is Indian development worker and author Jayakumar Christian’s idea of the Western Church as having ‘God-complexes.’ We often need to feel needed and believe that without our aid, much of the world will continue in poverty, disease, oppression, injustice, and so forth. Much of missions for the Kingdom of God has been done out of such a need. Taking a step back and processing that idea, I think there is a lot of truth that the people of God who have encountered the radical, overwhelming love of God desire to live generously as a response. Learning how to do this in a healthy way is a conversation that requires voices from all over the world to teach us what does more harm than good.

With each entry, I’m hoping to address an idea that I’ve learned, recognizing fully that I might be completely misguided with these thoughts too. Talking about how we reach out to the rest of the world with God’s love can be overwhelming to think about, especially when we know so much injustice is happening every day. That being said, I do believe the Church is the hope of the world. It won’t be development organizations or the UN or other charity groups that will bring hope. Often times, their solutions to such problems are to bring things rather than relationships. What I mean by this is that when people are in need of clean drinking water, the organization steps into the situation, builds a well, and then leaves. What the Church can provide is ongoing relationships in a community--living with the people, learning from them what their needs are, and working with them to find sustainable solutions to these problems. This is hard, it takes time and patience. A lot of us from the west have much to learn from the church in the global south about patience. Kosuke Koyama talks about this in his book, Water Buffalo Theology. He derives the title of the work from his idea that God is a "three-mile-an-hour" God, one easily missed by people addicted to speed-reading and the search for novelty but is revealed to those patient enough to walk at the speed of a water buffalo.

In my own life in southern California, I’m learning a lot about patience both as a spiritual discipline and a tool for global outreach. I’m attempting to take time to learn where things are made and how things are made that I purchase, like my clothes, coffee, chocolate, produce, meat and so forth. Documentaries like Hecho en LA, Black Gold, The Price of Sugar and The Garden have been helpful in that. I’m trying to also take the time to find ways I can give to needs around me or people I know personally rather than simply give to a charity. I recognized how easy it was for me to quickly give to a cause while staying completely disconnected from those people. This doesn’t mean ignoring global needs, and I think kiva.org is a great micro loan project connecting those investing with specific lives. I’m also learning to take time to be with people, to slow down and always value the people around me more than my time. And I think in my own life, I realize how I let my own pace of life become an excuse for not dealing with issues that the Holy Spirit brings to light. I let myself stay busy as a defense mechanism. In response to this realization, I’m trying to make time to journal and to be in nature just listening to God. All I can present is what I’m learning. I’d love to hear from you, what have you learned over the years about patience, both as a discipline and as a way of connecting with needs around the globe?