What makes a difference?

Here's what I've seen and noticed makes a big difference in people's lives:

1) The Gospel. nothing comes close. When someone is really touched by and believes in and sees a God who loves them-- they are never the same again.

2) Love. Which really does translate, no matter who you are and really can change things. Think back to when you were in school... if you had one teacher who actually loved and cared about you, even if it was 6 hrs a day, 5 days a week, 9 months of one single year in your whole life, didn't it make a huge difference?

other things.. sturdy houses, scholarships, business training, job creation, leadership development, improved infrastructure, loans, land rights, community unification..

All of these development plans and project are beautiful. But once you know and live among the people they affect, you: 1) thank God for all these different programs-- Thailand has a lot of them, and our foundation participate in several of these... all of them except infrastructure at some point--- 2) see how incredibly incomplete they are. Some examples:

~ A scholarship student drops out to sell meth. She comes from a family who has taken her to work as a child prostitute in the past... lacking love, what difference has a scholarship made? Now she's in jail.

~ A poor family loves their new house that they partnered together with volunteers and neighbors to build. However things got worse before they got better: the father continued in his alcoholic spiral until he went into shock. HIs loving family's response and prayers woke him up to reality and now he's stopped drinking. And in the new house, free of dust and mold, his wife's health has greatly improved as well.

~ P Gaew, our awesome foundation president, has offered quality business training and a seemingly no-fail microloan project (including mentoring, accountability groups, weekly checkins....) Which (surprise) failed! It failed to transform anyone's life and business practices- those who were struggling already defaulted and did not use the money how they intended, and those who were already up-standing businesspeople were able to use the loans well. The only story of transformation was that of woman who, through God's miraculous healing of her grand-daughter, came to believe in the Gospel. God changed her life, her outlook, her business practices, her relationships with her neighbors... Not only did her business grow and succeed, but she has an unshakable hope and joy.

~ Ae, my roommate until recently, who I've written about before, has taken part of none of these official programs, although all of us in the church have chipped in- Meh Duk and her son helped fix up Ae's house with wood that Pi Ra donated, Jin and Michelle and I helped with start-up money for her business, Pi Gaew and other neighbors have helped Ae find a job, etc, etc.
But the main, real, lasting difference in her life is Jesus. No one recognizes her from the girl she was last year. She is loving, she is warm, she is happy, she is hopeful, she is an eager learner, she participates in responsible society. She... shines.

I guess what I'm saying is that development theory is fascinating to me, but it's constantly changing and constantly challenged. And it's confusing to know what the role of the American is in development programs... Changes in infrastructure create the most deep & lasting change, but that has to come from the local government. So what is the role of the foreign development worker? "Are we doing more harm than good?" seems to be the running question.

for me, I want to keep my eyes open and keep learning current theory. I like being involved in this kind of stuff, and want to do it well! But by the grace of God, all the time, in any age, I can love my neighbors and I can share the Gospel. Not just here but anywhere...

This call is a gift God's given us that really doesn't change.