Community in Action

Yesterday two men came to my gate. They both are employees of one of my teammates who is in the States on furlough right now. One works in the house and the other is a guard. Before leaving, my teammate had paid his employees in advance for the time he would be away. But now, halfway through the furlough, the money is gone – all spent. They were wondering if I could give them each a $20 salary advance so they could get by for the remaining month and a half. Being a stick-in-the-mud, I told them that I would contact their boss, and gave them $5 each for the meantime.

How could both their three-month salaries be gone after a month and a half? How could this be anything other than blatant irresponsibility?

Well, it really isn’t. It seems that “a brother” (which can mean anything from next of kin to a fifth cousin) suffered three gunshot wounds during the political protests here a couple of weeks ago. They claim that he was an innocent bystander. They, and who knows how many other members of “the family,” had emptied their pockets to pay his hospital bills. Fortunately, he will live.

This reminded me of a couple of features of African culture. One is the tight sense of community. When there is a need, members of the community respond. There is a bond that brings about an obligation. There is also the assumption that, if they are in a similar need, the community will respond to help them. I’m reminded of the primitive communalism in the early Jerusalem church, where “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had” (Acts 4:32). In a true community, there is no “private property.” There is a just a voluntarily redistribution, as hearts respond to need. (That’s where it differs from communism.)

The second feature is a concern for the immediate present that eclipses worries about the future. Deal with the here-and-now, and worry about tomorrow, well, tomorrow. Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”?

Now I don’t idealize African community. There are drawbacks. No doubt some of these very attitudes have hindered “development” as we understand it. But I couldn’t help but be impressed by the simple trust that led these men to do the right thing—help their brother—first, and worry about the consequences later.

This morning I had another visitor – a villager who had ridden his heavy, gear-less Chinese bicycle into town to seek help to pay medical bills for his daughter, who had just spent four days in the hospital. She is better, but you don’t get out until the bills are paid. Her bill was $25. This time, I was able to help, but it didn’t involve the risk that the two men had taken on behalf of their brother. It didn’t even involve sacrifice on my part, because someone else had given me money to use to help children here. I was just re-distributing what had been loaned to me. But when it comes down to it, isn’t that what all of our giving – even all of our spending – is?

Now, it would be irresponsible if I used the money in some way other than how the giver had intended. How much more should we reflect on how the Giver of all good things intends for us to use what he has put into our hands, and how irresponsible it is to use it otherwise!