Today we visited a project for street kids and on reflection,
the sites I saw and things we experienced were not much different to what I have
experienced at the Talibe project in Senegal. Yes the language was different,
the children were generally much younger and there were girls as well as boys,
but the work that is done – looking after their basic needs such as washing,
feeding and healthcare – all really all the same, even how they are fed.
If I look at the photo’s, with all the children trying to get
in the picture and then scrambling to see themselves on the screen afterwards,
it’s the same. If I think about the kids sitting as close as possible to me, or
fighting to sit on my lap, then that’s the same.
I also had a sense of deja vu at our briefing with the heads of
all the different projects on Tuesday afternoon. Strangely it wasn’t with Africa
but of what we were trying to achieve here in the UK: outreach amongst the poor
and underprivileged by establishing a presence where they live, establishing
churches in new developments, open air processions and concerts at
Easter, outreach on the streets. The one major difference between the work done
over here is that there is a lot of cooperation across the denominations. The
individual churches seem to work in concert with one another and by doing so
give the impression of a united church. We often think we have a lot to teach
the developing world, but in most things we need to learn to learn from each
other.
No comments:
Post a Comment