Over the last few weeks and months we as an organization have decided to read a book entitled When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Our hope is that we will be able to take the ideas presented in this book and apply them to our work in Haiti.
I HIGHLY recommend this book to EVERYONE. Regardless of whether you are personally involved with missions overseas or in your own community, you will walk away from this book with a lot to think about. The book addresses how we define poverty and how we seek to alleviate it. Too often we start with the best of intentions but end up doing more harm than good. The book addresses broken relationships as a result of sin, avoiding paternalism, effective short term missions and business as mission.
It is not a long book, and it does not claim to be all-encompassing. It's an easy read, covering the basics without going into a lot of detail.
In addition to the book, the Chalmers Center has webinars that you can download for free from their website. There is a power point presentation along with audio; going over the main points of the book. There are even webinars relating specifically to Haiti and the relief effort that is taking place post earthquake. Here's the link if you're interested
http://www.chalmers.org/when-helping-hurts/webinar/schedule.php
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