JC et al.--Living in Truth 16

Final Thoughts

Ecce homo. Antonio Ciseri c. 1880.

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This is the final entry on "living in truth." One way to use the 16 entries is to review them over the course of several days. For example: read one per day (online or printed); reflect on it;  and make at least one personal application. You can do this on your own, with a friend, or as a small group. These entries by JC et al. are meant to shine light on our virtues as well as bolster our resolve to face our own distortions—memories, motivations, and morality—and to live more honestly (in truth) with ourselves and others. Truth is a foundation for trust. And trust is necessary for peace. "So love truth and peace." (Zech. 8:19) 

*****

Truth-telling, struggling for justice, working toward forgiveness: these are three central dimensions of the social process of reconciliation. In all situations I know, they are never undertaken on a level playing field; the consequences of oppression, violence, and war are not predisposed to honesty, justice, and even good intentions in all parties. Nor are the processes, for the most part, orderly. And they never seem complete, in fact, we usually experience them as truncated, prematurely foreclosed, high-jacked by the powerful. We can find ourselves acquiescing to half-measures, half-truths, compromised solutions. Robert Schreiter, Reconciliation as a New Paradigm in Mission (2005). Quoted in Global Member Care: The Pearls and Perils of Good Practice 2011, p. 114 (quoted also in the Reality DOSE article, available in 12 languages: https://sites.google.com/site/mcaresources/).

*****

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

Jesus Christ (excerpt of his interaction with Pilate) 
John 18:37, NIV

Safety and Protection in Dangerous Places—Part 6

Final Thoughts for Ongoing Threats

Photo ©Adel Yahya/IRIN

(A photo with guns could have been used from any country)

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Special sticks.

Of wood and metal.

For young and old alike.

For recreation and crime.

For protectors and predators.
For peace-making and war-making. 

(For a fascinating history about guns, read

AK47: The Story of a Gun, 2007)

**

How much risk is one willing to take in order to do what is right?

How much force is one willing to use in order to do what is right?
How much peace is one willing to make in order to do what is right?

**

In these six entries we have looked at a variety of “dangerous places.” The places of greatest need are often the places of greatest danger. We identified five types of environments, often overlapping, that require our best efforts to provide/develop safety and protection strategies.

•Physical environments marked by life-threatening hazards including conflicts (war) and calamities (natural disasters), human rights violations, disease, domestic violence, road traffic accidents (1.3 million people/year die from driving-related accidents)

•Organizational environments in which work conditions and poor management/governance can wreak havoc on both staff and operational objectives (including unresolved relational difficulties, political maneuvering,  and ongoing organizational dysfunction)

•Moral environments contaminated by human corruption which exploits and injures others (Corruption is defined by Transparency International as the ‘abuse of entrusted power for personal gain.’ Covering up or ignoring corruption can be as reprehensible and damaging as the corruption itself.)

•Personal environments whereby an individual's serious problems can significantly interfere with his/her work/wellbeing and that of others (addictions, disorders, unhealthy behaviors)

•Poverty environments as reflected in some of the ways to group the poorest of humanity: a) the nearly one billion "slum dwellers"; and b) the “bottom billion” who reside in the 58 poorest countries in the world in which the average life expectancy is 50 years, one out of seven children die before their first birthday, and over one-third of children suffer from long-term malnutrition (see The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier (2007, pp. 7,8).

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Here are our final two resources, as we bring this discussion topic to a close.

Resource Eleven

Challenging Choices: Protection and Livelihoods in Conflict (HPG Policy Brief 40, May 2010); Humanitarian Practice Group. People in conflict settings often adopt strategies that promote personal safety/dignity but at the expense of their economic livelihoods, or vice versa. This four-page review calls for aid agencies to develop strategies that deal with these overlapping issues of physical and livelihood protection.

Resource Twelve

Crisis and Contingency Management for Senders and Workers. Four pages of handouts from the Member Caravan website, including: a grid to manage crises (before, during, after), principles for supportive crisis counseling, and short crisis vignettes for discussion.

Reflection and Discussion—Plus Add Comments Below

1. To what extent is safety and protection for the people served by mission/aid workers a relevant focus for member care? Can this be a distraction or a direction for member care?

2. What type of crisis and contingency plans does your organization/setting have?

3. Which of the 12 areas of resources described in these entries are the most helpful for you?

4. Is there another area—environment—in addition to the five listed above--that you think is important to also include in the safety/protection discourse?

5. What questions would you like to ask your organization, your colleagues, or the member care field regarding safety and protection in mission/aid?

The Kindness of Strangers

Humanity is stronger than violence
Truth is stronger than evil
*****

I have been enjoying reading Kate Adie’s autobiography, about her life as a reporter, journalist, and war correspondent for the BBC. Specifically, I have appreciated how her forays into risky areas inundated with human conflict of international proportions, significantly overlaps with the experiences and purposes of mission/aid workers. Here are some of her final thoughts from the book (p. 425, The Kindness of Strangers, 2002).

"I never expected to be a reporter…It’s an honourable trade, whose practitioners exchange a privileged position at significant events for the obligation of telling others exactly what has happened…you take away with you a sense of the wonder that survival and humanity are stronger than violence and suffering….Occasionally you get a little too close to stories, and your fellow man tries to swat you out of existence."

Reflection and Discussion
Change the word ‘reporter” in the above excerpt, to “mission/aid worker”.
Now comment on how one or more of the statements below can apply to mission/aid settings for you and others.”
**Speaking the truth—“telling others exactly what has happened”
**Knowing the limits of evil—“survival and humanity are stronger”
**Taking risks to know the truth—“your fellow man tries to swat you out of existence”