Poverty of Power

A friend, just returning from an overseas mission trip, sadly informed me she wouldn't be volunteering at our centre with inner city children anymore.  She had been a passionate and committed volunteer for a few years, so I followed up with her to make sure she was doing okay.

She explained to me, "I've seen poverty, and these kids aren't poor.  I can't find it in my heart to be compassionate towards these kids who have so many resources but don't do anything about it now that I've been to a place where people are doing so much more with nothing.  These [North American] kids aren't starving; I can't find it in my heart to bleed so they are fed.  These [North American] kids aren't in danger of death; I can't find it in my heart anymore to fear for them.  These [North American] kids have it great - they just don't know it."

Part of me totally understood: we're out there sweating to raise money to serve nutritious meals for our inner city kids, and while they wait in line to come in, they send a friend to the corner store to buy chocolate bars at inflated prices.  Why can't they use that money to feed themselves?  They have homes to live in, often with large-screen TVs, cable and computers.  Why can't they use that money to pay their utility bills?  There are grants and scholarships and government money being sent their way - free health care, free education, free everything - why am I working so hard for these ungrateful people who seem to just like living in poverty?

CCDA (Christian Community Development Association - if you haven't heard of them GET YOURSELF TO THEIR CONFERENCE.  It was the best thing I ever did - seriously!) ran a workshop at one of their conferences that made all the difference to me, on the different kinds of poverty.

Situational poverty, they explained, was what happens when a person, family, or nation, finds themselves without resources for a season (or generation).  The Great Depression would fit into this.  My family would fit into this: we lived in a trailer court growing up and were the recipients of Christmas Cheer Board and other charities.  Most people think of poverty in these terms.  The bad news: you're poor.  The good news: you have everything you need to get yourself out of this.  It is a temporary situation.  You are resourceful and you will find a way. Everyone knows someone who was poor and got themselves out of that situation.  This may make us disparage inner city families that I work with.  "I never had those resources," we say, "And I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps."

The second kind of poverty, generational poverty, is a different matter entirely.  In fact, it has very little to do with finances at all.  Generational poverty is a kind of poverty that has affected a family or people group so long that it has become a mindset and a lifestyle more than a situation.  For families affected by generational poverty, they could win the lottery and still be poor.  Here are some of the symptoms of generational poverty:

1. An inability to picture themselves any other way.  When my family was poor, we'd always talk as if we weren't.  We'd talk about buying a house even though we couldn't pay the rent on our trailer.  As kids, we were encouraged to dream about our futures.  Those affected by generational poverty do not think like this.  One of the saddest things for me was when I asked my class of 5-7 year olds what they wanted to be when they grew up.  In the suburbs, I would have gotten outrageous answers like "An astronaught, a rockstar, a ballerina or a fireman."  In the inner city, I got blank stares.  They had no idea what I was asking.  Nobody in their families "became" anything.  I asked the ten year old class the same question, and after an awkward pause, they started joking lewdly: "a hooker," "a john," "a drug dealer," "dead."  They laughed uproarously, and my heart broke.  If they were looking at their own family trees, that's probably the closest to a "career" they knew.

2. A crisis-based lifestyle.  Families living with generational poverty are used to living from crisis-to-crisis.  Sometimes this is unavoidable: the water was shut off, please help, we have a crisis.  Crisis is dealt with and now my daughter is sick, we need medicine.  Crisis averted and on and on and on.  Because of a lack of savings, lack of resources and lack of power to change, it`s all they can do to live from one crisis to the next.  However, even when circumstances change for the better, the crises don't abate.  Living for so long with the inability to plan ahead has robbed these people of the ability to live differently, even when they have resources to do so.

3. A sense of powerlessness.  A family affected by situational poverty: refugees, hard economic times, etc, feel like they can do something to change their future.  A family affected by generational poverty feel like no matter what they do nothing will change.

4  The cycle of poverty.  When you have been affected by poverty, but are not in the cycle of poverty, a way out seems clear.  When you, your family, your friends and your neighbourhood are all stuck in a cycle, the cycle perpetuates itself and in order to break free, you may need to break all ties.  I know many youth who have done well for themselves and are working hard in a reasonable job.  Yet they never seem to get anywhere as their resources are constantly pillaged by needy friends and family.  In order for their hard work to pay off, they would need to literally harden their hearts and close the door on their families and friends, and be willing not only to walk away from it all, but also be labelled and possibly targeted because of this.  It's a risk I'm not sure I would take.

All this to say that while my friend had a point, she was missing the picture.  I don't serve this community because I think they'd all starve if I wasn't here.  I don't minister with these children because I think death is imminent.  I serve here because they need to know a better way, and I am convinced Jesus showed us a better way.  I am here because Jesus called.  So, I told her, if Jesus has called you elsewhere, bless you and may you be used mightily in his kingdom.  But if you are just tired and disillusioned, let's talk.

We talked.  We cried.  She still moved on from our ministry, but with open eyes and a clear heart.  She can bleed for the children of Africa now without despising the poor here, and that is a beautiful thing.