A Warm Christmas

A German colleague of ours helps support a soup kitchen in Balti, Moldova. One of their regular clients froze to death in her home last week. This is why our church in the Netherlands cooperated with a Sinti and Roma church in Germany to provide firewood for 14 vulnerable families in two different Roma villages in Moldova.
This is aid--giving immediate help. Aid is dangerous, long-term. It is giving people fish rather than working along side of them to catch--or raise--fish. Aid can foster dependency; healthy development fosters their own sense of worth. Aid can rob people of initiative; transformational development empowers people to solve their own problems with their own resources. Aid is not sustainable; it ends when the outside supply of funds and goods ends. Transformational development continues, for lasting change, even when I am no longer around to send money to Moldova or explain the need to potential donors.
In the past, we've passed on firewood funds for a few vulnerable families in the village of Vulcanesti, but for all these reasons I have been reluctant to get involved in aid. I was surprised when our Dutch church decided to take up yet another collection for firewood. This year, they have designated half of their Christmas Thanksgiving Offering for firewood.
Also this year, a Moldovan businessman and a Roma entrepreneur have begun working together on a business plan.
Immediate help . . . long-term transformation . . . Merry Christmas, one and all!