Getting to the root of the problem

For every problem that a community faces, there is a solution. And to really solve the problem you need to deal with the roots of it. We used a tree to symbolize the problem – the trunk is the core problem, with roots being the causes of the problem, branches being behaviors that result from the problem, and the fruit as the consequences. For example, civil war in Sudan is a problem in our communities. The consequences that we see are displacement, destruction, insecurity, and death. The root causes include politics, inadequate resources, a culture of revenge, tribalism, etc. Unfortunately, many organizations that come to provide relief in South Sudan only deal with the consequences – the UN provides shelter for the displaced, others provide healing for the wounded, or support to rebuild what was destroyed. But how can we deal with the roots?

Elijah identifies parts of the tree as we talk about the tree as a symbol for our problems
(and yes, it was COLD in Nairobi!)

Last week I attended a training in Kenya on Community Health Evangelism (CHE), along with Elijah, one of the elders in an SSPEC congregation. CHE is a strategy for empowering communities to take ownership of addressing problems and improving their physical, social, and spiritual health. Real lasting transformation happens in the health of communities when the truth of the gospel is integrated with truths about physical health. But too often, community leaders are not taught how to work together to resolve their problems—they just wait for solutions to be brought to them from the outside. Those of us coming to help need to be careful that we are not imposing solutions that disempower people or prove harmful long-term.

One way to ‘vote’ on the priorities among all the problems in a community.

In our example of the ‘problem tree’ of civil war mentioned in the beginning, the corresponding ‘solution tree’ would be peace and stability. Peace comes from the roots of unity, equality, forgiveness, etc. Those roots are truths that we must understand and experienced in order to realize peace and stability. In the struggle with civil war, too often the lies at the root (tribalism, corrupt politics, revenge, etc.) are what flourishes in our societies and what we believe. This is a key part of CHE’s approach: integration of spiritual and physical truths to address the beliefs that contribute to problems in our societies. When we recognize Jesus as Lord and look to him as the source of truth, then we can see and deal with the lies at the roots of our problems.

We were pleased to meet a few other people from South Sudan at the training.
This is Margaret, president of the women for the Africa Inland Church.

For example, one lie common in African societies is the men are more important than women. Some behaviors and consequences of this belief are girls being left behind in education, a culture of accepting men beating their wives, and women not having a voice in their society. Today in South Sudan, girls are encouraged to go to school with money to support their school fees…but does that change the root belief? How can this problem really be resolved?

Presenting our plan for a ‘seed project’ to the group.

An illustration about a community that lived at the top of a mountain brings home the principles of Community Health Evangelism (CHE).  According to this illustration, the people living atop the mountain would go down the mountain to trade and work in surrounding villages. Many times, people fell on their way down the mountain and were seriously injured. One visitor to the community noticed this problem and generously provided an ambulance. The ambulance was parked at the bottom of the mountain, ready to take wounded people to the clinic 10 km away when they fell. The community was happy, and many people were healed. But after awhile the ambulance broke down. The community leaders went to the donor, and he agreed to fix the ambulance. But when it happened again, he got frustrated, and said he had no more money to give. Then a church leader came to visit, and said that the diocese would build a clinic at the bottom of the mountain. They built the clinic, provided staff, and treated many people, including those that fell on their way down the mountain. But after awhile the resources ran thin, and the church closed the clinic. The community is now back to the same place they started, with people continuing to hurt themselves and die as they try to go down the mountain. They did not know what to do, because they did not have the resources to run the clinic or repair the ambulance. Finally, the leaders came together to discuss what could be done. One wise man suggested that they could build a fence along the path down the moutain using some trees and rope. Everyone agreed, and they worked together to cut the trees and build the fence. They raised a little money for cement so that the poles could be secured in the ground. Now, people could safely go down the mountain. After a few years, some of the poles rotted and needed to be replaced. But the community knew that this was their fence, and it was not too difficult to work together to replace the rotted poles with new ones.

We are excited to consider how the church can holistically minister to the community through the CHE approach. Please pray with us for this new initiative, and for God to make the way clear as we continue to explore and lay groundwork in the next few months.