Scott writes
During this year we are doing several things. We are trying to
get to our supporting churches, but are also assigned to the PC(USA)
headquarters, working with the Ecumenical and Mission Partnerships
office. We are going through reverse culture shock that is more
severe this time as it may be a permanent move. America seems
overstocked, overplanned, over busy, over everything.
Nepal news
Meanwhile, life goes on in India and Nepal. I thought you might
like an update on some people you may remember from past newsletters.
Narad Sharma, who used to work with us in the Surkhet project
in Nepal, wrote to say he’s now the project director for
a project called Shahakarmi, or “Honest Worker,” in
English. It was formed by the staff of the Surkhet project after
the Surkhet Project was closed in 1998. Although the United Mission
to Nepal decided to close the project, the staff felt they had
many skills that could still be used for community empowerment.
They also had plenty of commitment to the process and felt that
even if they got jobs in other projects, the process would not
be the same. They formed Shahakarmi and moved about 80 kilometers
down the road from Surkhet to a completely different area to begin
work. I have always been proud that the staff themselves didn’t
just stop when the Surkhet Project stopped but re-formed and recommitted
to helping the most marginalized communities begin to change their
own lives for the better.
Now a UNICEF program has recognized them and has contracted Shahakarmi
to train local school committees in better meeting skills as well
as participatory planning and evaluation processes. This not only
shows that Shahakarmi is becoming recognized for empowerment skills
training but confirms that others recognize the crucial importance
of capable leadership in communities.
India news
You may remember George Kutty, the seminary graduate in the community
health project in Uttralla, Uttar Pradesh, India. The project
has been through some ups and downs. Because of the promise of
a lot of funds, his project changed to program highly driven by
inputs. Several months into the project it became apparent that
corruption and personal self-interest of higher-up officials was
making it impossible to make real sustainable change at the community
level. To the credit of the project leadership, including George,
they decided to disengage with that funder and return to the lower
profile, community organizing-based style of working in communities.
This, of course, meant losing their high level of financial support,
but was a clear statement about the integrity of this Christian
development project. The project is now more committed than ever
to helping the communities they work with improve their quality
of life with the resources and abilities available to them locally.
The view from Louisville
This is what we see. It looks like the central church programs
are getting less and less money from the local churches. Churches
want to be directly involved, and one way to do this is through
church-to-church partnerships, which exist in about fifty countries.
These build relationships directly between churches in the United
States and other countries and can be very healthy for both churches.
Another growing point is with country networks. Members of churches
involved in a certain country meet for a weekend to share problems
and discuss the best ways to help. There have been several of
these, such as the Cuba or Kenya network meetings
Family news
Kelli is living in Boston and working as a travel coordinator
for the Education Foundation. Daniel is in his last year of college,
pursuing a degree in Studio Art. He plans to go to Japan for a
year next summer to teach English. Timothy has been busy with
soccer and band and making his mark on Atherton high school. Hilary
has just turned 13 and is nearly as tall as Kelli.
Hopefully this letter will arrive before Christmas and with it
we wish you a very peaceful and meaningful holiday season. Christmas
in the West is so tangential to the real spirit of the holiday,
which it makes it harder to keep centered during what should be
one of the most meaningful times of the year.
Scott and Melanie
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
182 |
