No. The beauty of the Ikondo vision is to celebrate Jean Marc’s ability to stay with his family, never needing to be abandoned because they have a job and extreme poverty has ended. That’s the goal. The “band aids” are emotional, feel good moments, but it doesn’t bring long-term change. Our hope is that the church can come along with us, because it’s more difficult than just applying a band aid.

The inclination is, “I want to get out of the tension, so, I’ll just go build a wall, dig a hole, or paint a fence so that I can feel good. So I can relieve the guilt.” We almost need Haiti to be broken so that we have something to fix. Cyclically, that has compounded even more dependency and brokenness in Haiti. What if we can re-think it, and get Haiti to not be broken?

I was just there last week and caught myself watching this guy hoe his garden from across the fence of Ikondo. I thought, “I know the people I’m with are looking at him thinking, ‘I want to go help him—I’ll just take that tool and hoe his garden for him.’ That does nothing.

But if we can buy his vegetables and then make his business grow so that he can support his family, then we’ve instilled him with pride and dignity. We’re on an equitable exchange with him rather than, “Oh, let me be your savior.” It should be, “Jesus is the savior, I just want to walk with you and help you thrive.”

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