Fast Company recently reported on the work of Samasource, a company that trains Sudanese and Somalian refugees that are currently residing in Kenya. The refugees are taught basic computer skills and are employed at a local computer center managed by CARE. Businesses from the US, then contract with the organization to complete computer tasks and in doing so pay them a wage ($2 a day) that is four times what they would be paid breaking rocks in a nearby quarry. $2 a day may not sound like much to us, but for these refugees it's changing their lives.

And this is an amazing thing. We've all read plenty about the damage that outsourcing can do, both to a domestic econcomy and when the outsourcing companies are unscrupulous with the way that they treat workers. In countries where worker protections are few, we can't overstate this concern. However, like with so many things, we have to be careful to not throw out the good with the bad. If we can better someone's life by training them with new skills, hiring them to perform productive work, and allow them to provide for themselves in ways that they previously thought were impossible, then shouldn't that be something that we celebrate? And shouldn't that be something that we actively seek to do?

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The January 2010 edition of Imprimis from Hillsdale college featured some surprising facts. In a speech given at the college, Adam Meyerson, president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, reported American gave over $300 billion to charity last year. Meyerson goes on to share the magnitude of this figure as it is twice what we spent on consumer electronics, three times the amount that's spent on gambling, and ten times the amount spent on professional sports. Truly what it comes to charity, Americans repeatedly and generously open their wallets.

And that's a good thing. It's significant to be a nation that can be counted of not only to give in times of despair but in "normal" times as well. In fact, it's good to be a nation that can be depended upon to open their wallets when disaster strikes.  However, while it's a good thing, it's not the only thing. Ask people what's harder - writing a check or investing in lives and most people will quickly agree it's the former. Sure, there are times when money is tight and giving up some of our hard-earned income seems monumental, but compare that with the cost of giving of ourselves and it's a no-brainer. Going the distance, literally or figuratively, and giving of our time, abilities, skills and experience is the true measure of our generosity. After all, our Savior's generosity is not only revealed in the gifts He gives, but also in the way He actively participates in our lives, and in the way He gave up His. 

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Recently, upon reading an article titled "International Development: Christian Reflections on Today's Competing Theory," I was struck by what perhaps thousands of people before me have come to learn; oftentimes in an attempt to intellectualize a subject, we forget the heart of it. Now, as a professor and a lifelong learner, I'm all about intellectual discussion, however, as Christians we can never be content to leave the discussion as mere theory when the lives of God's children are involved. What is the Christian response to competing international development theories? And more specifically, how does it impact that very practical business of helping those around the world? 

As with many questions of scholarly discussion, there are really two distinct camps.

Several weeks ago, Google announced that because of a "highly sophisticated attack" on the e-mail accounts of Chinese dissidents, that the company would no longer filter Google search results in that country.  As search engines are required to agree to this stipulation in order to operate in China, many suspect that this will lead to Google's eventual withdrawal from the country. Because of the size of China's population (and what this means for Google's market share), Google's increasing entrance into other product markets (operating systems and cell phones), and the increasing importance of China as a world power, this announcement was almost entirely unexpected. And despite the view articulated in the Business Week article linked above, although there may be some business considerations for the decision, when Google announced the decision, the reasons articulated had nothing to do with profits, but were about people.

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When news of the Haiti quake broke, I happened to be travelling. Like many, that meant my updates were limited to Twitter feeds and headlines. As I checked for the latest news, I also received updates about the seemingly innocuous things in life. I read about the latest author giveaway, in the midst of having my heart broken over death and despair. I was treated to people’s complaints over lives little injustices, while being inundated with overwhelming destruction.  The contrast was palpable. In the midst of tragedy, the trivialities of individual lives continued to be on display.

At first, I was a bit disgusted – how could someone be worried about the children fighting when there were parents who were wondering if their children were alive? How could we complain about cold coffee when others were wondering where they would find water to drink? How could our seemingly insignificant and easy lives go on when so many lives had suddenly ceased?

And then I realized, there wasn’t much of a choice.

Ask the average church-going Christian whether they think that the church should be involved in missions and they'll probably answer yes. Ask the average church-going Christian what the missions program should consist of and you'll probably get a lot of blanks stares or generalities. It's hard to define a mission "program" primarily because true evangelism is anything but programatic. And for better or worse, most American churches seems to have a hard time do anything that can't fit into a snappy bulletin announcement.

The reason that missions is hard to formualized is because by definition missions are complicated. First, think of it purely on a logistic basis. Most outreaches involve people going somewhere that they normally don't. This means that they has to be decisions about food, shelter, transportation, etc. that immediately confound our normal programming activities. Secondly, and predominately, evangelism is complicated because people are complicated, and there is no evangelism without people. 

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For a long time, this blog has been dormant. The reason is that I've been pondering how to add value to the Conversant community. You see, before the folks at Conversant asked me to join their team, I was already an active blogger. Depending on the season in my life, I would regularly, or irregularly write my thoughts on life, love, and what it means to live a life of God through following Christ at Better Things Ahead. It's the spot where my ruminations and reflections were put out to be read by the world. And the truth is, most of what I wrote there, would be the same material that would be of interest to the Conversant crowd. It seemed like I was cheapening the experience of both communities by replicating the material, and yet, my epiphanies (and the time I have to set aside for writing) weren't frequent enough to generate new material on a regular basis for each site. And so like a thousand writers before me who didn't know what to write, I was silent. 

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I used to always say that I'm my own worst critic. In a lot of ways, this is still true. On an average day, I'm probably going to evaluate my performance worse than those that observe me. Frankly, it's not a matter of self-esteem, but a desire for continuous improvement. It's an annoying quality to be sure, but for some reason, that's just how I was made.

However, I've learned that despite this tendency, I still squirm at the critiques of others. Every semester I get to experience this first hand when student evaluations are released. Now don't get me wrong, I truly value and appreciate the students' feedback. From this feedback I learned things that they like, and things that they didn't. I'm able to improve my classes and make them more applicable for the next round of scholars. Their feedback promotes what I love - continuous improvement. Plus, I've been giving them feedback all semester, the least I can do is give them an opportunity to share their's. But in a room full of 30 people, it's hard to please everyone. And it's always the comments from the one who's disappointed that stand out to me.

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Everyone loves a holiday...at least if the amount of traffic on Southern California freeways is any indication. The opportunity to take off work, get away, and not worry about the concerns of everyday life, is a welcome occurrence. Of course, rarely does a holiday go as idyllic as we imagine it, but still, the chance to get away from it all is applauded.

Perhaps the "get away from it all dream" is most prominently demonstrated in the American mindset towards retirement. Just last week, I was talking with a recently graduated student who was already looking towards how he would spend retirement. Sure, dreaming and planning can be good things, but we have developed a culture that has an aversion to work. While many may blame the younger generations, it is an infection that crosses generational bounds; many boomers feel cheated that the recent economic recession will upend their plans for retirement.

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