My first experience in the Majority World was on a youth group “missions trip.” I have to put that in quotes, because I’m fairly certain that everyone involved—from the people who generously donated to our trip fund to the youth leaders to the church who hosted us in Monterrey, Mexico—knew that the American kids were receiving the vast majority of the benefit. We were having an experience—hopefully one that would grow our faith and solidify a life-long love of missionary work. 

So we went and “served” by doing things that the church members were perfectly capable of doing themselves—like painting the sanctuary and doing strange little street pantomimes for neighborhood kids. In reality, the community we stayed in wasn’t even horribly poor. They had stable houses, sufficient food, and many skills and resources. But I was eighteen and years away from learning to see these community assets. In my mind, they were poor and we were benevolently giving part of our summer to “help” them. (By the grace of God, after a week of the church’s extravagant hospitality toward us, even my naive teenage self realized that I had received more than I had given.)

It’s a common problem for those of us from wealthier backgrounds to be blind to all that God has given to communities we view as poor. Since their assets look different than ours, we tend not to see them at all—things like natural resources, context-relevant knowledge and skills, relationships, and, most of all, the Holy Spirit. So, way too often, we go in with our money and building supplies and try to make their resources look more like ours, effectively communicating that we are the Haves and they’re the Have Nots. And they’ve gotten the message. Sadly, our resource-blindness has transferred over decades to those we have sought to serve. One huge contributor to generational poverty is people’s belief that they have nothing. 

Ironically, we in the West—even though empirically we are in the wealthiest fraction of the world’s population—tend toward our own type of resource blindness. Even though I enjoy all sorts of luxuries like hot-and-cold running water, a car, a home with multiple bedrooms, and access to virtually unlimited food, it’s tempting to look at the neighborhood of mini-mansions up the street and think, “Those people are really doing well.” It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that, no matter how much we have, it isn’t quite enough. And so we give less. We overwork. We go into debt. Consequently, we’re generally too tired and stressed to feel grateful for what we have. 

Is this the abundant life God intended for His people? Are we really being good stewards? 

Meanwhile, people all over the Majority World are stuck simply waiting for an outsider to give to them. An outsider who may never come. Or who, when we arrive, will have limited resources and too small a vision. Perhaps we’ll dig a well that will give water for five years before breaking down. Or maybe we’ll build a house or a church. But in the process, we’ll reinforce the lie that both the giver and receiver have been trapped in: that the poor have nothing and need others to give to them. 

The truth is, God has not forgotten anyone and left them with nothing. Even the poorest communities have assets and resources. And learning this truth—along with God’s expectation that we steward everything for His glory—can help communities transform out of poverty. We’ve written a lot about the Stewardship Principle (check out these great stories from DRC, this awesome 3-minute video from Uganda, and this article on frameworkfortransformation.org), because it’s one of the key truths we teach in our Truth Centered Transformation program. 

Several communities where we taught this truth realized that the ground they were standing on was a resource from God, rich in clay and good for making bricks. So they started making bricks and built themselves a church that they had been waiting years for someone to come build for them. Countless people have realized that they have land that they can cultivate to feed for families or earn income. One of my favorite things I’ve ever heard about the power of the stewardship principle comes from the rural community of Saibuwa in Zimbabwe. 

Zimbabwe is a poor country by pretty much any standard. Saibuwa is in an area with no electricity and a high rate of food insecurity. Like so many people around the world, the Christians in Saibuwa believed that they had nothing. But learning about stewardship changed their thinking. Their eyes were open to the resources around them and they wanted to do whatever they could to demonstrate God’s love to their community. First, they served the most vulnerable—for instance, the church came together to support a blind man. Then they turned their attention to larger community problems. A group of four church members was formed into a trust for the purpose of identifying local resources. They realized that there is a river full of fish surrounding the village. Because there is no market nearby, no one had bothered fishing much before. But now they are fishing, and mothers are selling fish out of their homes. With the money they’ve made selling fish, the women’s group bought five cows! The church has also built houses to replace huts. All of this was accomplished because God helped the church to see that He had not left them with nothing, but given them so much. Now the church is asking God to help them address even bigger problems. They are contributing toward an ambulance, constructing a dam, and looking at sinking deep wells. 

It’s incredible what the church in Saibuwa has accomplished in just a couple of years (they started the TCT program in 2018). And everytime I read their story, I am struck by two things: how limited my vision is and that God truly can do more than I know how to ask or imagine!

But the Stewardship Principle goes way beyond physical development and income generation. Parents come to realize that their children have been entrusted to them by God, and they steward them by protecting their health and sending them to school. People recognize that their own bodies must be stewarded, so they adopt all sorts of improved health practices. Some have realized that the natural resources around them are a gift from God, and so have begun to protect water sources and plant trees in deforested areas. 

The changes are amazing. I have chills. But they can only happen as God takes the blinders off people’s eyes, convicts us of the truth, and enables us to change our thinking and actions. Transformation like this doesn’t come from human effort alone—it’s a move of God.

Let’s pray this month that God will open our own eyes to the resources He’s given—to us and to those experiencing poverty. Pray that He would teach us to steward well everything He’s given us, from our time to our finances to our family and relationships. And let’s pray for the Church in the Majority World—that we would see more and more communities transformed like Saibuwa as God’s people learn to see and steward the resources that have been entrusted to them.