If You Really Want to Helpনমুনা

Hope is not a strategy — But it is a place to start

My family and I traveled to Uganda for the first time in 2005. We arrived at the Entebbe International Airport excited, exhausted, and more than a little nervous. This would be a new experience for all of us, and the trip would be a catalyst for the vision God was beginning to lay on our hearts.

The journey had begun nearly two years earlier in the suburbs of Atlanta. My family was happy there, but tensions were rising beneath the surface of our everyday life. In 2003, my marketing business collapsed, and I was left dealing with the fallout — the anxiety, the debts, the fear. I felt like a failure. I refer to these times as ‘the dark times.’ But God was working behind the scenes.

A friend of mine had recently returned from Butalale, Uganda, and we invited several of our mutual friends to our home to learn about his trip. I was struck by the images of the local school. Mud, sticks, and cow dung walls, no desks, leaky roof, and no teachers, books, or supplies. But I was in my own head during that meeting, focused on my own self-induced problems. Who was I to think I could make a difference?

But the very next morning, as I was praying for relief from the ‘dark times’ our family was struggling through, God brought the school to my mind. It was clear that I was supposed to help that community build a permanent school building. I didn’t know what I was doing but knew I was supposed to do it. Fast forward eighteen months, we’d somehow raised enough money, and we arrived in Uganda ready to solve the problem.

We made plenty of mistakes during that first trip. It would have been easy to walk away and say, “well, we tried,” and move on with our lives. It would have been easy to dwell on what we did not know or on what we could not do. But we wanted to help, and we hoped that God would use our meager offerings — all we had to do was get started.

In Judges 6, God appears to a man named Gideon. Gideon is a member of Israel’s smallest tribe, and when God shows up, he is hiding in a well. But God doesn’t just see Gideon’s shortcomings — He sees what Gideon can do. Who he could be. And so He asks Gideon to lead an army.

To say that I didn’t know what I was doing when God asked me to help in Uganda is an understatement. And I didn’t know enough about what I was doing when He led me to start 410 Bridge. But I knew He called me to do it and with Him – through Him – He would use me to accomplish His purpose.

Hope and good intentions are not enough to change the world, but they are a start. Over the next five days, I will give you a brief picture of what I’ve learned about serving the poor through my nearly 20 years of leading 410 Bridge. If you really want to help, I hope you’ll take these lessons and examine your own ministry and the way you interact with the poor.

In my book, “If You Really Want to Help,” I close the book by asking our global staff to imagine they were in a room of well-intentioned, generous Westerners. I asked them to complete two sentences, and I will share a few of their responses with you throughout this study.

We’ll start with Dr. Claire Nyambati, our Kenya Senior Director.

“If you really want to help, start by asking what the poor are doing with what they have.”

“If you really want to help, stop thinking you have the answers to everything.”